Monday, January 13, 2025
Welcome to Minnesota History! This letter is intended to introduce you to the course, and to hopefully answer any and all of your questions. All course information can be found at my "home page" at ARCC -- so bookmark this page now: Linda Janke's Home Page. Be sure to click on the links for our class, which are on the lower right side of my website.
The
first question some of you may have is: what, exactly, is an on-line course?
My brief answer to that question is that an on-line course is an opportunity for
you to learn about Minnesota History outside of the traditional classroom.
In a sense, you will teach yourself
Minnesota History through reading the textbook and other assignments,
participating in class discussions, and writing papers about virtual or
in-real-life field trips.
1. History courses typically involve numerous reading assignments. A
historian's job is to read the sources, read background information, and then
analyze the material. You will be doing the work of a historian this
semester.
2.
Since we will not meet in a traditional
setting for lectures and discussion, you will compensate for that by completing
reading assignments. If this were a traditional "seated" course, we would
spend almost three hours per week in the classroom, and most college study skills
centers advise students to plan on spending two to three hours per credit per
week doing "homework," which for our class translates to 6 to 9 hours per week.
Yes, that is an investment of your time, but you will earn three college credits
at the end of it! Adding that up means you should budget approximately
9-11 hours per week for this course, which does not include the time it
will take to write the two papers. Think of this
course as a part-time job. Be sure your schedule will allow you
sufficient time to focus on this class.
After you have familiarized yourself
with the course assignments and requirements, you should consider whether 1) an
on-line course is for you and 2) whether you can succeed in
this history course
given the workload, assignments, and deadlines. Just because you might
have taken other on-line courses before does not mean that this course will be
similar. Each on-line course is as different as each regular "seated"
class is from another class
Also, I recognize that most, if not all, of my on-line
students are juggling classes, jobs, and family responsibilities. I
understand that we all have busy lives. However, while on-line courses are
more flexible than traditional "seated" classes, they are not infinitely
flexible. I encourage you to set aside enough time to complete the reading
and tasks on D2L -- I am sure this will help you be successful in this clas
Here's a link to some wonderful strategies for how to be a successful on-line student. I think following these simple tips would greatly enhance your chance for success in this course. I will also ask you and your classmates if you have tips to share.
Let's move on to an introduction to this Minnesota History course, in nine steps:
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Are you
familiar with D2L? |
If yes, great!
If not, visit
Minnesota State's D2L Brightspace Help Desk and
ARCC's IT Page. Note that ARCC offers free loaner laptops to students -- so keep that in mind if you need a computer or if your computer develops problems during the semester. Do not attempt an on-line class using only your phone! |
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Read the
course syllabus |
Make a plan to acquire all the needed materials for the course, including the books, which are available in the bookstore or can be purchased from on-line retailers for a very low cost. Or even found on the shelf of your local library for free! I do not recommend purchasing electronic versions of the book as I think having a real "paper copy" helps with note-taking and comprehension, but I recognize that some of the books are substantially cheaper in electronic versions, so feel free to do that. However, please try to avoid purchasing North Country in an electronic format. Some of the images are not included and they are worth viewing and reading about. Some of the books will be available through the ARCC library but students will need to share those copies. More information will be posted on D2L. In short, if you can acquire the paper ("hard copies") of the books (either through purchase or libraries) that is best, but if that is cost-prohibitive I will work with you to find other options.
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Review the
course schedule. |
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Complete the introductory activities |
There are a variety of introductory activities (short syllabus quiz, short survey, intro activity on D2L) that will need to be completed during week 1. See the announcement and checklist on D2L for more information. |
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Learn about the two papers -- will you try to go on a field trip in person? Do you need to schedule that ASAP?
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Begin the work
for this week |
Consult the course schedule for the assigned readings.
Feel free to join the discussion as soon as you’ve gotten some
reading completed.
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Take note of all course deadlines. |
Click
here. A tip: enter them into a calendar or planner.
Remember to write NOON.
Missing or misunderstanding deadlines is not an excuse to miss
work.
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Keep in touch! |
You can reach me through your individual discussion forum "Contact Linda" on D2L, which is the best way to reach me. I am happy to arrange a phone conversation or a zoom meeting. I do not expect you to "go it alone" this summer! I am here to help you succeed. |
As we go along this semester, please keep me informed about any technical or computer problems that are likely to impact the entire class. (i.e. if a link is broken, if D2L is down for a long period of time, etc.) I have checked all of the links at the beginning of the semester but things could change throughout the course, and since I have already printed the readings I might not be aware of any broken links. Thank you!
Again, welcome to the class, and I look forward to meeting you in our discussion area,
Linda Janke
