Online Course in American Indian History

By James W. Oberly
University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
joberly@uwec.edu

Contents

Syllabus and Description of an Online Course

Assessment of Web Modules in an American Indian History Course

Student Evaluation of Online Courses

Project Summary

I devised a set of Web links to valuable public domain sites about American Indian History for my undergraduate students in a course of the same title. My experience shows that an instructor is likely to have success when connecting specific Web documents and links to a particular outcome, in my case, weekly essays and discussions. The documents and links in the list of “Useful Web Sites” worked well because they fit into the course content about American Indian history, culture, and tribal sovereignty. The Web links were also helpful in stimulating discussion on questions posed by students. Most of my students are not history majors and they want to make practical applications of their history learning to understand today’s current events. In my American Indian History class, almost all the students wanted to know about the sudden appearance of casino gambling on American Indian reservations. The Web links that I selected for the course helped students make informed contributions to the discussion on reservations.