About the Book
I wrote Teaching History Online to assist instructors in translating their teaching skills to the online environment. The book guides instructors through the process of designing and teaching an online class by tackling the most common problems raised for teachers of online courses. Although Teaching History Online is based on the most up-to-date educational research and theoretical ideas, the focus is on the practice rather than the theory of teaching. The book includes tried and tested instructional methods, ideas for assignments and assessment, examples of exemplary Web-based learning tools and online history resources, and guides to further reading. At some points in the book, I've prescribed a single teaching strategy based on my own teaching experience; at other times I lay out the advantages and disadvantages of various strategies, allowing instructors to make choices based on their own teaching style.
If all online instructors need strong teaching skills, why do we need an online book that is devoted solely to history? There are many guides that claim to help teachers develop computer-mediated online classes, but most are not discipline specific and offer no practical advice to history teachers. Yet each subject requires different teaching techniques, tools and resources to produce a successful learning experience. The Internet and computer technology provides students with access to a wide range of tools and resources that offer almost limitless possibilities for undertaking historical inquiry. Indeed, the objective of history teaching, allowing students to construct historical arguments using primary and secondary sources, is made easier in the online environment. Teaching History Online provides instructors with concrete information about online tools and resources and some examples of assignments to help those teaching history online.
Teaching History Online is divided into six main chapters. Chapter 1 helps instructors to begin designing an online class, and Chapter 2 provides online alternatives to the classroom lecture. Because the discussion board is so important and popular in an online class, the whole of Chapter 3 is devoted to online discussions. The fourth chapter looks at the many different ways online instructors may assess students, and Chapter 5 is devoted to classroom management issues. Online learning is changing how we can teach face-to-face classes. Therefore the final chapter offers suggestion to instructors who teach hybrid/blended classes and those who want to incorporate online elements into the traditional face-to-face classroom. At the end of the book, the reader will find a number of appendices containing course rubrics, a syllabus, a website review assignment, a consent form for an oral history project, and a student course evaluation form. Like all the other information in this book, instructors should feel free to adapt these resources to suit their own teaching style.