Course Description:

In this course we cover the history of the American nations, from the Latin American wars for independence to the present, with emphasis on Latin American development, inter-American relations, and the foreign policy of the United States and its relations with Latin America and Canada. This course meets the American Institutions and History Requirement (taken with History 116) as explained in the Mira Costa College Catalog.

Required Readings: Chasten, Born in Blood and Fire andAlvarez, In The Time of The Butterflies
 

System Requirements:

To take this course online you will need: Internet Access (the ability to send and receive email); A Browser, such as NetScape or Internet Explorer (the ability to access the worldwide Web) Students registered for the online classes will need a minimum of Netscape 7 or Internet Explorer 5. To Download a new version go to www.netscape.com  or www.microsoft.com ; The required readings which you may obtain through the Mira Costa College bookstore or through Amazon online and if in stock any local bookstore; Approximately 10 hours per week for reading, writing and studying; The desire to learn history using the world wide web. For additional course information and technical requirements go to the cybercosta home page.

Course Requirements:

As soon as you have registered for this class, e-mail hist117@miracosta.edu with your name and e-mail address you will be using for this class.

In addition to reading weekly online lectures and assignments from the textbook, there will be two mid-terms and a final. Students will be replying to study and discussion questions from the online lectures on Blackboard ;(note: Login with your SURF ID and SURF Password) reading and responding to replies of other students; writing a short research paper to e-mail to the instructor; visiting websites that apply to the topics under discussion for example a web site entitled The West by Ken Burns and Stephen Ives and PBS at http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest.

Research Paper:

The research paper can be on any topic you select and approved by the instructor. The topic must be appropriate to the time period under study and approved by week nine . Keep the topic simple. You may use the web for information but be very careful when citing or using the web (make sure the source is reputable i.e. the Smithsonian). The research paper should be between seven to fifteen pages long, and double spaced if mailed as a hard copy. When quoting please use endnotes and don't forget to include the bibliography.

Evaluation:

A final grade for this course is derived from three lecture exams (each 20 points); research paper (30 points); online list-server discussions with instructor and enrolled students (40 points); net searching web sites (30 points); Alvarez book discussion/report (25 points); American Institution requirement assignment (15 points) and 10 points for completing the class, for a total of 210 points. The point value will be 200-180=A, 179-160=B, 159-140=C, 139-120=D. Please note that you are earning points and not a percentage grade with each assignment. However, at the end of the semester the total number of points will then be assigned a letter grade.

All Students: Upon receiving your score for each of the assignments you are allowed to communicate with the instructor and challenge the points earned. However, you are to first read over your material and then provide historical evidence indicating that points earned were not recorded.

Tentative Weekly lectures and assignments-Each lecture topic will be an historical interpretation(s) or description which hopefully will create strong student responses. The idea is not to create conflicting views on controversial issues in American history, but rather to understand how these interpretations are made or examined. We will also determine if these interpretations hold up to scrutiny. Students will be asked to respond to questions asked after each topic and to provide a personal assessment/analysis for each topic.

Course Outline: Tentative

Revised 11/20/07