History 135 (Charles Evans)
In my HIS 135, History of the Contemporary World course, which is an entirely web-based course, I include an optional assignment that allows students to create a web page. The course is set up on a modular basis with students having to write four short essays in the course. Each essay corresponds to a course web module with each module being a specific web page containing an assigned essay question, a historical overview, a chronology of events, annotated web links, suggested books for further reading and some graphics. The materials on the module site allow a student to conduct research to answer the assigned essay question. Students may choose, in lieu of writing the four short essays, to author a new web module that then becomes part of the course for future students. To do this option, students must submit their qualifications to the instructor. Typically, I require some experience working with web pages, and I also require that the proposed web page be feasible, i.e., that there is enough material available to create the page. The possible disadvantage to this assignment is the loss of modest breadth, as students only work on one subject instead of four, but I felt the positives much more important. First, the student's work tends to have much more depth and involve more sophisticated critical analysis. Second, students receive a great hands-on experience working with the technology of the web. Third, students are actually helping to create the course through the creation of new web pages. This is especially interesting because students tend to choose research topics that I would have never considered. Fourth, the assignment allows students to be creative in their design of a web site. I have tried to keep the process straight-forward. As noted above, students must request permission to do this assignment. Students then have the option of either using one of the existing web modules as a template to create the new module (This option does not require as much web-authoring skill as a student just plugs new information into the existing page structure.) or start from scratch (This requires some evidence of a student's prior experience.). For the assignment, I have listed some specific writing style considerations, such as avoiding the use of the past passive tense, and I have also listed some web page considerations, such as the use of certain attributes like ALT. I also recommend that students visit Dr. Taormina's Web Design Center for further help. Once a student has created a draft of the module, I subject it to detailed critique from design and historical points-of-view. I ensure the historical accuracy of the module's material, and I make certain that the module assignment is "doable." I also check to make sure that there are no problems with the HTML of the site. At this point, I have the student make one last check of all the web links and all grammar and spelling on the site, and after that has been done, I grade the site and add it to the course. Some examples of student-created sites include:
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