AMERICAN HISTORY 1877 TO PRESENT
HIST-2493

Credit hours: 3
Instructor: Gary Rutledge
E-mail: rutledge@garyrutledge.com
Website: http://www.garyrutledge.com

IMPORTANT! RETAIN THIS SYLLABUS FOR REFERENCE THROUGHOUT THE SEMESTER.

TO LEAVE A MESSAGE\
Phone: 918-343-7800

IMPORTANT! RETAIN THIS SYLLABUS FOR REFERENCE THROUGHOUT THE COURSE.

PREREQUISITES
Basic computer skills
College Level reading and Writing skills

COURSE DESCRIPTION
A survey course that covers the period from 1877 to the present; Reconstruction, closing the frontier, industrialism, overseas expansion, progressivism, World War I, the Twenties, the Depression, the New Deal, America's rise in world leadership, World War II, and the Cold War.

TEXTBOOK AND OTHER MATERIALS
Brinkley, Alan. The Unfinished Nation: A Concise History of the American People. volume II: From 1865, 4th Edition, New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2004.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this course the student should be able to:

* Discuss the settlement of the last frontier and its effects on American Indians as well as on farmers.

* Describe and explain the reasons for industrial growth in the Unites States and analyze the social, economic, and political effects of industrialization.

* Describe and explain the changes in the status of the American laborer.

* Analyze the urbanization of the United States.

* Describe and explain the patterns of immigration, and analyze the development of immigration restriction.

* Discuss political responses to the changing America of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

* Analyze United States' involvement in foreign affairs from the 1890s to the 1920s.

* Describe and explain the causes of the Great Crash and the Great Depression.

* Analyze the social, economic and political effects of the Great Depression.

* Discuss United States' involvement in World War II, including diplomacy as well as military and home fronts.

* Analyze United States' involvement in world affairs since World War II.

* Describe and explain the major economic, political and social developments in the United States since 1945.

* Discuss the broad-based civil rights movement in the United States since 1945 and analyze the contemporary status of minority groups.

* Analyze the major issues confronting the American as the end of the twentieth century approaches.

METHOD OF INSTRUCTION
Course material will be presented through lectures, reading assignments, class discussion/debate, videos, and internet activities.

INSTRUCTORS WEBSITE
To make the learning process more efficient this site has been created to eliminate the need to search all over the net for course information. Various assignments will utilize government links to the Internet and may be found in my Website. This Website contains many learning tools to supplement the textbook. The site is also interactive in that students can use it to communicate with other students, submit assignments, and communicate with the instructor.

UNIT/SUBJECT QUIZZES
On-line multiple-choice quizzes are due according to the due date on the Government Work Schedule for each unit/subject of work.

WEB ASSIGNMENTS
Short written essay assignments are due according to the due date on the Government Work Schedule for each unit/subject of work. These short essay assignments will be submitted directed to the Gary Rutledge Learning site (GRLS) with links provided in the GRLS Work Schedule. Web Assignments less than the required  length will have one letter grade deducted.

THREADED DISCUSSIONS
Threaded discussions have two parts that must be completed. Part one requires assigned students to post an initial (primary) discussion posting to the discussion forum. Part two requires all students to follow up with with replies to the primary postings of the assigned students. Discussion threads are submitted directly to the GRLS Threaded Discussion Forum. Students must register a username and password to enter the forum for the first time. For discussion postings to receive a grade, students must register with their first and last name as their username. Students may register with any password. Additional postings require only that students log in.

MIDTERM EXAM
A multiple-choice midterm exam of approximately 40 multiple choice questions will be due according to the due date on the Government Work Schedule. A review of all practice tests for chapters covered prior to midterm will provide an excellent preparation for the Final.

FINAL EXAM
A multiple-choice comprehensive final exam of approximately 50 multiple choice questions will be due according to the due date on the Government Work Schedule. All questions will come from the questions in the Practice Tests and will be comprehensive. Most of questions will come from the chapters covered since mid-term; however, some questions will be scattered over the fist chapters as well. A review of the practice tests for all chapters will provide an excellent preparation for the Final.

NOTEBOOK
One of the most important learning techniques in college is the taking of notes that can be used later in the preparation of papers and the study for exams. A spiral notebook will be required in which you will keep daily notes of all course activities. Each day you will begin a new page with notes of lectures, readings, discussions, films, and etc. Begin each day with the date and title of the notes to follow, such as "lecture notes" or "reading notes". All notes should be maintained in this notebook, (do not turn in loose pages).

METHOD OF EVALUATION
The grading scale is 100-90=A, 89-80=B, 79-70=C, 69-0=F. Grades will accumulate from a combination of written assignments, multiple choice exams, class participation, attendance, and a notebook.

FINAL SCORE TO BE DETERMINED AS FOLLOWS
On-line Quizzes: 15%
Web Assignments: 20%
Mid-term On-line Multiple-choice Exam: 10%
Final On-line Multiple-choice Exam: 15%
Threaded Discussion (primary response = 10% / secondary responses = 10%) 20%
Participation grade: 10% (3 absences = 50,  4 absences = 0)
Notebook: 10%
The final exam must be taken and notebook must be turned in on or before the published date and time of course final exam.

LATE ASSIGNMENTS
A deduction of one letter grade may be assessed to any work submitted late.

ATTENDANCE
Good attendance is essential in a class of this nature and will be checked at each class meeting. Assignments and lectures build upon each other from one class to the next. An absence makes completion of assignments difficult. Absenteeism exceeding 10% during the course will be considered excessive and make successful completion of the course difficult. After any absence, the student is responsible for obtaining any class assignments and lecture notes from a classmate.

LATE ASSIGNMENTS
A deduction of one letter grade may be assessed to any work submitted late. Late work will be accepted only at the discretion of the instructor on a case by case basis.

PLAGIARISM
Defined as copying another person's writing "word for word." This is accurate but incomplete. To mislead your readers to believe that another person's ideas, words or sentence structures are your own is plagiarism. To copy a passage that someone else wrote - published or not - and do not credit the author, is plagiarism. To use another's writer's text and replace certain words with synonyms, is to commit plagiarism. To include another's writer's ideas in your essay without giving that writer credit, even if you state those ideas in your own words, you have committed plagiarism. Even using another's writing as a guide to your own writing may also be considered plagiarism.

Information that most people know, or that can be found in at least three sources (such as when Mozart lived, or who won the super Bowl) is called "common Knowledge" and does not need to be documented.

Strive to smoothly incorporate quoted material into your own writing rather than simply "dumping" it into your essay. When you paraphrase, you set fourth an author's meaning in your own words.

Documents and references should be formatted in APA style. MLA or another style is acceptable if that is what you learned and are more comfortable with that style. If you have no style preference, APA is the most appropriate style for this course.

AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT
Rogers State University is committed to providing students with disabilities equal access to educational programs and services.  Before any educational accommodation can be provided, any student who has a disability that he or she believes will require some form of accommodation must do the following:  1) inform the professor of each class of such need; and 2) register for services to determine eligibility for assistance with the Office of Student Affairs, located in the Student Union.

Students needing more information about Student Disability Services should contact:
Director of Student Development
Office of Student Affairs
Rogers State University
918-343-7579

WITHDRAWAL STATEMENT
It is hoped that no one will ever have to withdraw: however, if unforeseen circumstances force a student to withdraw from the course, the student should initiate an official withdraw through the registrar's office. Do not just quick submitting work. Without an official withdrawal an "F" will be the only result. Non-performance does not constitute official withdrawal.

CHANGE OF STUDENT INFORMATION
Notify your college registrar and your instructor immediately if any of your student data should change such as your address, telephone number. E-mail address. This information must be accurate for proper and timely communications.

CHANGE OF SYLLABUS INFORMATION
At the instructor's discretion procedures and policy are subject to change at any time.

THIS SYLLABUS IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AT ANY TIME AT THE DISCRETION OF THE INSTRUCTOR.

THIS COLLEGE DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE ON THE BASIS OF RACE, COLOR, NATIONAL ORIGIN, SEX, AGE, DISABILITIES, OR VETERAN STATUS.