Dr. Shana Worthen
Please contact me via ssworthen@ualr.edu
You MUST put the name of the class in the subject line.
(See also Communication Policy )
Office hours: via Blackboard Chat, by appointment http://sworthen.owlfish.com
Course Description
Schedule
Week 1 , Week 2 ,
Week 3 , Week 4 , Week 5
Week 6 , Week 7 , Week 8 ,
Week 9 , Week 10
Week 11 ,
Week 12 , Week 13 ,
Week 14 , Week 15
Textbook
Assignments and Grading
Participation Guidelines
Policies
Note that you are responsible for all of the information contained in this syllabus, whether or not you have read it.
History of World Civilization I is a survey of world history from the earliest records of humankind through approximately 1600 CE. It is designed to familiarize students with political, social, economic, religious, intellectual, and artistic histories of the world, among other types of history. Students will become familiar with major places, dates, individuals, regimes, and movements in the period covered. In addition to providing an overview of world history, this course will deal with the historical use of dates; maps, and basic geographic familiarity with historically significant locations, especially rivers and other bodies of water.
A major element of this course involves improving the analytical and critical skills necessary for working with primary sources. Other skills which will be focused on include working with BCE and CE dates, and correctly identifying centuries and millennia.

Course weeks end on Monday at midnight. Each week's discussion contributions are due by this time to count toward that week's discussion grade unless the syllabus specifies otherwise.
Students are responsible for all material posted under Announcements in the course shell.
Assigned Readings
 Essential World History, "A Note to Students about Languages and the Dating of Time" and "Studying from Primary Source Material". pp. xxx-xxxv.
 Essential World History, Ch. 1 "The First Civilizations: The Peoples of Western
Asia and Egypt."
 "Working with dates" - file provided in "Supplemental Readings" folder.
 "How not to plagiarize" - file provided in "Supplemental Readings" folder.
Work due
 Introduce yourself on the "Introductions" board
 Friday, August 26th - Primary Source Analysis Assignment Warmup

Discussion (Due on Monday, August 29th at midnight. See the Discussion
Guidelines later in the syllabus for how to contribute to discussion.)
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Ch. 1 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercise on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website
Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 2 "Ancient India."
Work due
 Tuesday-Wednesday - First chance at Pass/Fail Quizzes on dates and plagiarism
(see previous week's reading assignments).
 Friday - Primary Source Analysis Assignment
 Discussion
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Ch. 2 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercises on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website

Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 3 "China in Antiquity."
Work due
 Tuesday-Wednesday - Second chance at Pass/Fail Quizzes on dates and plagiarism
 Friday - Primary Source Analysis Assignment
 Discussion
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Ch. 3 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercises on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website
Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 4 "The Civilization of the Greeks."
Work due
 Friday - Primary Source Analysis Assignment
 Discussion
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Ch. 4 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercises on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website
Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 5 "The First World Civilizations."
Work due
 Discussion
Recommended (Optional) Work

 Ch. 5 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercises on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website
Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 6 "The Americas."
Work due
 *** Midterm #1 (Tuesday-Wednesday)***
 Friday - Primary Source Analysis Assignment
 Discussion
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Field Trip: Toltec Mounds Archeological State Park in Scott. (Note: The Toltecs had nothing to do with them.)
 Ch. 6 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercises on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website
Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 7 "Ferment in the Middle East: The Rise of Islam."
Work due
 Friday - Primary Source Analysis Assignment
 Discussion
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Ch. 7 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercises on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website
Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 8 "Early Civilizations in Africa."

Work due
 Friday - Primary Source Analysis Assignment
 Discussion
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Ch. 8 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercises on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website
Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 9 "The Expansion of Civilization in Southern
Asia."
Work due
 Friday - Primary Source Analysis Assignment
 Discussion for Week 9 will be due on the Monday after Fall Break.
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Ch. 9 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercises on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website
Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 10 "The Flowering of Traditional China."
Work due
 Discussion
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Ch. 10 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercises on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website

Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 11 "The East Asian Rimlands: Early Japan, Korea, and Vietnam."
Work due
 *** Midterm #2 (Tuesday-Wednesday) ***
 Friday - Primary Source Analysis Assignment
 Discussion
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Ch. 11 Tutorial Quiz on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website
Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 12 "The Making of Europe"
Work due
 Friday - Primary Source Analysis Assignment
 Discussion
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Field Trip: The Ozark Medieval Fortress near Lead Hill in NW Arkansas
 Ch. 12 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercises on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website
Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 13 "The Byzantine Empire and Crisis and
Recovery in the West"
Work due
 Friday - Primary Source Analysis Assignment
 Discussion
Recommended (Optional) Work

 Ch. 13 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercises on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website
Assigned Reading
 Essential World History , Ch. 14 "New Encounters: The Creation of a World
Market"
Work due
 Week 14 Discussion will be due on Tuesday of Week 15.
 (Thursday-Sunday - Thanksgiving Vacation)
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Ch. 14 Tutorial Quiz and Critical Thinking Exercises on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website
Assigned Reading
 Essential World History, Ch. 15 "Europe Transformed: Reform and State
Building"
Work due
 Friday - Primary Source Analysis Assignment
 Discussion due on the last day of class, Monday, December 5 th .
Recommended (Optional) Work
 Ch. 15 Tutorial Quiz on the textbook's supplemental website
 Review vocabulary and important terms with flashcards, crossword puzzle, and glossary on the textbook's supplemental website

The following textbook is required for this course, and is available for sale from the
UALR bookstore:
Duiker and Spielvogel. The Essential World History . 6 th
0495902276.
edition. (Cengage 2011). ISBN
All other readings and course materials will be provided in the class or through the textbook's companion website .
Weekly discussion participation 2% per week x 15 weeks
Analysis assignments 4% per assignment x 8 assignments
(Best 8 out of 11)
30%
32%
Pass/Fail Quizzes
Midterm #1
Midterm #2
Final
2.5% x 2 5%
11%
11%
11%
Grades are calculated on the following scale:
A = 90-100%
B = 80-89%
C = 70-79%
D = 60-69%
F = 0-59%
Absences: Because of the amount of state and federal funding received by the university and our students, the university is required to document student attendance. Failing to log in to the class for more than two consecutive weeks without notifying the instructor will result in your administrative withdrawal from the class.
No late work will be accepted.
For Analysis Assignments, your lowest 3 out of 11 possible assignment grades will be omitted from final grade calculations, so you can miss two or three of them without penalizing your overall grade. Discussion is a participation grade which is why it cannot be made up either. Students will have two opportunities to pass each of the pass/fail quizzes.
You must be polite and considerate to your fellow students. Give constructive replies to others' comments. All your work for the course is logged.
There will not be any extra credit assignments.
Discussion Overview
There is no lecture component to this course. Instead, you are required to actively read and participate in discussion boards several times a week instead of a lecture and face-to-face discussion. You are responsible for all of the information presented in discussions, in

addition to the information in the assigned readings.
This means you need to read all other students' discussion posts, not just your own.
For the purposes of deadlines, each week of the course ends at midnight on Monday. Discussion must be submitted by then, unless another date is specified in the syllabus or an extension is given for that week on the
Announcements board.
Participation will be based on participation in class discussion boards.
Each week I will set a number of questions or topics for discussion.
Students must make substantive comments each week on multiple occasions in response to these questions and those asked by other students. Comments must be separated by at least six hours in order to count as separate comments, but you are welcome to contribute to discussion as often as you wish in addition to this. Students are encouraged to contribute their own questions, especially if they have any raised by the assigned readings. I will check in to these boards regularly and add to the discussions.
See below, "Participation Guidelines and Grading Criteria for
Discussions" for full information on how to participate in the
discussion boards.
Pass/Fail Skills Quizzes
The two pass/fail quizzes are designed to help you focus on skills for working with historical dates, reading maps, and avoiding plagiarism.
 Historical date skills including identifying centuries and millennia; knowing what date comes before or after another date; and knowing the differences between CE, BCE, AD, and
BC.
 Map-reading skills involve understanding the differences between topographic and politlcal maps; understanding distance on a map; understanding map keys; analyzing maps in order to see what kinds of information can be extracted from them; analyzing the relationship between maps and other information available in the class and textbook which can add to understanding of maps.
 Avoiding plagiarism skills will involve identifying different kinds of plagiarism; explaining why particular passages are plagiarized; and understanding the course and university plagiarism policies.
One pass/fail quiz, worth 2.5 points, will cover date-related skills. The other, also worth 2.5 points, will cover maps and plagiarism. Students will have two opportunities to pass each of the two quizzes. A student must correctly answer at least 70% of the quetions on a quiz in order to receive credit for passing it. Points are all-or-nothing: students who pass a quiz will receive the full 2.5 points for doing so.
Each quiz will last for 20 minutes. Both are open note and open book.
Students should remember to download any material they may wish to reference before taking a quiz as the rest of the course shell will be

unavailable while they do so. Each quiz may be taken at any time on the four days on which they are available.
The material in these quizzes is covered by assigned readings in the textbook, reading provided in the "Additional Readings" folder on the main page of the course shell, and clarifications through a discussion board. That discussion board, with review questions, wil be available before the quizzes in order to help students review and practice the material. Posts to this board will not count toward discussion.
Primary Source Analysis Assignment Overview
The primary source analysis assignments will consist of a series of 200-
500 word critical analyses of assigned primary sources. This may be a text (translated into English) or an image. You are allowed and encouraged to use the first person ("I") when discussing your opinions and experiences. They should be discussed in relationship to material covered in the course. The goal is to better understand a historical civilization through some material or textual artifact which has survived from it.
It is important that students understand that these are NOT research papers. Many students will find that further research beyond what is in the textbook may be a distract more than an aid in doing these assignments. The goal is demonstrate critical thinking about the text or image, which is often easier to do when a student has not read too much about other peoples' thoughts oh those specific examples.
The course requires a large number of these brief assignments in order to help students improve their abilities to analyze historical artifacts, and to better understand a large number of the civilizations we are studying over the course of the semester. Doing poorly on several or skipping a few assignments along the way will not necessarily hurt the final grade as the lowest three analysis assignment grades will be dropped for final grade calculaiton. Equally, any student who does well on the first eight or more assignments is welcome not to submit the final few at the end of the semester.
 Use citations (short, informal, clear ones are find) to account for any additional sources you have used and to avoid plagiarism.
 Always keep copies of your analysis assignments until you receive your grade for the assignment, just in case any files are lost or corrupted.
 These assignments will be available under the Blackboard
Assignment interface.
 Text must be copy/pasted into the text box. No attachments will be looked at.
 Students must turn in assignments by means of the "Submit" button in order to have them graded. Blackboard permits students to "Save" their work and reconsider it before submitting it. Saving and submitting are not the same thing.
 Students may NOT submit these assignments via email.

Full details on these assignments, including grading rubric and examples, are available in the "Primary Source Analysis Assignment" file on the main page of the course shell.
Exam overview
The exams will cover assigned readings, including vocabulary. Doing the assigned readings and participating regularly in discussion will help you review for the exams. In addion, you are encouraged to use the companion website to review the chapters.
 The exams will be taken and submitted via the Blackboard
Assessment interface.
 Each will consist of some combination of multiple choice questions, matching questions, short answer questions, and an essay.
 Each midterm will be available for two days. The final exam will be available for four days. You may take an exam at any point during the time that it is available, so long as you do so by 11:59 pm on the second day.
 Each exam will last for 90 minutes. Make sure you set aside enough time to take each exam. Make sure you will not be interrupted while taking it. You may want to keep another clock or timer by you to help avoid going over the time limit.
 If you go over the time limit, you will have 3% per minute over deducted from your test grade.
 As with all tests in this class, this will be an open book and open note exam. If you wish to have access to any online material while taking it, I recommend downloading the material in advance.
 Please do not discuss the exam with other students until after the two days on which the test is available have finished.
The exam essays will be graded according to the following rubric:
Thesis statement 15%
Argument which supports thesis statement 15%
Organization
Discussion of Example 1
10%
15%
Discussion of Example 2
Discussion of Example 3
Discussion of Example 4
15%
15%
15%
Note that the two main elements on which students should focus in their exam essays are 1) a clear argument and 2) specific examples which support that argument and which are derived from material covered in this course.

Discussion Boards are like Chat Rooms, but not in real-time. They are the core of this course. It is important that you follow the discussions carefully and participate regularly in them.
Full credit can only be given to people who clearly are reading all the other posts and responding to the other people in the class.
 Weekly discussion closes at Monday at midnight at the end of the day. Late comments will not count towards the week's grade, but students are welcome to continue ongoing discussions.
 Discussions are graded on a 100 percentage point scale, but converted to points out of 2 for ease of calculating your overall grade.
 Posts will not count as being posted on separate occasions until six hours have elapsed betwen them. Students may post as frequently as they wish, but until six hours have passed, they will not received credit for posting a second time. This is to encourage students to participate regularly in discussion.
 Students must have contributed to the discussion boards on at least two separate occasions (separated by at least 6 hours each) per week to be eligible for 75% or above. Example: You post at 8 am on Tuesday, 10 a.m. on Tuesday, and 10 am on Thursday. This will give you credit for posting two times to the board, since the two Tuesday posts were separated by only 2 hours.
 Full credit will be given only to comments that are relatively free from grammar and spelling errors (type them in a word processing program, spell-check, cut and paste) and written for your fellow students - that means that they should not be free-form ramblings or filled with colloquial language. They don't have to be formal, but try to make them in the same tone as you would use in class. You may use smiley faces, etc. to indicate tone if you like.
 Answers taken directly from the textbook will not receive credit. Write in your own words, and mark quotations clearly with quotation marks and a short, specific citations to explain precisely where the words come from.
 You will receive more points for your posts if you include regularly provide specific citations to explain the source of your material. As well, this practice helps to avoid plagiarism. Specific citations and references to other documents, might include the textbooks, readings, and any other relevant material.
 Thoughtful discussion is the key. The point is to show that you are internalizing and digesting the information from readings and class, and then applying and relating that information to particular questions or comments.
 "I agree" and other such comments, don't count as comments, but they do count for something, if you explain why.
 Be aware that I will be logging in several times a week myself and adding new comments and questions!
 To get above the minimum, and anything above 85%, comments must also demonstrate that you are thinking about temporal and geographic context, as well as taking into considerations social, power, gender, political, etc., relationships and events that might come into play. Also, relevant anecdotes from your own experience are particularly encouraged.
The following grade chart outlines the major means by which each grade for each week of discussion can be achieved but, as per the guidelines above, grades may be improved

beyond these by clearly interacting with other students and using citations to back up points; and may be lowered through poor spelling and grammar.
90%
87%
85%
82%
80%
77%
75%
72%
70%
67%
65%
3+ occasions, at least one citation
3 occasions, no citations, responds to other students
3 occasions, no citations
2 occasions, at least one citation, responds to other students
2 occasions, at least one citation
2 occasions, no citations, responds to other students
2 occasions, no citations
1 occasion, at least one citation, responds to other students
1 occasion, at least one citation
1 occasion, no citations, responds to other students
1 occasion, no citations
 Use regular email (i.e. ssworthen@ualr.edu
) to correspond with me the course.
 You MUST include the name of the class in your subject line, or I will not respond (i.e HCiv I, History of Civilization I, HIST 1311).
 Do NOT address me as "Mrs Worthen". It is not advisable to address any woman you do not know well as "Mrs" as it assumes a number of things about them which may not be correct and may, in fact, offend. I will not necessarily answer emails which address me this way.
 I aim to respond to student email within 36 hours, not counting weekends.
 As I am usually six timezones ahead of Little Rock, this may sometimes mean that I will not see email sent on Friday until Monday morning.
Cheating and plagiarism are serious offenses and will be treated as such. ("Plagiarism" means "to adopt and reproduce as one's own, to appropriate to one's use, and incorporate in one's own work without acknowledgment the ideas of others or passages from their writings and works." See Section VI, Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and
Behavior, Student Handbook, p. 39. Copying directly from the textbook or an encyclopedia article without quotation marks or an identifying citation, for example, constitutes plagiarism.) Anyone who engages in such activities will receive no credit for that assignment and may in addition be turned over to the Academic Integrity and Grievance Committee for University disciplinary action, which may include separation from the University.
See http://www.ualr.edu/copyright/ for more information from the university.
 I will not give credit for any assignment which is plagiarized.
 If a student has plagiarized on a quiz question, they will receive no credit for that question, and may not make up the missed points.

 If a student has plagiarized in a primary source analysis assignment, they will receive no credit for the analysis assignment.
 If a student plagiarize in discussion, they will receive no credit for that week's discussion.
 Please see the required reading "How not to plagiarize" in the "Additional
Readings" folder on the main course page for more information.
It is the policy of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to create inclusive learning environments. If there are aspects of the instruction or design of this course that result in barriers to your inclusion or to accurate assessment of achievement-such as time-limited exams, inaccessible web content, or the use of non-captioned videos-please notify the instructor as soon as possible. Students are also welcome to contact the Disability
Resource Center, telephone 501-569-3143 (v/tty). For more information, visit the DRC website at http://ualr.edu/disability/ .
The policy of the History Department is to engage students in the process of assessing courses in the department's curriculum. Department faculty and the UALR administration use assessment data to monitor how well students are learning both historical content and the skills of essay writing. At several points during the semester you may be asked to participate in this process by writing a brief essay in class or your instructor might submit one or more of your examinations for review by other members of the department. All assessment activities are conducted on an anonymous basis and any evaluations will be kept in strict confidence. When you are asked to participate in this process please do your best. Direct any questions regarding assessment to your instructor or the department chairperson.
1.
Students will demonstrate a knowledge of historical information such as names, dates and chronologies, events, terms, and concepts.
2.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the diversity and complexity of the historical context that shapes human experience.
3.
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the inter-relatedness of historical events as expressed in such concepts as continuity and change, causation, interdependence of cultures, and the interaction between differing groups and societies.
4.
Students will organize and articulate their ideas through an essay that presents a thesis relevant to the question.
5.
Students will support their ideas with historical evidence and will reach conclusions based on that evidence.
Copyright Notice

Syllabus copyright Shana Worthen, 2011. with the exception of participation guidelines, which are copyright Julie Hofmann, 2006, with some revisions.