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- Peer Review: Sage American History
Ratings
Overall Rating:
4.0 stars
Content Quality:
4.0 stars
Effectiveness:
4.5 stars
Ease of Use:
3.5 stars
- Overview:
This is the web site of Henry "Jud" Sage, a professor at Northern Virginia
Community College. It contains links to syllabi for two online U.S. History
survey courses, notes about various topics in U.S. history, other history web
sites, a virtual tour of the National Capital Area, and the author's personal
web sites. Each semester is divided into three periods with each period divided into more manageable topical areas. Sage also provides pages for recommended textbooks and readings in U.S. history, tips on using the web in teaching, and instructions for a research project on Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Eleanor Roosevelt.- Type of Material:
Reference Collection- Recommended Uses:
The site offers history credit for the two semester survey.- Technical Requirements:
Basic computer skills.- Identify Major Learning Goals:
To provide students with a deeper understanding of the United States and its people, a fuller appreciation of how this nation has been shaped by its past, and more realistic expectations for America's future. The site offers students enrolled at Professor Sage's college the opportunity to complete the United States History survey online via Blackboard.- Target Student Population:
College- Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Knowledge of basic computer skills. To get course credit students will need to register for the course and have knowledge of Blackboard.
Content Quality
- Rating:
-
- Strengths:
The materials on different periods of U.S. history constitute the largest chunkof material on this web site. Sage divides the periods into 13 sections beginning with the colonial period and ending with the Vietnam War. In each section are links to "summaries" on topics within that period and to primary source materials. Some of the summaries are actual essays; some are lists or outlines. The effect of all of these summaries together is something akin to anonline textbook.
The coverage is broad, and the author provides lots of information. He
focuses on important topics within each period and treats them accurately and,
at least until he gets to the 20th century, in depth. For the most part, the
author communicates his ideas clearly, and he provides good tips to students
about how they too can be good writers. Between the summaries of topics within
time periods and the project assignments for his courses, Sage also provides
links to a large number of the key documents in U.S. history.- Concerns:
(1) The summaries read like a textbook -- an uncontested narrative of the past. It is recommended that Professor Sage consider the inclusion of issues that are of major historical debate. This would enable students to realize that history is interpretative.
(2) The essay on "Native Americans" in the Colonial Period section ends with a
list of references. I wish all of the essays had such a list. I'd also like to
see complete citations for all of the primary sources that are not government
documents (court cases, presidential speeches, laws, and the like). For
example, when did Caroline Bird write the "View of Poverty" and where might a
student find it if she wanted a hard copy of it?
(3) Occasionally, the writing lacks precision and as a consequence gives an
impression that I don't think the author intends to give. For example, in the
introduction to the colonial period, Sage seems to suggest that capitalism,
religious conflict, and colonization were "uniquely American" experiences.
(4) It looks like parts of the site are still under construction. The sections
for the twentieth century are underdeveloped relative to the earlier periods,
have links to blank pages (World War II), or show inactive links (Cold War and
Civil Rights sections).
(5) In selecting the online Text, Outline of American History, Professor Sage offers narrative without immediate reference to the controversies and debate inherent in the history of the United States.
(6) It is recommended that Professor Sage consider further division of each of the three periods into more topical divisions. Some of the topics cover large chunks of history, which students might find daunting.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
- Rating:
-
- Strengths:
This web site as a whole is not a learning object. But within it, the site author has provided a lot of suggestions for student essays. These suggestions are listed under "Projects" on the home pages for the two online U.S. history courses. The home page of the Sage History web site also has a link to the "Roosevelt Project," a project that grew out of a course that Sage taught at George Mason University on "The Roosevelts and the Modern Presidency." The project topic suggestions are for essays of 5-6 pages and are based upon student analysis of primary sources to which the author provides links. The author also requires students to write one essay based upon a site visit to a historic site for U.S. history.
The range of essay topic suggestions is impressive. They cover all time
periods of U.S. history and most of the main themes or subjects that students
encounter in survey courses. Many of the suggestions are actually a series of
specific questions that will help guide students through their analysis of the
documents and help them formulate an argument.
The "Tech Corner" section also has good information and links for instructors
who want to build or improve their own web sites. Both the help assists and access to Professor Sage are important pluses.- Concerns:
Inactive links might make it difficult to use this site to do some of the
assignments. The links for the American Indians telling their story did not work. The links to the Founding Bodies Project did not connect either. It is recommended that Professor Sage monitor links more often. Such problems are not usual and are not the fault of Professor Sage as web addresses change and technology concerns do happen.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
- Rating:
-
- Strengths:
Individual pages are laid out well. They are easy to read and contain
appropriate amounts of white space. The author has an attractive template that
he uses for the Sage History homepage and the homepages of the sections for
different periods of history. Many of the longer pages contain "back to the
top" buttons. And I'm sure his students appreciate the buttons that take them
from the summaries of topics in history to the appropriate place in the course
syllabus. Download time isn't an issue at all. It is easy to navigate between parts for History 121 and 122 and to go back and forth between both history parts.- Concerns:
(1) The web site has quite a few inactive links. Most of these are links to
primary sources. On the "Resources" page for the Roosevelt Project all of the
links to documents or excerpts from books are inactive.
(2) Instructors have to work hard to find assignment suggestions. They have to
go to the syllabi to find the projects. That's a logical place to look for
assignments, but in the context of this whole web site, the location of the
assignments is buried several layers deep. Furthermore, the page in the
"Roosevelt Project" containing suggestions for written exercises is in an odd
place. This page, which contains a list of questions teachers might assign for
essays or tests, is linked off the "About this Site" page. I would not have
looked for class exercises on this page, since the page starts off talking about how the author came to construct this project. The site author might be trying to hide this page from students, since elsewhere he also has a page with
discussion questions that are directed towards students. But why? Teachers
might miss it, and students can find it anyway.
The Sage History homepage could use a new page for instructors giving them
information about how to use the web site in the classroom.
(3) The web site could also use some copy-editing. This reviewer found typos,
missing words and punctuation, repetition of language, and awkward phrasing.
These problems were infrequent, so they don't affect the content or the ability
to use the site. Nevertheless, they are there.
(4) I'd also like to see consistency in format among the sections on different
periods of U.S. history. Some home pages for the sections on time periods
include links to each individual topic summaries and to individual primary
documents. Some have one or the other, but not both.
(5) The materials by Daniel de Torres on the Vietnam War were accessible only
through the syllabus and are not linked to the section on the Vietnam War that
is on the Sage History home page even though the text for that section suggests
that the de Torres materials are linked thereto.
- Creative Commons:
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