A Collaboration of Two- and Four-Year Colleges: Reconceptualizing the Introductory Survey Course

Abstract

IN JUNE, 1998, the American Historical Association received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for a project entitled and Learning in the Digital Age: Reconceptualizing the Introductory Survey Course. The idea for the project was initiated by a twoyear faculty member in the Teaching Division. The project facilitates collaboration between faculty from twoand four-year colleges in Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Southern California in the creation and dissemination of active learning materials for use in the history survey courses: World History, Western Civilization, and American History. Working with primary documents and other interpretive materials, including electronic resources, clusters of faculty will create learning exercises that emphasize particular analytical skills, incorporate those exercises into the survey courses they teach, and assess their efforts and student responses. The outcomes of the project include units of primary documents in digitized form, and active learning exercises appropriate for use in the three survey courses. These primary materials will be the core of a