Early American History

Purpose: to help other instructors teaching the same course

Common Course ID:  HIST 2010
CSU Instructor Open Textbook Adoption Portrait

Abstract: This open textbook is being utilized in a History course for undergraduate students by Timothy Paynich at California State University, Los Angeles. The open textbook provides a history of the United States from Native American societies and colonization until the founding of the nation, through the War and Reconstruction. The main motivation to adopt an open textbook was to save student resources while providing rapid access to an authoritative source of learning for introductory American History. Most students access the open textbook via the Canvas operating system.

Course Title and Number: History 2010 (Early American History), Sections 03 (31725) and 04 (31726).
Brief Description of course highlights: This course is a lecture format and presented in Hybrid (in person and asynchronous) modalities.  “Course Description: Social, economic, cultural, and political development of the United States and its diverse peoples, from indigenous communities before 1492 through the Civil War and Reconstruction.”  Link to online catalogue: https://ecatalog.calstatela.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=54&poid=25532

Course Highlights (from the Syllabus): In this course we will explore the formation of the United States from its earliest years-- from the colonization of North America to the Revolutionary War and the founding of the new nation. Following up with the expansion westward and the problem of slavery, we will conclude with the national trauma of the Civil War and Reconstruction. All the while, the focus will be on American politics, society, and culture, with an emphasis on the experiences of under-represented groups (especially Native Americans, Blacks, and Women).  In sum, we will study this period through the lens of changing definitions of “America” and “Americans” as well as the competing meanings of “liberty” and “freedom” that existed among the diverse peoples of the new nation.    

 Student population:  The course is a University General Education requirement (Social Sciences) and a Lower Division Core Requirement for History majors. No prerequisites are required to take the course.  Course Demographics: students comprise all university majors (17% Engineering; 12% Business Administration; 10% Biology; 10% Psychology; and other assorted majors). No History majors were enrolled in the class.

Learning or student outcomes:  List student learning outcomes for the course.
“Upon completion of this course, students will develop the following skills:

1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of the development of American history from its beginnings until the end of the Civil War period.
2. Learn to read critically, write clearly, and discuss and analyze themes of early American history.”

Key challenges faced and how resolved: The most significant problem was getting students to complete the readings. In the 15-Week course, students are required to read one textbook chapter plus other online readings, comprising an average total of 25-40 pages per week. A good number of students (about 25% by my estimation) are having problems keeping up with this pace.  Another minor issue was connectivity—a handful of students had problems with off-campus connection to the internet.

Textbook or OER/Low cost Title: The American Yawp: A Massively Collaborative Open US History Textbook. Vol.1: To 1877

ISBN: 9781503608139 (e-book)
Publication date: 2019
Publisher: Stanford University Press

Brief Description: The textbook is 440 pages long, divided into 15 chapters. Organized chronologically, it encompasses political, social, economic, and cultural approaches to early American history. Special topics include issues of gender, race, and class in the formation of early American communities. Aside from the textbook, the creators have included a primary source reader, which I used in class discussion assignments.

Please provide a link to the resource  https://www.americanyawp.com/ 

Authors: Joseph Locke and Ben Wright (eds.)

Student access:  The Canvas course management system (print copy available through Stanford University Press).

Supplemental resources: The American Yawp Reader (collection of primary source documents to supplement the regular textbook). https://www.americanyawp.com/reader.html 

Provide the cost savings from that of a traditional textbook.  $50-60 cost savings, based on the textbook I previously used for the course.

License:  Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). 

OER/Low Cost Adoption Process

Provide an explanation or what motivated you to use this textbook or OER/Low Cost option. My goal was to provide a widely-respected and authoritative textbook at no cost to students.

How did you find and select the open textbook for this course? The American Yawp was recommended to me by a colleague in our History department; after a wide review of available titles and a comparison with previously assigned texts, it was the clear choice.

Sharing Best Practices: Unfortunately, it turned out that a significant minority of students had a hard time keeping up with the class readings. Since many students attempted to complete the course without necessary attention to the textbook, I had to more closely than ever before to link my class lectures and assignments with the material from the text.

Describe any key challenges you experienced, how they were resolved  and lessons learned. The textbook itself was satisfactory, but some of the documents from the primary source reader seemed a bit off topic and not the best choice for exploration of a particular topic (I ended up mostly using those that I used previously in the course). In sum, then, I realize it may be necessary to look for a text that is a better fit for all of my introductory-level students.  

Instructor Name Timothy Paynich  
I am a History Lecturer at California State University, Los Angeles. 

Please provide a link to your university page.
https://ecatalog.calstatela.edu/preview_entity.php?catoid=54&ent_oid=3233

Please describe the courses you teach - I teach courses in American History, World History, Russian History, World War II, Gender and Sexuality, and Historical Research. 

Describe your teaching philosophy and any research interests related to your discipline or teaching.  I endorse a student-centered approach to teaching, qualified by an attempt to create as much organizational guidance, or scaffolding, as possible. I regularly provide and expand on study guides for exams, review sessions, and expanded office hours, either in-person or via Zoom. The submission of draft papers, with timely feedback, is encouraged as a way to develop students’ roles as effective communicators. I make a point of writing comments on every assignment, paper, and exam. The greatest teaching challenge is evaluating and adjusting my instruction for the educational goals of such a diverse group of individuals. Fortunately, I am up to the task of improving my teaching toolbox and learning along with my students, History majors and non-majors, freshmen and seniors. It is meeting this challenge that I find the most satisfying part of teaching at Cal State LA.