This course includes many interactive opportunities where students can strengthen their knowledge and practice using the concepts taught in the course. Research has shown that this type of learn-by-doing approach has a significant positive impact on learning. Interactive opportunities come in multiple forms:

Practice Questions

Practice questions appear on most pages in the course, embedded in the main text of the page. The purpose of these questions is different than questions on self-checks or quizzes, which are designed to see if the student has mastered the concept. Instead, practice questions allow students to learn by interacting with the concepts they are learning about. For example, a practice question might present a student with a scenario and ask them to apply the concept that they have just read about.

These practice questions do not count for a grade, and getting the answer “wrong” can be just as valuable to the learning process as answering correctly, as practice questions often address common student misconceptions and give students immediate feedback intended to correct those misconceptions.

Activities

In addition to practice questions, the course contains select opportunities for additional learning by doing in the form of more extensive interactive activities. These often occur at places in the course where instructors report that students tend to struggle, or where data shows that students need extra support.

• Module 1: Indigenous America and Early European Exploration (Before 1492)
  • Early Americas Timeline
• Module 2: Colliding Cultures (1492-1650)
  • Indigenous Lands
• Module 4: Imperial Reforms and Colonial Protests (1763-1774)
  • Wars for Empire Review
  • Controlling the Continent: Maps of the Proclamation Line
  • Thesis Statement Activity
• Module 5: The American Revolution (1775-1783)
  • Declaration of Independence Hotspot
  • Understanding the Early Revolution through Maps of Boston
  • Early Revolutionary War Battles
  • Mapping the Southern Campaign of the Revolutionary War
  • Investigating Sources
• Module 7: The Early Republic (1790-1820)
  • Developing Research Questions
• Module 8: Industrial Transformation (1800-1850)
  • Population Shifts During the Industrial Revolution
• Module 10: Westward Expansion (1800-1860)
  • Western Expansion
• Module 11: Cotton Is King — The Antebellum South (1800-1860)
  • The Second Middle Passage
• Module 12: Religion and Reform (1820-1860)
  • History of Protestantism in America
  • Enslaved Christians and Black American Churches
• Module 13: Troubled Times — The Sectional Crisis (1850s)
  • Caning of Charles Sumner
  • The Election of 1860 Map
• Module 14: The Civil War (1860-1865)
  • The Anaconda Plan
  • Mapping Slavery During the War
  • The Battle of Gettysburg