Student Learning Objectives

• Contrast attitudes toward family, work, school, etc. in East Asia and the West
• Describe the historical trends which led to modern East Asian attitudes
• Identify key concepts that shape the modern culture of East Asian countries
• Discuss multiple perspectives surrounding the formation of East Asian identities

• Explain how causation, change, continuity, chronological thinking, based on comprehension of primary sources (textual, material, or both), shape historical analysis and interpretation.
• Evaluate a range of primary sources (textual, material, or both) as evidence of historical analysis and interpretation.
• Recognize and evaluate historical analysis and interpretation in a variety of secondary sources.

• Explain how culture affects people’s efforts to understand, use, and survive in their environments, and how these efforts, in turn, affect culture.
• Explain within a cultural context the worldviews, language, or ways of life of societies, nations, regions, or people located outside of the United States.

• Students will learn to seek out and weigh different perspectives as well as identify and critically examine their own cultural biases, evaluate the available evidence in order to understand the logic of arguments, and formulate original responses to the ideas we study.

• Students will learn to identify ethical issues within complex situations, recognize the principles underlying the reasoning behind them, and actively engage in analysis of historical events from multiple perspectives through ethical reasoning.

Grades

• Eighteen Topics: 18 x 5 pts. each = 90%
• Final Exam = 10%

Topics & Assignments

There are no required text books for this course. All materials will be made available as pdfs, videos, images, or links on Blackboard. Each of the eighteen course topics will consist of a combination of online readings, video lectures, asynchronous discussion, and individual assignments. While the class is asynchronous, it is VITAL to your success in the class that you keep up with the schedule for each topic as listed on Blackboard. The deadline represents the absolute final point by which work will be accepted for a given topic and, while you may (and are encouraged to) complete the readings and assignments on your own schedule prior to that deadline, no work submitted after that deadline will be accepted. This website includes the outline of the overall course schedule, but you should refer primarily to the detailed course schedule on Blackboard for specific readings, deadlines, and daily work expectations. Blackboard is also where you will find the link to the main external site we will be using for online discussion and assignments: Padlet.

Each topic consists of several subtopics, corresponding to a specific reading and lecture video on Blackboard. You will complete the assigned reading, take a quiz on the material, and then view the lecture video. The quizzes are intended to ensure that you have done the readings prior to watching the lecture video and, although they are not graded individually, you must get a perfect score on the quiz to be able to watch the video. You may take the quiz as many times as you wish until you get a perfect score.

After you complete all the material for a given topic, you will be asked to submit a video reaction on Padlet responding to one of several prompts provided for each topic. Sometimes you will also be asked to submit an image on Padlet. These posts (both video and image) are public, and other students may see and respond to them. Your score (out of 5 points) for each topic will thus consist of quizzes, video responses, other Padlet posts, and responses to other students. This activity makes up a full 90% of the grade for this class, so it is vital to your grade that you keep up on these and submit everything before the deadlines.

Final Exam