History of WWII on line course Syllabus Instructor: Mr. David Faller Contact info: dfaller@moeller.org (513) 791-1680 ext. 1981 I. Course Description: This course is a ½ credit year long on-line offering. It will look at WWII from a world perspective. The course will focus on the war itself from German, British, French, Russian and American participants and histories. Selective readings will be provided to the students, either hard copies or web sites, and then discussed via on line discussions. Occasional meetings will be scheduled as needed. The student is required to complete all readings and participate in discussions. A quarterly research paper is required. The course is open to any Junior or Senior student who has completed US History. II. Weekly readings and discussions: Each week you will be asked to pick up from my X Drive teacher folder a reading packet. You will be asked to read this and then respond to my questions which will be posted on the discussion forum. I will assign a due date for completion. You must try and stay current with your postings. Prolonged and repeated late posts or missing posts could result in your being asked to withdraw from the course. Late postings will not be allowed so keep up with the work load! III. Student created discussion thread: At least once per quarter you are required to begin a discussion topic. It needs to be related to our current time period and theater; i.e. do not ask about dropping A bombs on Japan while we are covering the early war in Russia. Also you are required to respond to at least 2 student created discussions per quarter. IV. While posting you must use complete sentences, appropriate language, and your last name, with first initial as your post name. Also when discussing/debating issues with each other proper decorum must be maintained. No abusive or insulting remarks will be tolerated. We disagree with each other’s ideas but not with the person himself. V. Term Paper assignment: 1) You are to pick a military commander, an officer, you want to research. You are limited to the time period we covered in the recent readings. 2) You are to pick a battle which this military commander was a part of. 3) Pick a weapon system which played a significant role in this battle. Once you have made your selections you are basically writing a 3 part paper, a biography of the person, a battle report and a weapon report. Of course you will want to blend this together into a brilliant coherent paper. What are the requirements? A 9+ page paper with a full introduction and conclusion. All Moeller term paper protocols are in place, i.e., title page, bibliography, margins, fonts, citations, etc. A picture of the commander, detailed and understandable battle maps and of course pictures and graphics of the weapon system are expected. These do not contribute to the page length.
Example of an acceptable topic: Douglass Bader (a British legless fighter ace), The Battle of Britain, The Spitfire fighter plane. Here are the topics by quarter: 1st quarter: 1939-1941 Western European front, land, air or sea. 2nd Quarter: 1941-1945 Russian Front. 3rd Quarter: 1941-1945 Pacific Theater. 4th Quarter: 1942-1945 Western Europe (ETO) VI. Summer Reading. You will be reading John Keegan’s book The History of WWII. This is about 500 pages. There will be a quiz over the book in the fall. VII. Communication. This course uses email as the primary method of communication. Net Moeller will have all assignments and the X drive will have all of the readings, but email is how you submit assignments, ask questions and get info and updates. YOU MUST CHECK YOUR EMAIL REGULARLY!