Skip to Main Content

American History 2--HIST 2112 (OER): Debating the Past: Evidence and Interpretation Activities (Updated Spring 2025)

Affordable Learning Georgia Round 25 (2024-2025)

This page hosts the new materials created using an Affordable Learning Georgia Continuous Improvement Grant (round 22), which concluded in December 2023. 

The terms of the grant proposal called for the creation of the following resources:

  • Central (Thematic) Organizing Questions -  Each activity is organized around a central historical question related to broad themes about citizenship such as how debates over rights, the size and scope of government, and what it means to be an American have played out in our nation’s history. This aligns the activities with both the new learning outcome and the new career-ready competencies for the Political Science & US History area of the Core IMPACTS in the University System of Georgia: 
    • Learning Outcome: Students will demonstrate knowledge of the history of the United States, the history of Georgia, and the provisions and principles of the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Georgia.
    • Career-Ready Competencies: Critical Thinking, Intercultural Competence, and Persuasion. 
       
  • Explanatory Videos & Transcripts -  The module begins with a video presenting important historical, methodological, and historiographical context that students need to engage with the activity. Each video is also accompanied by a transcript for student show prefer to read.
     
  • Secondary Source Articles - Each module includes 1-2 short articles that explore a scholarly approach to the question. Articles were chosen for readability and likelihood that they would spark debate about the question. They post important questions for students to consider before moving into primary source analysis.
     
  • Primary Source Packets - Each module includes curated document sets, which provide 6-10 primary source excerpts offering xploring different perspectives on the central question.
     
  • Discussion Questions - Each module also includes a file with different options for discussion questions. Each question can be addressed using the provided material, allowing flexibility to the instructor.
     
  • New Test Bank - We have created new test banks that correspond to the videos (available on request).

Resources are available below.

Module 2: Gilded Age

Did the Gilded Age erode democracy by concentrating power in the hands of the wealthy? Or did it lay the groundwork for modern reforms?

Module 4: Progressive Era

Module 5: The Great Depression & the New Deal

Module 6: 1950s & 1960s

How did the Civil Rights movement expand the promises of American democracy? In what ways did systematic barriers persist after the 1960s?

Module 7: The Conservative Revolution

Module 8: National Security & Personal Liberty

Have efforts to enhance national security and economic stability since 9/11 kept Americans safe? Or have they undermined democracy by restricting civil liberties and favoring the elites?

Lesson Plans & Assignment Options

©2023 Georgia Highlands College | ask@highlands.libanswers.com