HST 201: History of the United States (Escobar Meta 21035 21036)

I never used the office hours but I really appreciate the fact that you make yourself available to students, and that you are helpful. One of my teachers was never there for his office hours and it was really inconvenient when I actually needed help.

My questions ere taken care of in class or via moodle.

The professor always stuck around for a little after class for any students who had quick questions. Very helpful if not understanding something that needed just a quick answer.

The reason I never came to you outside of class was because every time I had a question it was always answered in the lecture, or when I ask it in class.

i never made an appointment outside of class but from what you said it seemed very easy to schedule and meet.

I've stayed a few times after class with you in order to discuss a few topics that we were going over in history, mainly the questions were formed for out-of-curiousity reasons. 

You seem to make more than the extra effort to be available to your students in and outside of class, the time is used efficiently and I always leave class confident in the subjects we are studying. 

i would not very often talk to the teacher.

i never had an engagement with Joe outside of class, but was very helpful in class with any questions I had. 

I did spoke with you during office hours. You were very helpful, explained everything I needed to know and you were also really helpful and nice.

It was very helpful to go to the review session and ask as many questions that i needed to know before i took my final. I really loved the help and I believe this was a great class for people who wants to learn about history.

I didn't feel a need to interact with my instructor because I did not feel I had much of an issue understanding the material. The teacher and text were clear and easy to understand so long as attention was paid.

I never made the effort. I never came to his office or up to him after or before class, therefore there was no interacting.

The instructor was able to give me all the assistance required via moodle messanger.

The first was early in the term when I over heard some students criticizing your teaching methods and so I messaged you and gave you my interpretation, which led to my first post on forum one.
The second time was just after class. I came up and commended you for addressing the wage gap issue, and we had a short talk about it.

I approached Joe a couple of times after class about minor questions, always answered them and asked if I had anymore questions. Joe is a standup guy.

I did not enjoy the class on bit. it wasn't for me

Your presentation was very crystal clear!

I like to study by myself usually. This isn't a class I felt like I needed help for. Sometimes I would ask you questions after class but that is all I needed.

I feel that Joe made it very clear in class that he was willing to take time to meet with us outside of class.  I have some social anxiety, so I generally do not go out of my way to converse with new people unless I need to.  I was perfectly comfortable with directing my question to Joe on Moodle, and he was really good at getting back to me.

I never really had to talk to you outside of class because you always presented the necessary information either in class or on moodle so if you payed attention, it was pretty self explanatory.

I didn't need to meet with you, any time I needed to know something I would have just moodle messaged you. You made it very clear that we were always free to do so!

course materiel was layed out well enough for me to understand without needing 1 on 1 time with the instructor

Although you made yourself available for students, I believe that your ways of teaching need reconsideration. You went too fast through the material, the book was absolutely horrible and the requirement for the exams was a little too intense. Students are sometimes taking 3 or 4 or even 5 classes, not just yours. It's incredibly hard to maintain an A in this class, which is a little confusing considering I am getting all A's in all of my other classes. The instructor was great as a person, but because of the way the class is set up, having to write down every single thing and trying to listen at the same time, I will probably never take a class that is taught by this instructor again.

I did not come to see you outside of class because the information we were supposed to learn was not very specific, and I would have not even known where to start with asking questions. I will agree that the presentations in class were very informative. But any lack of information I could have needed on the tests was based strictly on not knowing what to expect. 

Joe's a cool guy, I just have a very bad habit of not talking to any of my teachers outside the classroom.

I didnt seek your time out outside of class because I didn't feel that I needed to.  Your class lectures and online instructions, I feel, were sufficient enough for me to complete the work and understand the material successfully.  My grade was never in limbo and DUE to my busy schedule with class and work, that meeting with you was not necessary for positive achievement.

I just didn't feel that I needed to come to office hours. If I did need something we took care of it through Moodle.

Your presentations during class were very clear so that is the only reason that I didn't make an attempt to meet up with you outside of class.

I never really made in effort to talk to the teacher outside of class, but i did see him regularly interact with students after class was over.  

Throughout the term, you seemed approachable, but after I fell behind in class because of personal issues, I (albeit deemed unwise) decided not to talk to you in class. No effort was made by me at all, despite being approachable. all moodle questions I had were answered right away when asked..

 I was going to be gone for one class due to a family outing and I needed to tell Joe so I could ask what I needed to do in preparation. I went to go try and find his office, the rooms are so confusing , as I was looking for his office I ran into him in the hallway and I told him I was in his American History class and I had a question . The first question he asked  was were you in class this morning? I said yes and then he said well I already want to help you what can I do for you? That made me feel much better seeing as how I had like no college experience and was extremely nervous to talk to a professor. I  told him that I was going to be gone and asked what I needed to do. He told me because I had told him I wouldn't get a mark on my attendance and to just ask someone to take notes for me. He was extremely nice and approachable. I truly feel he wants his students to succeed! As a freshman I always heard horror stories about professors being rude and just there for the money but Joe proved that assumption wrong. It was a joy to be in his class!

I found noodle to be very straight forward and had a good understanding when I left class every day so I did not take the chance to meet outside of class

The instructor organized the class in a way that I did not need to contact him during the term. He was clear about what was due and covered the material efficiently.

The class time was so limited and there was never any sort of group projects or opportunities for students to interact

I had several interesting and informative discussions with you after class, some about the course material and a few others about subjects that were indeed interesting to discuss despite being a bit off the "US history" topic.

The teacher was very open and honest. I went to his office hours and I was able to explain to him my learning situations and how I struggle with memorization. He was very helpful in wanting to do what he could to help me pass the class. 

Did not make effort.

I work right after class so I was always in a rush. However, the class hours were very clear. 

I did not interact with the instructor at all. 

I never went into office hours because I thought that, with some studying and solidifying the information presented in class, I would be fine. However, I overloaded myself by taking on an early morning shift for work and that kind of changed everything. I became too exhausted to give each of my classes adequate studying time which lead to my downfall this term. 

I never had a reason to meet with him outside class (I currently have over a 95% in the class). I did have a few short conversations with him after class though. Add on to that I'm in class for 8 hours a day and kept pretty busy, so meeting during office hours was never very high on the priority list. He seems like a guy I wouldn't mind having a beer with and talking history/politics with though. You can't say that about many professors. 

speaking with you was definitely helpful

I'm quite shy in addition to the quality of the lectures.

the time was not a problem

.

I never needed to come to you outside of class. You have excellent slides and my personal notes usually coincided.

It was very easy, I have a computer at home and it is helpful that all of these things are online.

You made it easy due to the fact that you posted the lecture notes online.

Very Easy. Professor had all "handed out" materials available every day needed, and came to class with extras for people who had yet received them or even if someone wanted or needed another copy. Extremely helpful

All of the materials were easily assessable, and only once did I have trouble with a link, but the provided alternate link worked just fine.

very easy

Very easy to access and use.

very easy

Very Easy. 

It was super easy to access all of the material needed. 

Everything that I needed was in moddle. After the week was over I did went back a few times to look at the maps and pictures and wrote down key point that I missed during class that helped me understand the context a little better.

it was very easy to access materials I needed to do at home on my computer.

Fairly easy to use the given materials.

Very easy. I was always in class, and if I wasn't I could have gotten it the next class time.

very easy

Very easy.

Very easy

easy

Very easy

You should make it so students can access the labeled maps that you have posted in your slide shows during class. 

I don't have a printer at home, so I wasn't able to print out any of the handouts, but Joe always had them available in class.

It was sometimes difficult because the videos would take a long time to download and sometimes didn't load at all.

Very Easy. I like having printed off materials and you always made them available in case someone needed them, but If I lost anything then I would just print it off or look online.

very easy

The materials that were "handed out," were easy to access. I would suggest putting your notes on Moodle so students do not have to listen and write at the same time for the entire class. It would have made my learning experience a lot better and a lot less stressful. If you were to include your notes on Moodle, I'm sure your students would have a better time. Unfortunately for me, I had to struggle through the entire term.

The material was all very easy to access, however it was presented in a way that you could never use full screen mode. So we ended up having to watch videos in a little 4 inch box, which was pretty annoying. 

Very easy

These were very easy to find on our moodle page, and your e-mail reminders were very helpful in making sure nothing was forgotten.  Thank you for taking the time to write those, as most instructors do not.

For the most part everything was easy to open. I don't think I had any issues with any online materials.

Very Easy. The materials that you handed out in class were always accessible. The links to the online materials always worked and I never had a problem.

All of the information was very easy to access.  As well,  Lane has computers so really if people didn't do online work it was because of laziness not availability.  

I had one issue where I could not access a video. but despite that one issue, I had no problem accessing the materials.

I found the videos and sound clips extremely easy to access.

Very easy

All of the links that were needed for this class were very easy to access.

Not very easy

It was very easy access the materials mentioned above.

Very easy to access the materials. 

Online materials were very easy to access.  However, in many (but not all) of the videos, the audio and video were not properly matched.  This did not make it completely impossible to understand the videos, it was just very frustrating and distracting to me.

Very easy

Very easy

Very easy. If there was ever a question or problem with any of the links, the instructor would repost the link or find someway to help get the information to everyone.

Very easy. No other comments. 

very easy

very easy

all in class material was very easy access 

Very Easy

Very easy. It was very helpful for you to have more than one link to materials.

I thought that the online assignments were easy to finish and were a great way to get easy points.

It helped out quite a bit.

People were either to lazy to get on and do them, or for myself, busy and maybe forgot. Honestly, procrastination caused me to miss out on a few of these "gift" assignments. 

I personally don't know how this could hurt anyone who is actually participating in this class. I believe that because it is so generous, people forget about it and take it for granted.

the quizzes not only helped my grade by doing them but helped study for midterm by repetition of each quiz and final or midterm quizzes.

I would assume these same students did not participate in the other things offered in the class and possibly their grade could reflect that. 
The quizzes were very very helpful for me. 

that all depened on how well you did in the class if you did bad thats your fault.

I honestly procrastinated and then I did not want to do it last minute. I also just decided to not do some of it. 

I never had any problems with accessing nor completing the assigned polls and quizzes. You did sent plenty of reminders of what needed to be done hours before the deadline was due. Personally it was a matter of actually doing the work. Like you mentioned before, it is a hybrid class so we had assignments that needed to be completed online.

It will hurt you if you do not do the things you are required to do before the deadline.

Online assignments outside of class, especially those said to be easy, sometimes seem trivial in the long run and thus students may forget them by accident until it is brought up again and they realize they missed the opportunity.

Well, I'm a very busy person personally. I spend 25 to 30 hours per week at work, usually from 5-10:30 at night, and the forums really hurt me the most. The quizzes were great, but I did not have time, or the drive I suppose to participate in the online forums as much as you would have liked.

I appreciated the easy 10%and felt that participating in the quizzes helped me get higher grades on tests.

I think they are easy enough to do, but the fact that they are virtual caused me to forget about them sometimes. Other assignments are there in my binder or folder and I see them when I go through all my stuff. The Thanksgiving break really messed me up for quizzes. There was some deadline change and I missed a quiz and that was all it took to forget the next ones. I think part of it is it being my first term, so I'm still getting used to moodle.

Pure laziness 

they hurt me

I'm not sure why people didn't take advantage of the quizzes for the 10% of our grade. As long as you get a 50% grade on a quiz, you get the 100% on that quiz, which I'm sure would help students grades immensely. Hopefully people will take advantage of this more in the future.

I agree that they are a gift. I completed all of them except for one which was the first quiz. I didn't realize it was due that monday and I quickly became more disciplined at completing them by monday after that week. 

Some people are dumb. Just saying.

I appreciate the "easy" points.

I found these "gifts" very helpful and usually only took a short while to compete. If I took a similar course to this I would very much appreciate if they teacher include these.

It was an amazing gift. I unfortunately missed the last quiz as my mind was frazzled from the holidays but that was my own mistake, no one else's. It was easy points, and If someone decided it was too much work that was their mistake.

take a horse to water but you cant force it to drink. the 10% boosted my grade and its appriciated

The computer quizzes and online polls were the only easy thing about this class. Thankfully, SOMETHING was easy about this class, but other than that, everything was ridiculous and difficult.

Personally I view these things as a gift, and greatly appreciate them. I think anyone who didn't take them deserves to lose the points, as they are not serious about earning a good grade in the class. 

Procrastinate too much, since it's online it may be easier to forget about that an actual piece of paper that was handed out.

I think the weekly quizzes really helped get into the material more deeply.  They helped immensely in studying for the midterm and will again help on the final.  The opinion polls took less than 5 mins. to complete and pertained to the material at hand.  And like you stated, they were an easy 10% and I appreciate any and all help!  As for those who didn't participate... maybe some people dont like good grades?  

I know I personally have a full time job (6 days a week) along with school (4 days a week) so it is very difficult to ensure that I get on the computer every day. I usually do most of my homework on my days off and unfortunately that doesn't always work out with the deadlines for some assignments. I get lost in my work weeks and lose track of days frequently so to try to make a deadline can be difficult from time to time. It would be nice if all homework was due on the same day so that we didn't have to keep track of multiple deadlines throughout the week. I understand that we need to stay involved throughout the week but sometimes for me in particular that's not possible. I go to school during the day and work at night with a small break in between so one due date a week would have made it easier to keep track of.

The only other issue I could think of getting in the way is that forums sometimes can be awkward. If you’re not completely knowledgeable on the topic come might be afraid to post since our names and pictures are on there. I know I struggled on the forum that was the rather long document to read then post. Some people may not have wanted to read that whole document which makes them not post because they don't know what they are talking about. We have to earn our gifts however sometimes those gifts are a little involved and difficult.

There is no reason someone shouldn't complete the quizzes they are easy and are a gift to us.

I don't understand why people wouldn't do the computer quizzes and opinion polls. There already isn't a lot of assignments to do in this class anyway so what there is available you should most definitely do. 

You are attending class on campus forums and assignments were always given with enough notice that you had no excuse to miss them. 

In my own opinion, in terms of being hurt by not doing the polls, it didn't "feel" like something I actually had to do.

I regret  it now, but I need to "feel" compelled to actually do these "gifts"

 The quizzes and opinion polls were literally some of the easiest grade I have ever gotten. The quizzes  did take some time but they aren't extremely difficult. I would 100% say do them!!!! 

I found these gift assignments easy to earn points and accomplish 

I feel that the "gifts" were an easy way to get the 10%. Staying involved on Moodle is important. Even though they were easy activities to do they were a way to keep current in what was happening in the class and the material being covered.

I think that if the quizzes just didn't have a deadline, it would be more beneficial, also the 50% or higher didn't create initiative for students to actually try to get over that. 

I don't think any of the online requirements were in anyway unreasonable.  I have had online quizzes that were much more difficult and provided less of a boost your overall grade, so I had no problem with that part of the online section of the class.

I honestly did not understand the forums in the beginning, which hurt me. I should have asked questions and got on top of the information instead of waiting until its too late. I believe that if I were to do all of the forums on time and gained 6 points each, I would have done much better in the class. 

To not complete these is something you have to go out of your way to do.  The polls are obviously the easiest points you could ever receive.  Even if you haven't read the chapter entirely before the quiz was due, the answer to questions could be easily found in the text without reading every single word.  I don't recommend this strategy throughout the term, but even if you're pressed on time one weekend, the quiz is very manageable on short time.

Some students are lazy. 

I think completing the quizzes was an easy task and anyone who failed to complete that really was not trying at all. I appreciate the extra points I sure needed them. 

There were times when I got wrapped up in other class work and completely spaced on the assignment or I'd tell myself that I'll set time aside the next day, but then something would come up and I would become distracted again.

They seemed to be easily accessible and provided some measure of benefit to the class in whole. I had no issue completing them. What can I say? My generation is lazy. It's true. 

it just didn't feel important or urgent so i often overlooked them

i enjoyed the quizzes and polls. I think i completed every one of them.

i think that making the quizzes due after the last class of the week would be best that way you learn the material and have better success 

I loved the "gifted" points. They were easy to complete, and provided interesting information. The polls gave you a great perspective on what things are like today. It also gave me the opportunity to pick up some extra points to make up for falling short in other areas. You should keep using that model. I feel sorry for the people who didn't participate.

I love gift assignments. I greatly appreciate them because some chapters are harder than others to understand so there are quite a few questions on the midterm or final i expect to miss. Gift assignments are kind of a life-saver.

I thought that the forums were pretty self explanatory and enjoyed the fact that it wasn't just a paper or essay to write but communicating with other students on our own opinions.

I know individually the hybrid option was not a good choice for me due to the fact that I like a more physical copy of assignments I think people were forgettfull and neglected to keep up with the course work.

No issues with the assignment itself. The material was relevant and most often interesting enough to breeze through it all gaining a clear understanding and able to relate to what was going on in class.

I aced the forums purely because I participated and love to have constructive conversations (which were unfortunately not always the case). I felt the forums were worth my time and helped me in the long run.

it was hard to continuously post to the forums. after my first post i would easily forget to post again. 

The material was very interesting and intriguing for me, but on a personal level I like to debate any subject into existential nature simply for the learning and entertainment value. 

Also, to encourage more participation between students, I would like to see some of the subjects geared in a way that would force opinions to be dramatically different. As long as we can promote a healthy system to debate in, let's bring on the controversial topics! 

The 4th forum is a very good example of this. It was also out of the box and something I have never done before. 

i was not one who aced i did give it my all

I honestly was one who failed these. I honestly just did not post. I watched the videos and did the reading and looked at the cartoons. Then I decided to do this later and ended up not doing it. 

What I personally needed to succeed in the online forums was to maybe have some feedback. I wrote down what I thought i was asked for but never really knew if i was delivering.

Interesting materials indeed.

In my opinion, online forums tend to be somewhat trivial in the mind of a student. They come off as easy yet it is because of this that people tend to neglect them. Others simply don't like discussing things with other people online and prefer a more direct approach. The latter is my case.

Well, I'm a very busy person personally. I spend 25 to 30 hours per week at work, usually from 5-10:30 at night, and the forums really hurt me the most. The quizzes were great, but I did not have time, or the drive I suppose to participate in the online forums as much as you would have liked.

I think that the forums were well executed. The only thing I would have changed would be to extend the deadline to Sunday so that there was one more weekend day to add thoughts and comments for those who work during the week.

The thirty minute delay was one thing I didn't like. I would prefer to be able to jump in to conversation and continue discussing without having to wait at least an hour before I could continue the conversation. A simple post, response, response, response, would take at least two hours to say what could be said in two minutes via instant messaging.

I failed to do one of the forums cause I neglected to log in time and missed the deadline, as well I didn't reply to some other students to get the full points. But this is an easy way to earn points and shouldn't be any reason not to get the complete points for it. I did find the Yes NO material to be dry and a little hard to read. 

i hate the forums

The materials and topics for our forums were, for the most part, pretty interesting. As long as you stayed on top of things, it really wasn't that hard to get things done and be prepared for when you write your posts. The scoring scale was very reasonable and understandable. It was worth my time and effort.

I found that the forums were difficult to get any sort of conversation going which is the purpose of a forum. It seemed like everyone was posting mini essays and not having any meaningful conversation about the topic. I think the grading method was random because some weeks I got a better grade than other weeks for unclear reasons. 

I took a lot of time with forum posting, and towards the end, I was really enjoying the activity.  I am not someone who will speak up in class, but it certainly isn't because I don't have an intelligent opinion!  Just anxiety.  At first, I didn't really understand that I was suppose to respond to my classmate's posts, and I didn't get all my points which sucked for me.  I do think it is a great part of Joe's curriculum, because it does require you to engage, and assert your own opinion.  Overall, I think it is a great concept....if I could just make up those points for forum1!

For the first couple of forums, I didn't really understand how important it was to our grade so I would only post a couple of times during the week instead of the amount needed to get an A. I did like how the forums were set up though and thought they encouraged great discussion between students.

I have participated in online forums before, but never to the level of what you asked us to do. However, I have never taken a hybrid class before, but I was willing to work hard for it. I personally felt that I didn't know if it was good enough or a little afraid to write my opinion, but the biggest issue for me at least was responding to others in the forum. I didn't want someone to think that I was being a jerk or talking down their opinions, even if I was attempting to add or encourage discussion. I wrote many replies out to others, but didn't post them for fear that they would get angry or offended by my argument for the discussion. 

Given that, I could and should have posted more. I felt you were very fair on the points I received from the posts, and I know I could have done better. I felt that It was worth it, and if I needed to take another history class I would definitely take your class again.

forum 3 was very hard to understand for me and i was more comfortable loosing points then adding something off base or distracting for those who did understand the difference in material

The material was interesting, but I believe having a selection of material is better. Only having one topic and having to talk about it numerous times is a little difficult. The scoring was pretty ridiculous as well, unless you cited something it's basically impossible to get anything more than a "2." The forums honestly did nothing more for me than stress me out and give me another thing to worry about. If the scoring was not so harsh, I believe the forum postings would be a little more enjoyable.

Though I did participate in the forums, I found them to be a huge burden in addition to the other class materials. This is a 4 credit class, and the amount of time spent on forums, readings, studying, and tests was 3-4 times that of any other 4 credit class on my schedule. And if anything I would say these forums actually took away from learning the necessary materials for class. None of the information on the forums helped me to actually memorize the actual history we were supposed to be studying. Maybe base the forums on the information we are already reading in the text book. That way we are actually looking at important things more closely, in addition to staying laser focused on the material. 

I also think the deadlines for first post idea needs to be adjusted as well. I get you want people to participate, and discuss. But this deadline often caused people to post only once. Which is not actually discussing anything. Perhaps score the posts as you normally would, but make half the forum grade based on actual discussion. How many times they actually went back and forth with other students. Making each forum worth 12 points. 6 for the posts, and 6 for discussion. 

Honestly the biggest problem for me was I had trouble figuring out the forum interface. I had no idea how to post anything. That along with the fact that it still felt like being in a big group discussion I would have had in the classroom, just as much pressure, except for the fact that it was just simply easy to ignore and not do. 

I think that in a hybrid course, it is sometimes easy to forget certain things within the course of a week.  Not for lack of reminders, but I found myself making a post in the forum and then distracting myself with the reading or other classes and forgetting to check back again.  Sometimes I felt as though I had sufficiently posted and also made replies to others postings and still did not get the full 6 points for the week and wondered why.  

My only two issues is not wanting to post because I may not be completely educated on the topic and not want to share my thoughts in fear that they are wrong. Also some were too involved for the points we were getting out of it. I tried to participate in all, with exception to the first which the deadline just got away from me. Seeing a huge document to read on top of our chapter reading was sometimes daunting.

I think the forums were definitely worth my time and effort. It was nice to see other people's opinions. There was always enough material to cover the topic of the forum. You gave plenty of time for people to be very interactive in these forum's. I had a hard time with these when the quarter first started just because I kept forgetting but other than that I think the forum's were very helpful.

Teacher is one of the best I have ever had.  Kept my attention from 1st minute of lecture to last and I enjoyed the challenges that he presented to us in class.

I failed in aspect of the forums. I understood the materials, but I was either too late to post, or i just couldn't access it at the time. 

but the main one was, I was intimated to post anything after reading other students forums, and I could agree with most of them, but i didn't know what to post as a response, or make my own post in fear of being ridiculed by other intelligent students.

I posted on every forum but not as much as I probably could have. Some of the topics were interesting and others were not as interesting. An idea might be to make it to where they are anonymous to our eyes like the polls but you get to see the writers? Or we could even just be assigned randomly a number or some other name so they are anonymous to us students but it takes the confusion away.

I didn't post because of not wanting my work to be judged by other people but just a self conscious thing I suppose.

I enjoyed the forums. They took a bit of thought. I did not always get the 2 or 3 points I would have liked, and it was hard to wait for feedback to see if I was even on the right track with my thoughts.

I feel that you ran the forums well. The deadlines were appropriate. Some of the subject matter was harder for me, but that had nothing to do with what was assigned. I just needed to be a college student and take charge of my learning.

the forums lacked in my view as far as my computer wouldn't open up the forum link and i was unable to participate in the forum also the forum was too specific with what the discussion wanted to be aimed towards, the expectations of the forum were unreasonable, i would never take a hybrid course again if it has to deal with forums and strict grading system deadlines

I mentioned this in the other questionnaire, without knowing that the comment was more appropriate here.

I think the online forums might be improved, and easier to engage in, if professor Escobar was able to respond to a few of the posts directly with feedback and maybe question about the post for the student to answer. I do understand however, that there are probably time constraint issues with this idea.

I was honestly unorganized and was unsure of what the requirements were for the forums. The topics were really challenging and I became confused quickly. 

The forums were very helpful in that they gave me an idea of something important that might be on the test.  Some of the forum material did not relate to any testing but it did relate to the current material and at the very least helped connect some other things I might not have noticed.  The scoring was very fair and not overly strict.  Overall I believe it was worth the time and effort.

The only thing I would change about the forum is to tell the students how you grade the forums in the beginning of the term. 

I think everything flowed smoothly and was graded fairly

Pretty much the same situation as stated above.

I really liked the forums. I especially liked that there was some connection to current issues. That helps bridge the history gap and make history relevant to those who think studying history is pointless. Again, my generation is sadly lazy. Most will do the least amount of work possible for a passing grade. Mediocrity is the standard. I honestly don't think I'd change much regarding the forums. I found them helpful and they made you think about how history affects us today. The only thing that sucked was what is mentioned above; not a ton of participation at times, and too often those that did participate made basic posts like "I agree" or "I disagree". 

basically just forgetting deadlines

i failed this activity because I'm quite shy and i hate sharing my outtake of the article on a large scale.

more interesting and relevant materials would help a lot

Worth the time and effort. I learned, and remembered more about forum subjects than anything else. You are set up for success with materials and relevant class discusions.

It is way more difficult to have a conversation online because the way we speak to another person, in person, is vastly different than typing and having it not sound stuffy or like an essay. It is hard to explain but trying to write what I think about a situation and then cite a page or website, it feels like I'm not doing it right. It was interesting to read what the other students had to say but when I would try to reply I would get stuck because either most people have said the same thing already or I didn't know how to explain how or why I disagreed, I couldn't think of an example or source to cite.

I thought that the textbook was hard to follow sometimes, It jumped around quite a bit and it had a lot of detail. I found it hard to take notes on it because I wasn't quite sure what things you, as the teacher, would find most important.

I think the text book was incorporated to little.

quality/readability easy

and the amount of time given to read each section was more than enough. an entire week for a chapter gives lots of time to fully understand the material

I was very satisfied with the amount of incorporation of the textbook into the class, something that is lacking in other classes.

just right

Chapters 8&9 were a DREADFUL way to end the term, but alas, not every part of history that is important is necessarily interesting. Other than that, the textbook was an excellent read and I'm excited to continue my learnings. 

too little

It was a decent book. There were times where I was not able to follow because it was not very interesting. Other parts of the book were great. 

The online videos and quizzes were fine with me.But the chapters were a little too long. I mean everything in there had important information but it was just a little too long.

I was very satisfied

Both the textbook and the teacher were illuminating regarding the subject.

Decent text, but somewhat longwinded with a lot of information we didn't need. Honestly, I got the most, by far, out of your lectures.

I didn't buy the book. I found that i learned all i needed for the tests by attending class and participating in the online work.

The text book was not the most fun to read, but text books rarely ever are. I think the text book incorporation was well done in the class

I wasn't a huge fan of the book, and found Joe's lectures way better. The book had good info but the reading of it was a bit dry. 

it was boring but helped a lot

The chapters were longer than what I have been used to from past experience from high school and it was challenging at times to make enough time for it at the beginning of the term, but I'm glad I figured it out.

It was a pretty difficult textbook to read. But the price is low and it is available online which is nice. It's also jam packed with information so it's difficult to know what will be put on the test. 

It is a lot of information, but I took this class because I am INTERESTED.  Embarrassing as it is to admit, I knew very little about history going into this class.  It's actually pretty sad.  I think it is probably pretty beneficial to take them (201, 202, 203) in succession.  I would not want to go into the Civil War thinking it was just about slavery. Ya know?

I personally thought they textbook was very difficult to understand and sometimes found it hard to read through an entire chapter and retain all of the information. I felt like the book expected you to know a good amount of history to understand what was going on.

To be honest, I skimmed most of the chapters. I read some parts in more detail, but skimmed others. Because I did this, I never missed a day of class so I could make sure I understood and knew the information.

naturally i was much more satisfied with lectures then the textbook read. its a good textbook, but still boring and a bit drawn. i learned material better from summary's online

ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE. The book was so horrible. I have never disliked a book more, honestly. It was extremely hard to grasp and it was extremely hard to get through each chapter. After reading it, half the time I did not even remember what I had read. It made the class so hard to understand and get through. I feel like I have wasted so much time because it was just way too hard to learn from the book and the instructor did a good job with talking about it, but it wasn't enough when it came to taking the exam.

The text book itself it pretty pathetic. It bounces around all over the place, never maintaining chronological order. And though Joe is extremely knowledgable on his history, I felt he spent most of the class time putting the text book back in order. Which could probably be avoided with a different text, allowing Joe to add more value in other ways. 

Textbook wasn't bad, wouldn't have felt bad buying it. Chapters were pretty long and full of info/

I think it is a pretty concise book to read.  The black/blue ink tones get a little boring to stare at after a while... but Im a photographer and like lots of colors... so there's bias there.  And speaking of bias, I appreciated the class time taken to point out certain biases and mistruths that are found in the book, as every one has them but not all instructors take the time to point them out

I feel the textbook was used just enough.

The textbook for me was too much because I was also taking three other classes. You did a great job incorporating words from the textbook into in-class lectures. 

If you don't attend class you will fail.

I'm going to have take this class again, so it felt good to buy this book. and the information provided by the instructor, covered what was need for the quizzes and exams.

The reading was a little bland. I'm glad I bought it because it was helpful but that was the thing I least enjoyed.

Very satisfied 

The textbook was challenging to me at time. The way the chapters were laid out made it a harder read for me. It is important for the class and always made more sense after I attended the lectures.

Just right

I did feel good about buying the textbook. It was also nice that professor Escobar was willing to point out where he thought the authors were wrong and or could have expressed a point or piece of information more clearly.

It was a little too much. 

The textbook is very readable and the instructor incorporated material from it well.  My only problem was when taking notes, there were things I thought would be very important that were never brought up in class or on tests.  And certain things that seemed not very significant were asked on the quizzes and tests.  That being said, there was only a handful of questions I felt this way about.  Most of the material that seems important was very important in regards to testing.

textbook was expensive

Textbook was a textbook of course I would rather read poetry instead of a history book. 

The textbook was good. It was very easy to read and had a nice flow to it.

Felt about right. Pretty readable textbook. Good measure of incorporation. 

just right

I liked the textbook. It was an easy read.

just right 

The text book wasn't an easy read. I got most of my information out of class. The way the instructor explained what the book was saying in terms we could identify with really helped. 

The chapters are not very long but they feel like they go on forever just like the energizer bunny. Honestly I am not a huge American history fan, I am more interested in European History but it is very cool to learn about it from a different point of view and have all the bias pointed out, I really enjoyed that.

I really enjoyed this class so I would definitely recommend it to other students. I loved the hybrid aspect as well as the fact that I really love history and find it very interesting.

I would reccomend it how ever I would give them a coutionary warning about hybrid courses

Yes, professor is helpful and reminds you of assignments that are due weekly via email, in class, and on moodle. its almost impossible to miss something and fail this class. 

I would say that you should take this class because the professor is great, loves what he does, and although the class requires work to be done, its fairly easy and rewarding if you put the time and effort into it.

if you are not crazy about a hybrid class but are still considering it, taking the class with joe is my recommendation.

"If you enjoy history, if you can see the value in it and like to challenge your beliefs and be offered new and unusual perspectives then this is class for you. It is a demanding class that involves lots of thought and participation but you'll get more out of the class than you put in, and I think that's saying something."

this class is amazing just have to study and be on things

I would say that to be sure they were completing the computer assignments. Also that Joe was a very knowledgeable person about the subject and was very interesting. 

I would say yes. I mean the material was a little to much compared to my other current classes but we are in college now so its expected and reasonable to have a lot of material to work with.

I would say take the class if you are wanting to learn about history. The instructor is a great teacher. Its a great class if you do the things you are suppose to do throughout the week.

Joe Escobar is a good instructor who makes attending class more enjoyable than the typical sleep-inducing lecture. The videos help.

Yes, I would say Joe is a very good instructor who was very good at relating the information to us.

I would say that the course is worth taking and the instructor is enthusiastic and knowledgeable. Classes were informative and enjoyable.

Go for it. Joe is an awesome instructor and his lectures are interesting because he doesn't sugar coat history, he simply tells it like it is.

I would say take it. 

I loved the teacher but hated the hybrid class

I would say it's not that bad of a course at all if you're willing to put the time and effort into the online portion. And even at that it's not that much time and effort. I enjoyed this course.

Definitely the best instructor I had this term and better than most instructors at UO. 

I would say his methods are very effective, because I have learned a lot.  His intelligence in history obviously greatly exceeds mine, and there were a few times when I really wanted to understand where he was coming from, but I just didn't. #alittleslower

I thought the instructor did a very good job of teaching this history class and I definitely can say I learned a lot of stuff I didn't previously know. I liked how he always showed multiple views on the same topic, which really showed the bias of some historians. The only thing that was slightly annoying was sometimes he goes too fast on the slides before everyone can write down all the information on the board, but I do understand hes trying to cram a lot of information into a short amount of time.

Literally the first week I bragged to most of my friends about how you were the "Slide Show Wizard". Never have I ever taken a class with a professor with as smooth and engaging lectures as yours. I WANTED to come to class everyday and listen to lecture! (that sounds crazy I know) But honestly, very fluid lectures and amazing job at making sure we understood the textbook author's bias and the contradicting information from multiple sources. Thank you Slide Show Wizard!

escobar would be recomended

I would say the instructor seems like a great person and is also a great speaker, but the class itself is ridiculous. The expectations are way too high, people are taking multiple classes, not just the instructor's of this class. The exams were almost impossible... as well as reading the book. The scoring on the forum postings were way too intense and the instructor scored very harshly. It was hard to really learn the material when the book was so horrible and I had to focus on writing everything down and not pay attention to what the instructor was saying. The class has potential to be a great class, if the expectations weren't so high as well as such hard grading.

That is a hard one. On one hand Joe is extremely knowledgable, and very entertaining. However if I were to assume other teachers were to teach students differently (be more specific about test materials, pick a different text book, ect.) I would probably recommend students should take this course with a different teacher.  

Joe's a really cool teacher, really a big history buff so I feel it makes the class better all around. Not a huge fan of the forums but the online quizzes and polls were a nice, easy part of the class. 

I'd say that Joe has a great way of teaching that is passionate, but also fair and middle-grounded.  He's not afraid to point out misinformation in his own selected textbook either, and I like that.  Class time is not wasted, and he reminds his students often of what they need to do to succeed.  

The teacher is well educated and teaches very well. The fact that you speak very honestly and frankly to us has made you one of my favorite teachers.

I would recommend students to this class only if they were taking one or two other classes. To take this class as a hybrid course required a lot of time, more than what I thought, had I known that I honestly would have dropped a different class to focus on this one more or I would have taken this class a different term and not taken as many classes. So I would advise future students interested in this class to make sure they put forth a good amount of time for this class.

Take Joe Escobar! I know that there isn't one specific truth to history, but this instructor teaches this subject in a very non bias way.

He can be a bit biased, but he covers all the info needed for you to succeed, just be wise and write down notes and pay attention to what he has to say about forums and quizzes.

I would 100% recommend people to take this course. Joe was a fantastic teacher. There is really nothing negative I can say about this class I agreed with 98% of what he taught.

Yes but watch out for forums and the whole hybrid part

I would say that the instructor will not waste your time. It is important to do the work and stay organized. I find that easier to do when the instructor is modeling that. Joe is a great example of that and how the class is ran.

I would say, "Don't let the last name fool you". I took this course hoping it was a person of color instructing this class, again my mistake for thinking Escobar would be culturally competent. There were far too many times when i personally felt uncomfortable in the class environment and even chose to not go to class simply because of how much i did not like the instructor. The content of the material, american history, i've taken advanced placement history classes all throughout high school and i enjoyed the content and the outside intent of looking at history from a cultural perspective besides the 'traditional' view of american history. The instructor referred to native americans as "Indians", there was a NASA (Native american student association) student in the class that felt that the instructor was inconsiderate to their ethnicity/culture. As a person of color in a room full of white students and a white instructor, I felt uncomfortable with topics regarding the movie Apocalypto, this was a scene shown in the beginning of the term, there was even a student of color that left the room during the movie clip, of a heart being ripped out and blood squirting everywhere. I felt it was inappropriate and it was not germane to the course in any way. There was no warning. Another thing i noticed about the instructor is the pictures and time he spends talking about places he's visited? Although he went to historical places, and its amusing for him to show the class where he's been, it took too much class time that could have been allocated in getting students to participate in discussion or further lecture notes. There were far too many videos shown in class, to my understanding our class time should be utilized for instruction by the instructor and showing us videos that could easily be content lectured and discussed in class would be better. I would advise that the instructor stays un-partial with 

I would say that the class is interesting and informative, even if you already know a good deal about early US history. I would also recommend the class on the grounds that the professor is knowledgeable about the time and provides and an insightful prospective.

I would recommend you. 

If this class is not a part of your major or a requirement I would avoid it.  Speaking as a science major I had a very difficult time determining what information was important and what could be left out.  But the class is interesting and the instructor very helpful and knowledgable.

I would tell them it would be worth their time. 

It is not the "easy way out" of a history course but it is interesting and a challenge for those who are ready for it. 

If you want an instructor who is very passionate about what he does and you really enjoy history, then take this class. I'm not a huge fan of history classes myself, but this course held a different atmosphere that I found to be more interesting because of how it was taught.

Highly recommended. Great instructor, important material. 

that he's a nice guy and it's an easy A if you keep up with it.

Joe is really into history so it makes it quite enjoyable to go to class. if it was not a hybrid cource it would be perfect, the forums are the only downer.

i would say take joe he does really well

I would tell students to only take this course if they can get this instructor.  He made a class i was dreading into my favorite one of the semester.

Definitely. He's basically gives you all the information you need for exams, as long as you show up, copy the slides, and study you'll be good. The forums are little difficult to get used to but I'm not a big internet discussion person so that is more personal. It was a fantastic class.

In another class that I took a student set up a google doc. with 500 people who participated and filled out the study guide. I found that to be very helpful and would maybe do that in one of my next classes. I don't know of any other forms of sharing documents in that same way though.

The second one

The way the class is now, it is set up pretty good. Not many areas need to be changed. All information is easily accessed and study sessions offered really help for the exams.

I personally did not know their was a wiki or know of any websites outside of google docs

no

I'm more of a lone studier or in person communicator, I might be the wrong person to ask for this. 

might be helpful

Honestly if I would have paid better attention then I would have used this tool. 

I use Wikipedia a lot. They have really good information there that you can use.

I think students should just communicate to each other about forums nothing else really because most students have a lot to do like work and other classes.

I have no recommendations for any web-based tools or services.

None that I know of.

Not that I am aware of.

I don't know, google docs is very useful for big groups of people to communicate around a single topic.

I would have like the google docs option and would've looked at other students if they had posted them and I was somehow notified that they had posted notes. 

2

Not that i can think of

Not that I know of.

The study lists are brutal!  I do not look at that list and have the ability to see the connections the way Joe does.  I am hoping that going over them in class will be helpful, but I feel a little stupid when he rattles off five or six terms from the list that are connected, and I get the first one, and the last one, and nothing in between.

Would be useful but I'm not sure how often I'd use it other then to study for tests.

Interesting, I never really share notes on anything else besides moodle. Maybe you could create a place or forum for us to share our notes? Would be easier for us to access everything if it was in the same place.

?

WHAT? The instructor failed to tell us that there was a wiki for notes. If that was the case, I would have been all over that. This must be a joke. I am actually pretty annoyed by this fact because the fact that I had to write down everything in class made my learning experience awful. I was not able to pay attention to what the instructor said or anything. If the instructor included HIS notes on Moodle, I would have had a better learning experience. 

Not other than google docs. 

A google docs page sounds good to share notes. I may have been absent the day it was discussed because I can't recall a thing about it.

I dont know what a wiki is.  I've used google docs before for work and found it impeding, but Ive never used either in a classroom setting.  As far as sharing notes, I prefer to take my own as writing things down helps me to remember them.

Don't use document sharing websites.

I'm not really familiar with web-based tools or services. I have heard from other students though that Google Doc is a good one.

1 would be cool and/or useful for me to implement for future students in this history class?

#2

N/A

I have not used many web based tools or services. Maybe sharing notes through google drive.

#2

Not that i'm aware of

Perhaps a separate term long forum designed for students and maybe the teacher as well, to post links to websites/videos and other interesting, if not 100% on topic, information.

#2

None that I know of.

I perfer Google Doc. 

#2 but I did not utilize those tools this term 

I think the Google Doc works pretty well

I personally don't know of any. I never had a need to find the notes online because I only missed one class (I think). I always took notes myself. 

none

I have no clue.

remind the students that it is there

#1

#2

I really don't know. I'm more of a face to face person

I don't have an suggestions. I have really enjoyed this class, so thank you!!

It was good for a hybrid course I however am just not a fan of hybrid courses.

N/A

I felt this survey covered everything it need to.

in class prep and talks on forums.

Just like your lectures, I am pretty sure you've covered everything. 

None. I'm excited to see what next term will have to offer! 

i have no qustions

This survey is just fine the way it is. 

Perhaps contact students who are not doing so well in class and asked them what else they need or perhaps provide them with other type of material since we all learn in different ways.

No other questions are needed the survey was the right amount

I have no recommendations to improve the class.

None, I feel I've expressed everything I need to.

See above comment about forums.

Just some minor changes to the forums to let them run a little smoother. A shorter delay, if any, would really help spur conversation and keep students interested.

I think you covered all basis and as for the hybrid portion maybe links to Escobar approved history sites that might be useful to course material being covered. 

Just make sure to tell kids its a lot more work than a traditional class

Nothing!

Testing needs to be changed. Too one dimensional. Mandatory attendance needs to be removed, lectures are nice but attendance of them should not be a weighted factor in your overall grade. 

Overall, I think Joe is a great teacher!  I have learned so much.  Even though it was a little slow-going at first with regard to the forum, it is a very effective way to make us put on our political thinking cap.  I am sure it sucked for those who weren't trying, but for those of us who are excited for the take-away, it was a great experience. 

I thought this course was very well taught and I would definitely take it or another history hybrid class if I had the option.

I really enjoyed this course. Thank you so much!

pass out snacks during class

Consideration for improvements:

Better book. Less expectations. Not as harsh scoring on the forums. Notes included in Moodle. Less questions for the exam as well as not including ridiculous paragraph long questions. Putting more questions that will ACTUALLY be on the exams in the "practice quizzes" so students don't waste their time. Taking into consideration that students are taking multiple classes, not just yours.

This was the only class I had this term that made my term a living hell.

Be more specific. There is SO much information covered on the final, you could easily just tell everyone what they needed to know and it would still be extremely difficult. I spent most of my time in this class being stressed out, not knowing what to expect. To me it seems there is something wrong if someone who has a 4.0 GPA, and has worked in business management cannot easily grasp the material. As a teacher you should be helping students prepare for the tests, not overwhelming them with countless unrelated forums. I am also concerned that you actually showed us in class other people commenting saying some of these same things, yet you didn't seem to adapt any of their recommendations. If you are going to ask for input, actually use it. 

Maybe only 10% for the online forum? Maybe like a 5% in class dicussion

no questions forgotten

no recommendations

Survey covered everything.

I think you covered pretty much any question that future students would have in whether or not they should take this class. I hope I gave you good feedback. I thought you were an excellent instructor and very knowledgeable on this topic. I failed in the fact that I couldn't put forth the amount of time that this class required. 

n/a

none were forgotten

and no recommendations

N/A

No forums because I hate forums 

none

None

Other than the one I mentioned above I can't think of another suggestion at this time, but I do have one last comment,

Thank you for a very educational and enjoyable term.

Nothing. Just emphasize studying and memorizing the terms and topics that are taught. 

Personally, I could have used a study guide on each chapter just so I wasn't writing a bunch of stuff down that I didn't need.  I understand this would be a lot of work for the instructor and I certainly wouldn't expect this in any class.  It just would have helped me a lot in this particular course.

Dont change a thing

Thank you! 

I think the course is great

Can't think of much. Only maybe considering not requiring any significant readings with the forums. On top of the textbook readings and other classes, 9-10 pages for a forum can be a bit much. 

none

none, i really enjoyed this course even if i didn't do well!

keep doing it the same just ask if people need more time on notes

?

I can't read your mind, have no idea what you forgot to ask me and I don't have any suggestions. This class has been one of the easiest and challenging classes I have had. Easy to get a good grade with attendance, polls, quizzes, and forums however the forums were my biggest issue but like I said it has more to do with being uncomfortable than anything else.