We are pleased to announce that medievalist professor Rachel Fulton Brown will be offering a Medieval History 101 course to Unauthorized subscribers. She has a few questions for prospective students.
The first question that I have is about format. What kind of format would make for a good course online?
What I do not want is to have these videos simply be lectures, the canonical professor-talks-while-the-students-doze lectures you get in the movies before the professor starts encouraging the students to stand on their desks.
I want, in fact, to make them real—in the sense of the kinds of discussion I would give my students at the University of Chicago.
Which means you are going to have to do a bit of homework. Don’t worry, it will be fun!
Here’s the format I would like to try. I know that those of you who have been following Vox are familiar with his blog. Professor Fulton Brown is a great fan of blogs! You can see several that I have designed for courses I have taught on animals in the Middle Ages, Mary and Mariology, medieval Christian mythology, and Tolkien: Medieval and Modern.
I use these course blogs as a place for students to talk about the readings they have done and the themes we have discussed in class. I am always encouraged at how much insight they are able to bring to our discussions, as well as stimulated by the questions they raise.
This is how I would like to use the blog for our online course.
I will post a short reading (about a page) a few days before our scheduled “class.” You will be invited to leave comments on the blog, whether asking questions about the text or suggesting themes you would like me to address. Your comments will help me gauge the level of familiarity that readers have with the text, as well as help me craft my comments on what I would like you to learn from it. Following the video “class,” you can return to the blog and leave additional comments. Our goal will be to build up a common understanding of how to study history beyond learning the relevant facts.
I will also post reading lists for those who want to delve further. There are thousands upon thousands of books already published on the history of Europe in the Middle Ages. My role as a teacher is to help you learn how to read and evaluate them.
All subscribers will have access to the history course, but it will also be possible to purchase access to it whether you are a non-subscriber or not. I was extremely amused when Prof. Brown sent me a picture of what she said would be the textbook – all eight volumes of the first edition of the Cambridge Medieval History series published from 1926 to 1936! Don’t worry, you won’t be required to acquire your own copy for the course.
Also in Unauthorized news, the fifth episode of Chuck Dixon on Comics is now available for subscribers.