History 112

History 112

World Civilizations Post
1500

Dr. Doug Campbell, docampbell@nvcc.edu
Office Hours in LC-320: Mondays and Wednesdays, 10-11am, 12:30-1:00 pm; Tuesdays and Thursdays 3-4 pm
Office Hours via Zoom Appointment: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1pm-3pm, Thursday, 6-7pm
Please email me at least 24 hours in advance to schedule an appointment if you need to consult during office hours.

Welcome

Readings

Grading and Due Dates

Expectations

Description of Course Elements

Course Schedule

NOVA Policies & Resources

Welcome to History 112

This is class about the past 500 years of humanity's existence, and how we as a species have ended up in the situation in which we find ourselves in the 21st century. It's about the choices we have collectively made about how to live with one another, and the consequences that those choices have had, whether good or bad. One of things I find endlessly fascinating about studying human beings in the past is just how contingent and arbitrary so much of our lives have been. To put it simply, so much of what we assume is "natural," "essential," or "the way it's always been" shows itself to have simply been made up on the fly by people just as flawed and limited as we are in the present. Things that we assume to be enduring and unchanging in our society have in fact changed repeatedly over time. I find that super interesting, and more than that, hopeful. Since things have changed before, the good news is that if we don't like the way things are now, we can change them again. The study of history reveals that there is no one single way to be human. Our society is our creation and our responsibility to improve.

To that end, one of the aims of this class is to provide you with some alternative views of who we are by looking at who we have been in the past. It will hopefully provide you with a sense of how recent an invention the way we live in the present is by showing you how we used to live. To get the most out of this experience, however, you will need to keep in mind that learning is not a spectator sport. You can't just sit back passively and expect to get anything near the full benefit of this class. You need to be actively engaged in your own education. I certainly have to play my part, and I promise to do my best to present an interesting and dynamic class which offers you all sorts of opportunities to learn cool stuff. The actual learning is your job, though. To put it another way, I can cook the most delicious banquet imaginable, and set the table in the most attractive way possible, piling it high with all sorts of fabulous delicacies. But in the end, you're the one who actually has to eat the meal. So if you're going to take this class, I'll ask you to make a conscious decision to engage in all of the opportunities available to you, and to commit to coming to all of the class sessions, to participating in an active and thoughtful manner in all of our class discussions, to completing all of the assigned readings, and to submitting all of the required assignments. If you do, I promise it will be worth your while. Your place at the table is set, and you are invited....

Stuff the College makes me include:

Course Description: Surveys the history of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas from approximately 1500 CE through the present. Lecture 3 hours per week. 3 credits. This is a Passport Transfer course.

General Course Purpose: HIS 112 surveys the general history of the world from approximately 1500 CE through the present and allows students to reach a basic understanding of the characteristic features of the world’s early historical development. Students will learn about important political, economic, social, intellectual, cultural and religious changes that shaped the world in this period of time. Connections and comparisons of human societies are made across space and time.

Course Prerequisite/Corequisite: None

Course Objectives:

Upon completion the course, the student will be able to:

Written Communication

    • Express an understanding of forces that foster global connections among places, persons, groups, and/or knowledge systems through written activities.

Critical Thinking

    • Explain human and social experiences and activities from multiple perspectives from 1500 CE through the present.
    • Compare and contrast multiple perspectives or theories on global processes and systems throughout time.
    • Describe how global relations impact individual lives and the lives of others over time.
    • Develop multiple historic literacies by analyzing primary sources of various kinds (texts, images, music) and using these sources as evidence to support interpretation of historical events.

The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: Suggested Context Trans-Oceanic and Trans-Continental Trade (ex. the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, Indian Ocean trade, Eurasian trade), Overseas Empires and Land-based Empires (ex. Spain, the Ottoman Empire, the Qing dynasty, Muscovy), The rise of the nation-state, Columbian Exchange, European Intellectual Movement

    • Identify the causes of the rise of modern states.
    • Analyze the development and impact of culture, economics, politics, society, technology, and religious and philosophical ideas.
    • Compare and contrast global and trans-oceanic connections.
    • Analyze complex primary and secondary sources.
    • Identify trans-global systems.

The Long Eighteenth Century: Suggested Context The Enlightenment, The Age of Revolutions (ex. Latin America, Haiti, USA, France), Nationalism and national identities (ex. France, Latin America, North America, the Caribbean), The Qing Dynasty,

    • Identify the causes of the rise of modern states.
    • Analyze the development and impact of culture, economics, politics, society, technology, and religious and philosophical ideas.
    • Compare and contrast global and trans-oceanic connections.
    • Analyze complex primary and secondary sources.
    • Examine the origins of nationalism and national identities.

The Nineteenth Century: Suggested Context The Race to Industrialization (ex. Europe, Asia, Latin America), Imperialism and Neo-Imperialism, Nationalism and national identities (ex. Italian and German unification), Resistance to Colonialism

    • Analyze the development and impact of culture, economics, politics, society, technology, and religious and philosophical ideas.
    • Compare and contrast global and trans-oceanic connections.
    • Analyze complex primary and secondary sources.
    • Examine the causes of and impact of industrialization and imperialism.
    • Examine the continuation and growth of nationalism and national identities.

The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: Suggested Context The World Wars, The Cold War, Anti-colonial movements (ex. India, China, Pan-Africanism, Latin America), Decolonization (ex. in Africa and Asia), Globalization

    • Analyze the development and impact of culture, economics, politics, society, technology, and religious and philosophical ideas.
    • Compare and contrast global and trans-oceanic connections.
    • Analyze complex primary and secondary sources.
    • Examine movements of decolonization, liberation movements and resistance to imperialism.

Major Topics to be Included:

    The Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
    The Long Eighteenth Century
    The Nineteenth Century
    The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Readings

There are no books you need to purchase for this class. We will be making use, as much as possible, of Open Educational Resources (OER) which are available online for free.

Even though we have left the more traditional paper textbook-oriented model of a history class behind, however, this course still requires you to do a great deal of reading, writing, and, above all, thinking. You should take the course readings seriously, and make sure to keep up with the reading assignments described below in the Class Schedule.

Course readings should be completed BEFORE you log into the class for which they are assigned. It is especially important to read the primary sources assigned each week. Taking notes on them, marking the most important passages, and jotting down any questions you might have is highly encouraged.

NOVA ALL ACCESS TEXTBOOK PROGRAM: When you register for classes each semester, you’re automatically enrolled in NOVA All Access and charged a fee of $22.50 per credit hour. The fee will appear on your student account, along with your tuition and other fees. YOU need to decide if the fee benefits you. And YOU need to opt out if it does not save you money. Complete details about the NOVA All Access program are available here.

How do you determine if the program saves you money? Use this Google Sheets calculator tool to decide whether the All Access cost is higher than your materials would cost to get on your own. Here is a video tutorial about how to use the Google Sheets calculator tool.

How do you opt out if it does not save you money? If the program does not save you money, YOU CAN OPT OUT and get your money back to buy your textbooks independently. For most students, the opt out deadline will be February 6. Click here and click a SMALL link just above FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS that says “Opt Out of NOVA All-Access.”

Grading and Due Dates

Your overall grade for the class will consist of the following elements. Scores will be posted on Canvas, and will be accompanied by general comments about the strengths and weaknesses of your work. If you would like a more detailed description of aspects of the assignment which could be improved, just ask me and I will be happy to provide one.

May 12 is the last day any work will be accepted for this class. See the NOVA Academic Calendar for a list of important dates and deadlines this semester.

Course Element	Points	Due Date
Attendance and Participation	15%	Every Class Session
Primary Source Discussion Leadership	10%	At least once during the semester
Book Review (2 pages)	10%	Book Proposal due February 14 Finished Paper due March 23
Annotated_Bibliography, Part 1	10%	April 4
Annotated_Bibliography, Part 2	10%	April 11
Research Project	20%	Topic Proposal Due February 7 Finished Project Due April 25 Project Interview no later than May 9
Exams	25%	Midterm Exam: Due March 14 Final Exam: Due May 9

Grading Scale

Percentage	Final Course Grade
Above 90%	A
80-89%	B
70-79%	C
60-69%	D
Below 60%	F

Expectations

You will need access to the internet and word processing software for this class. You should be familiar with using Canvas (the College's learning management system) in order to submit assignments and view your grades, and you should regularly check announcements posted to the course Canvas page and your NOVA email account, which are the only ways I have of getting in touch with you outside of class.

Guidelines for Conduct During Class Meetings

Our in person class sessions are a very important part of your learning process, and represent an opportunity for you to interact with both me and your classmates. To get the most out of our class meetings, I'm asking you to adhere to the following guidelines.

Attendance: First and foremost, you actually need to be in class to benefit from our activities. You will need to attend every class session and be actively engaged in everything going on. Moreover, attending means being on time and not leaving early, which can be disruptive to your classmates' learning process. Certainly, isolated exceptions can be made for unusual occurences such as illnesses, accidents, or family emergencies, but these should be rare. Repeated absences or late arrivals will negatively impact your grade. You are also responsible for knowing about all information discussed and all announcements made in class. Being absent is not an excuse for being unfamiliar with something discussed in a given class session.

Electronic Devices: Few things are more persistently harmful to the learning environment than the distraction provided by internet-enabled devices such as smart phones and laptops. Nothing is more precious than being in control of your own thoughts, and you should guard against people who make vast profits by capturing your attention and keeping you from concentrating on anything else. Let's be clear: multitasking is a myth. You may think that you can learn in class while also being involved in other online activities, but you're wrong about that. To that end, I am going to insist on no screens in class other than the relatively rare instances which I will specify. Unless you hear me explicitly say otherwise during a class session, you should not have your phone or laptop out at all. They should be silenced and stowed out of sight until the end of class.

Preparing for Class: You should make sure that you have completed the assigned readings and any required assignments specified on the Course Schedule below before you walk into that class meeting. You may be asked to discuss both readings and assignments, so you should have access to them during class either by bringing hard copies or taking notes in advance to which you can refer. You should especially make sure you are ready to talk about the readings labeled as "Discussion Sources."

Note Taking: In order to help you focus on what is going on in class and to remember it later, I strongly recommend that you take notes. While you certainly do not need to transcribe every last word which is said, writing down the main ideas and most important details is indispensable for your success as a student. I will sometimes use slides and other visual aids, but you should not feel like you need to copy the material found there verbatim; instead, focus on absorbing the gist of what is being said in class and translating it into your own words. Since I've already asked you not to use laptops, paper and a pen or pencil is the way to go when it comes to note taking. If for some reason this request poses a special difficulty for you, feel free to get in touch with me and we can talk about your situation.

Disruptive Behavior: Please be considerate of the other people involved in this class. Private conversations during lecture or class discussions all can distract and disturb the rest of us. If you have a question or a comment on the course material, please raise your hand and wait to be called on. Please do also keep in mind that there are other students in class who will also want to ask questions and make comments. Allow them the opportunity to do so and do not dominate the entire conversation.

Abuse: Any student who seems to be under the influence of alcohol or intoxicating drugs, or who is abusive or violent will be referred to the appropriate College authorities.

Don't Be Mean: You are expected to treat your fellow students with respect and a spirit of generosity and good-will. If you have a problem with one of the other students that you are unable to resolve on your own, please contact the professor for guidance and assistance.

Announcements: If there is something I need to communicate to the class, I will post an announcement to the course Canvas page. It is the your responsibility to check the course's Canvas page and your College email account in a timely manner in order to receive information on the substitute assignment and when it is due. You should adjust the settings of your Canvas account to make sure that you are promptly notified.

Course Content Warning: Lectures and course materials may contain disturbing content, including, but not limited to: violence, sexual assault, war crimes, genocide, mental or physical illnesses or disabilities, discrimination or persecution on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and/or sexual orientation, etc. If you have been personally impacted by one or more of these topics and suffer from PTSD, please email me if you would like prior notification of lectures containing discussions of the effecting topics. In general, however, you should assume that this is class for adults which encompasses uncomfortable topics that you are expected to handle in a mature manner.

Accommodations: Students requiring special accommodations for assignments or exams should have the appropriate forms from the Disability Support Service (DSS). Forms should be given to me no fewer than 7 days before the date the assignment or exam requiring the accommodation is due, and preferably at the very beginning of the semester. Please also feel free to discuss any special needs you have with me.

Guidelines for Written Work

Formatting for Papers: All written work should be double spaced, using 12 point Times New Roman font and one inch margins. All papers must be word processed and submitted through Canvas as files in .doc, .docx, .pdf, or .rtf format (no .pages format files, please). E-mail submissions will not be accepted. See this rubric for a more detailed description of how you will be graded.

Style and Grammar: All of your work for this class must present a main argument or thesis which addresses the question(s) posed by the assignment, should support that argument with evidence, and should be written in grammatical and stylistically correct English. Make sure to proofread and use spell-check. For information on writing papers for this class, make sure to read my Tips for History Papers page. You also might want to consult the following handy websites:

        Patrick Rael, "Avoid Common Mistakes In Your History Paper"
        Steven Kreis, "Writing the Short Essay"

Citations: In written work for this class, you MUST include a formal citation any time you refer to a specific passage in a text, even if you do not quote the text directly. The required method for citing sources in this class is the Chigago Manual of Style's format, which is the standard for the discipline of history. According to this format, at the end of any sentence or paragraph drawn from a specific part of a source, you insert superscript number which corresponds to a footnote at the bottom of the page with the appropriate bibliographic information. Number your footnotes consecutively. Consult the previous web link for more detailed information on citations in this format. You also might find these websites (https://libguides.nvcc.edu/ChicagoTurabian & https://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-are-footnotes) and this video on "How To Use Chicago-Style Footnotes In A History Paper" helpful. EVERY PAPER you complete for this class should include a bibliography at the end listing all of the sources you consulted (even if the list includes only one source). Your bibliography page does not count toward the page length of your assignment. Papers without appropriate Chicago-format footnotes will receive a 20% penalty.

Plagiarism: Plagiarized work will not be accepted for this class. Any student caught plagiarizing or cheating in this course will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action, including at a minimum no credit whatsoever for the assignment or exam in question. Procedures for disciplinary measures and appeals are outlined in the NOVA Student Handbook. Particularly flagrant instances of cheating or multiple instances of plagiarism may result in a grade of "F" for the course.

Please note that even copying a sentence or two from another source without citing it is enough to trigger a plagiarism penalty. Likewise, changing a word here or there from content which you copy is still plagiarism. Your work should be entirely in your own words except for the passages which you quote and appropriately cite.

For a bit more discussion on why you will probably get caught if you try to use the web to plagiarize, see "How Dumb Do They Think We Are?" by Jonathan Malesic. All of your papers for the class will be checked for plagiarism by Turnitin software.

A.I. Writing Tools: Various tools which use artificial intelligence to generate text suggest intriguing possibilities for the future of writing. Right now, however, they are fairly crude, and do not do a good job of producing well-written papers which fulfill the specifications of course assignments. Moreover, part of what you are here to do is to get some practice in how to write and think for yourself. Therefore, assignments which make use of A.I. generated content will not be accepted, and trying to use A.I. writing tools to substitute for your own writing will likely be a waste of your time. This policy includes writing assistance tools such as Grammarly-- please don't use them. If I suspect you have used substantial A.I. assistance on an assignment, I reserve the right to insist that you schedule a meeting with me to discuss the work in question to make sure that you personally crafted it before you can receive a grade. Please see the following video for a more detailed discussion of why using A.I. on your assignments is a really bad idea: Is Using A.I. On A College Paper B.S.?

Late Work: Major assignments (papers and exams) may be submitted for up to one week after the specified due date with a 10% late penalty. After one week, they will no longer be accepted (No exceptions!!!).

You cannot resubmit revised work for a higher score once it has been graded.

Guidelines for E-Mail Communication

The easiest way to contact me outside of class is through e-mail or Canvas message. In order to receive a response to your message, however, your e-mail must contain the following elements:

Your full name, the name of the class, and the day and time when it meets in the title of your message.
Appropriate salutations and signatures.
Correct grammar and punctuation.

Messages sent using "text-ese" or rude or abusive language will be ignored (b/c it makes u look ignorant d00d)!

I have on average between 150-200 students a semester, so you need to provide me with as much information as possible if you want a timely answer to your message. Please allow at least 48 hours before following up. If you haven't received a response within a couple of days, however, feel free to nag me.

Description of Course Elements

Primary Source Analysis and Discussion Leadership

At least once over the course of the semester, you will lead a class discussion of one of the Discussion Sources. You begin with a brief introduction of the document, and then guide the class through a discussion of its contents and significance.

Part 1: Introduce and Analyze the Document (Approximately 5 min): Your introduction and analysis should address the following questions. Use them as a guide in your attempt to analyze the document's meanings and historical context.

Who crafted the document?
Why was the document crafted?
Who or what was the intended audience?
What is the author's point of view?
Is there any strong bias which might distort the document's contents?
What are the basic contents of the document?

Part 2: Lead a Class Discussion of the Document (Approximately 15 min.) - This is where you run the show. You should be trying to help the class understand the document's significant and how it helps us understand the time and place in which it was written. Feel free to use groups/ games/ Q&A/ debate.

Since you are the lead person in generating the discussion for that class, you are required to create three questions per document that will help foster debate/discussion about the documents. Some of the primary sources contains various “Questions to Consider;” please only use them as a reference to help craft your own ideas and concepts to present to the class. Do not plagiarize the questions or use A.I. to generate them.

For primary source evaluations that have two or more students working together, it is the group’s responsibility to arrange how they will present the analysis and divide the work equally. Each student, however, is required to lead a segment of the analysis and present his or her own knowledge of the sources.

I will make a sign-up sheet with dates available to you early in the semester-- Make sure to sign up no later than February 7. Failure to attend class on the day of your presentation because of an unexcused absence will result in a zero for the assignment.

Research Project

Introducing the Research Project:

The most important part of your work for this semester will ask you to define topic or question relevant to some aspect of modern world history to research, to find high quality primary and scholarly secondary sources on that topic, and to produce a finished Research Project which makes a clear, specific argument about life in that particular time and place.

It’s always easiest to research something that you’re actively interested in, so you should try to find some sort of subject that connects with something you are passionate about in your own life. No matter what sorts of things you’re into, there’s almost always a way to devise a history research topic that links to your interests.

Please don’t assume that just because you’re taking a history class that you are restricted to so-called “traditional” history topics like politics, war, revolutions, etc. All aspects of human life are fair game for historical research, so you’re also welcome to investigate topics involving sex and gender, family life, science and technology, crime and punishment, arts and entertainment, or whatever other thing human beings do which interests you. I’ve had students, for example, complete very interesting projects on the history of political movements for trans rights, combat sports, fashion, and serial killers. The important thing is to find something that are interested enough in to really do a deep dive into.

That said, there are a few boundaries:

1) Since this is a world history class, I would like your focus to extend beyond the history of the United States. This means no topic which solely deal with US history. You can, however, have a topic which ends up comparing US history with the history of some other region-- for example you could work on a topic which highlights the parallels between segregation in the US South with the Apartheid system in South Africa.

2) You should investigate a topic which largely falls sometime between the years 1500 and 2000. The period before 1500 is beyond the scope of the class, and the period after 2000 is too modern for us to have an appropriately historical perspective on. There’s perhaps a bit of wiggle room with these dates, but the bulk of your focus should be somewhere within this span of time.

3) There needs to be a sufficient body of written primary source documents in a language which you are able to read. Documents written by people who lived during the period you are researching and who personally experienced the events which you are investigating are indispensable to any work of historical scholarship. Unfortunately sometimes there are very interesting topic ideas for which the sources simply aren’t available. It is up to you to make sure early on in your research process that you will be able to find the minimum of 5 written primary source documents necessary for this project. Please see below for a list online primary source collections which can be a convenient starting point for your preliminary investigations.

Formats: Your finished project should be in one of the following formats.

“Day In The Life” Video: You will craft a video in which you depict three different people from the same basic time and place in history. These can either be real people from history (for example Moctezuma, Hernan Cortes, and La Malinche) or fictional characters representing different types of people (for example a factory worker, a factory owner, and a police officer from Victorian Britain). Your portrayal should focus on what the daily lives of these people were like, and what that reveals about the particular place and time which they inhabit. Your video should be at least 15 minutes long, and publicly viewable.

TED Talk: You will craft a video presentation in which you teach your audience about a particular historical question or issue from the time encompassed by the class. The video should feature you talking, but it should also include visuals to engage the audience and reinforce the material which you are teaching. Your video should be at least 15 minutes long, and publicly viewable.

Travel Log: You will craft a website which narrates a journey to at least 5 distinct locations and/or events from the same basic time and place in history. You should discuss the sights, sounds, and feelings of your protagonist as they visit the sites or events, and discuss what the things being witnessed reveal about this particular time and place in history. You website should be at least 1000 words long over 5 distinct pages, and should be publicly viewable.

Video Game or Board Game Plan: You will craft a website which outlines either a plan for either a physical board game or a video game set in the time and place encompassed by your Research Project. While the game should be designed to be entertaining, it should also teach players about some aspect of life in the past in a particular time or place. Your website should feature at least 5 distinct pages which describe your proposed game, and which might include the goal, setting, rules, characters, and/or interesting features of your game. Note, you do not actually have to produce a working finished version of your game, although you can if you want to. Your website should be at least 1000 words long over 5 distinct pages, and should be publicly viewable.

Do Your Own Thing (If You Can Convince Me): You can also propose your own format for a Research Project, but you will need to explain why you think this particular format is interesting and a good way to discuss your particular topic. If I agree, I will approve the proposal; if not, you will need to pick one of the other Research Project formats. The format also will need to meet the same requirements as the others in terms of length, word count, number and types of sources used, and public accessibility. Power Point or other slide-based presentations are extremely boring, and definitely will not be approved.

Step 1: Topic Proposal (Due February 7)

This is the beginning of your research process. After carefully considering what you’re interested in and what sort of project you would like to do, you should upload a brief video clip in which you answer the following questions:

1) What sort of topic do you want to research this semester? You should be as specific as possible about the particular time frame and/or geographic region. (Sometimes it can be helpful to phrase your topic in terms of a particular research question. For example “How did the Haitian Revolution of the 1790s change life for former slaves?” “Why did the samurai class in Japan abandon its traditional privileges during the Meiji Restoration?” or “How successful was the gay liberation movement of the 1960s in securing rights for the LGBTQ community in Britain, Germany, and the USA?”)

2) Why do you find this topic interesting? In what ways do you anticipate that your research will be relevant to things that you care about in your own life?

3) Which of the project formats have you chosen?

4) What sorts of primary sources do you expect to use? Have done any preliminary checking to see what sorts of sources are available? If so, where? (Remember, primary sources are documents written by people who lived during the period you are researching and who personally experienced the events which you are investigating. So for example, are there letters or memoirs written by people who were involved in the events? Relevant laws from the time period in question? Interviews of people who lived through the events?)

After submitting your proposal, make sure to check my feedback. It’s possible that I may have some questions or requests for your to address before your idea is approved, and you can’t move any further with your project until it’s actually approved.

Step 2: Find a good book related to your topic and read it.

Now that you have a well-defined research topic, it’s time to begin to learn more about it. To that end, you should find a scholarly monograph (a book written by a modern historian, usually published by an academic press), written some time within the past 50 years, at least 100 pages longs, and related in some way to the topic which you are investigating.

Please note that the book which you find cannot be a primary source document, an encyclopedia or dictionary, a collection of essays, or a children’s book. Also, I recommend finding an actual printed copy of the book, since several studies suggest that it is easier to process and retain information from print than from a screen. That said, if the only convenient way to acquire the book in question is electronically, that’s also acceptable.

Promising places to search for books:

NOVA Library: You can search for books at the NOVA library, which has an adequate collection of print and e-books. You can request that physical books from any of the various campus’ libraries be sent sent your home campus within a matter of days.

GMU Library: As a NOVA student, you can also check out books from the George Mason University library, which has substantially larger collection. To check items out you must have a valid NOVACard and proof of enrollment.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL): You can also request books from libraries and collections all over the country through ILL by filling out a brief form.

Wikipedia “Further Reading:” While Wikipedia has some limitations as a resource, it can be a useful starting point. In particular, many Wikipedia articles feature a section toward the end of the page entitled “Further Reading,” which lists well-known relevant books on the topic of the article. It’s not a bad strategy to look at this list of books and see if any of them sound promising or are available to you in one of the above collections.

Obviously, if you find it convenient to buy your book, either new or used, that’s fine, but by no means is it required for this course.

Things to submit through Canvas:

You should submit the full bibliographic citation for the book which you have chosen, including the author’s name, the title, the publisher, the year of publication, and the total number of pages, in order to get it approved. Make sure to check my feedback in order to make sure the book you have picked will work before moving on to any of the other steps. (Due February 14)

You should upload a picture of you with the book. If you’re reading an e-book version, your photo should be of you with your ebook reader or laptop with the text of the book clearly visible on the screen. (Due February 28)

You should upload a picture of a page of the book with the author’s main argument highlighted or circled (Obviously you shouldn't physically mark a library book-- simply take a picture and use Paint or some other similar program to indicate the argument in the photo). (Due March 7)

Finally, you should write a 1-2 page double-spaced review of the book in which you briefly discuss the scholarly credentials and background of the book’s author, the author’s main argument (note that this is not simply what the book is about; rather, what is the author trying to say about the subject?), the specific sources of evidence used by the author to support that main argument (Are they secondary sources? Primary sources? If so, what sorts of documents are they? Personal correspondence? Memoirs? Court documents? Laws?), and your overall assessment of how useful the book is to someone interested in its subject matter. Your title should just be the complete bibliographic citation for the book. in Chicago format. Any citations for quotations or specific information from the book or other sources on the author's background should be in the form of correctly formatted Chicago-style footnotes. You cannot turn in a book review unless you have had the book approved by me in advance. (Due March 23)

While you’re at it, you should also be looking closely at the book’s notes and bibliography. Since the book is at least partially about what it is you’re researching this semester, that means that both the primary source evidence and the scholarly secondary sources which the author consulted may also be useful to you. Make a list of those sources, and see if you can track any of them down.

Step 3: Find a scholarly journal article related to your topic and read it. (Due March 28)

You should also find a scholarly article published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal, written some time within the past 50 years, at least 10 pages in length, and related in some way to the topic which you are investigating.

There are a number of easy ways to find and access scholarly journal articles through the NOVA library website. One of the most useful is through, JSTOR, an online database of journal articles. Please check out this video for detailed instructions on how to find journal article on JSTOR.

You should submit the full bibliographic citation for the journal article which you have chosen, including the author’s name, the title of the article, the name of the journal, the volume and/or issue number, the year of publication, and the range of pages in the journal in order to get approved.

While you’re at it, you should also be looking closely at the article’s notes and bibliography. Since the book is at least partially about what it is you’re researching this semester, that means that both the primary source evidence and the scholarly secondary sources which the author consulted may also be useful to you. Make a list of those sources, and see if you can track any of them down.

How To Find A Scholarly Journal Article: This video walks you through the process of finding a scholarly journal article using the NOVA Library and JSTOR: How to Find a Scholarly Journal Article

A scholarly journal is a periodical which contains research-based articles and reviews by established scholars in a given field. These sorts of journals are geared towards a professional or academic audience, and are intended to serve as an intellectual resource rather than to earn a profit for the publisher. In order to have an article published in a scholarly journal, an author must submit it to the editorial board of the journal first. The editors then will have the prospective article reviewed by other scholars in the field. Only an article which passes through this process of evaluation by recognized experts ("peer review") can be published in a scholarly journal. All scholarly journal articles meticulously document their sources of information and contain ample foot or endnotes. While some scholarly journals make some or all of their content available on the web, a genuine scholarly journal is also always published in paper form so it can become part of the collections of research-oriented libraries. Consult the NOVA Library's page on scholarly journal articles for more information on what distinguishes a scholarly journal from other sorts of periodicals.

Just a few examples of some of the most prominent scholarly journals dealing with modern world history include The American Historical Review, The Journal of World History,The Journal of African History, Modern Asian Studies, The Journal of Near Eastern Studies, The Journal of Latin American Studies, The Journal of Modern History, Central European History, The Russian Review, French Historical Studies, Historische Zeitschrift, Journal of British Studies, and Victorian Studies (This is not a complete list-- there are many, many more!). Please note that magazines like History Today, National Geographic Magazine, and American History certainly contain interesting material, they are intended for a popular audience rather than a professional academic one, and hence do not qualify as scholarly journals.

Not too terribly long ago, the only place one could go to access a scholarly journal was an academic library. These days, however, many journals allow readers to access their contents online. The best place to start is JSTOR, a service which provides the full text of articles from several hundred different scholarly journals. You can use JSTOR for free by accessing it through the NVCC Library's site.

You can access JSTOR from the NOVA library's homepage. Log into My NOVA and then go to http://www.nvcc.edu/library/

Click on "Research Databases by Subject";
the click "History (HIS)";
then click "JSTOR"

Once in JSTOR, you should select the "advanced search" option, scroll down to "Narrow by Item Type" and click the "Articles" box, and then scroll down again to "Narrow by discipline and/or publication title:" and click the "History" box.

Then plug in your search topic and see what comes up.

Step 4: Write Part 1 of your Annotated Bibliography. (Due April 4)

An annotated bibliography is an organized list of sources. It differs from a straightforward bibliography in that each reference is followed by a paragraph describing the source. Part 1 of your Annotated Bibliography should include at least 5 Primary Sources (either online or in print) related to your Research Project topic. For primary sources, you should be looking for documents which were originally written during the time period you are trying to study by people who directly experienced the events in question. While architectural or archaeological remains certainly do qualify as primary sources which can be used by scholars to reconstruct the past, they are problematic for an assignment like this. Written documents from the past should be your focus!

Annotations should include a complete, Chicago-style bibliographic citation for the source, followed by a brief paragraph (about 100 words) long discussing the following information:

The name and background of the author, if known.
The date the document was originally written, if known.
The author’s purpose in writing the document and its historical context.
Any bias displayed by the author.
The significance of the document (ie, how are its contents important to an understanding of the topic?)

Make sure to take a look at the feedback which I leave you to see if you need to resubmit this assignment, or if there are any improvements which you need to make for your finished Research Project.

For primary sources, you might consult the following resources (some of these sites also contain secondary sources as well):

The Avalon Project: Documents in Law, History, and Diplomacy.

Cambridge Digital Library.

Hanover Historical Texts Collection.

Finding World History Sources.

The Women's Library at LSC.

The Modern History Sourcebook.

The African History Sourcebook.

The East Asian History Sourcebook.

The Indian History Sourcebook.

The Islamic History Sourcebook.

The Jewish History Sourcebook.

The Women's History Sourceboo k.

The Victorian Web.

Women in World History

German History in Documents and Images.

Marxists Internet Library.

Asia For Educators (Primary Sources on China, Japan, Korea, South Asia, and South East Asia)

17 Moments in Soviet History.

Step 5: Write Part 2 of your Annotated Bibliography. (Due April 11)

An annotated bibliography is an organized list of sources. It differs from a straightforward bibliography in that each reference is followed by a paragraph describing the source. Part 2 of your Annotated Bibliography should include at least 5 scholarly secondary sources related to your Research Project topic written some time during the past 50 years by a historian or other scholar. These 5 sources will include the scholarly monograph which you found for Step 2 and the scholarly journal article you found for Step 3. The other sources can be books, journal articles, essays, or websites, but they should be high quality scholarly material.

Annotations should include a complete, Chicago-style bibliographic citation for the source, followed by a brief paragraph (about 100 words) long discussing the following information:

The name and scholarly background of the author (education, publications, university appointments, etc.)
The author’s main argument (note, this is not the same thing as a simple description of the subject matter-- what is the author trying to say about this subject?).
The specific types of evidence used to support the author’s main argument (are they primary sources? Scholarly secondary works?)
How successful/convincing is the author’s argument?

Make sure to take a look at the feedback which I leave you to see if you need to resubmit this assignment, or if there are any improvements which you need to make for your finished Research Project.

Step 6: Come up with a main argument for your Research Project. (Due April 18)

You should should submit a single sentence which sets our the main argument for your project.

While what you’re turning in here is comparatively brief, your main argument essentially synthesizes all of the reading and analysis which you have been working on for the past several months in order to make some sort of meaningful statement about a particular time and place in the past. This means you should put a lot of careful thought into your main argument.

Please note that your main argument needs to be as clear and specific as possible. For example, rather than a vague statement such as “My project will discuss what life was like for workers in England during the Industrial Revolution,” a much stronger main argument would be “The competitive pressures placed on factory owners by early capitalism in 19th century England to maximize profits meant that most industrial workers experienced long hours, dangerous working conditions, inadequate wages and low job security.” Likewise, instead of asserting that “The Haitian Revolution occurred because or variety social, economic, and cultural factors,” it would be better to argue ‘The Haitian Revolution occurred because of a combination of the influence of Enlightenment ideas, the desperation of slaves due to their brutal material situation, and the dissatisfaction of free people of color in Saint-Domingue.”

Make sure to take a look at the feedback which I leave you on your main argument to see if you need to resubmit this assignment, or if there are any improvements which you need to make for your finished Research Project.

Step 7: Craft and submit your finished Research Project. (Due April 25)

Finally it's time to actually produce your actual project in the format which you defined in Step 1. When turning in your Research Project through Canvas you will need to submit two elements in order to receive credit for having completed the assignment:

1) A link to where your project video or website is publicly viewable.

2) The script or text for your project so it can be checked for plagiarism and A.I. use.

Please see the brief descriptions above of the various available Research Project Formats. Whatever format you use, your project must include the main argument you came up with in Step 6, and must list somewhere all of the sources from Parts 1 and 2 of the Annotated Bibliography from Steps 4 and 5. You can not turn in a Research Project without having an approved Topic Proposal.

Step 7: Project Interview. (No later than May 9)

The last element which will determine your actual grade for the project is an interview with me, which can be conducted either online through Zoom, or in person in my office (An appointment for this must be scheduled in advance). This interview will be relatively informal, but it will give us the opportunity to discuss your research process, sources, main argument, and the content of your project. Examples of the sorts of questions you might be asked are:

    What was the main argument of your project? How successful do you think you were in supporting that argument?
    What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome in conducting this research?
    Which of your primary sources was the most useful and why?
    In what ways did your attitudes toward the topic of your project change as you learned more about it?
    If you had the project to do over again, how would you change your approach?

The interview should not last longer than about 10 minutes. I'll provide information on how to make an appointment for the interview later in the semester.

Exams

The Midterm Exam for this class will be completed online and submitted through Canvas.

Midterm Exam. You should submit a file through Canvas with your responses to the following questions:

Part 1) Time Line (5 Paragraphs): Provide a Time Line which lists in chronological order what you think are the five most important events in the history of the world from 1500-1900. ALL OF YOUR EXAMPLES MUST BE EVENTS OR DEVELOPMENTS WE DISCUSSED IN CLASS! No more than three of your examples should be drawn from European or United States history. Each item on your Time Line should be a paragraph long and should contain the following information:

What happened.

When it happened (approximate dates are okay).

Why it happened.

The major Consequences of the event.

How is this event significant or important?

Part 2) Primary Source Analyses: You will be given the titles of two primary sources which you have read during the first half of the semester (See the exam description in Canvas for the specific sources), and asked to briefly discuss the following elements:

The identity and point of view of the author.

The historical context of the document (what circumstances influenced the author?).

The basic contents of the document.

What does the document tell us about the specific time and place it was written?

Final Exam. You should submit a file through Canvas with your responses to the following questions:

Part 1) Time Line: Provide a Time Line which lists in chronological order what you think are the five most important events in the history of the world after 1900. ALL OF YOUR EXAMPLES MUST BE EVENTS OR DEVELOPMENTS WE DISCUSSED IN CLASS! No more than three of your examples should be drawn from European or United States history. Each item on your Time Line should be a paragraph long and should contain the following information:

What happened.

When it happened (approximate dates are okay).

Why it happened.

The major Consequences of the event.

How is this event significant or important?

Part 2) Primary Source Analyses: You will be given the titles of two primary sources which you have read during the second half of the semester (See the exam description in Canvas for the specific sources), and asked to briefly discuss the following elements:

The identity and point of view of the author.

The historical context of the document (what circumstances influenced the author?).

The basic contents of the document.

What does the document tell us about the specific time and place it was written?

Course Schedule

Week 1

Wednesday, January 22: Course Introduction/Why Bother Studying History?	Read through the Course Syllabus Allosso and Williford, "Introduction" Watch "Is History B.S.?"
Assignments to Complete:	Read through the entire syllabus, and submit the Introduction Assignment and the Syllabus Quiz by 11:59 pm on January 24 using the appropriate link under "Assignments" in the class Canvas page. Make sure to check the feedback you received to see if you need to resubmit it.

Week 2

Monday, January 27: Sources and the Digital Age	Discussion Sources: Alan Turing, “Conference on Information theory, 26-29 September 1950;” John Battelle, “The Birth of Google,” Wired, August 2005 Watch What's The Difference Between Primary & Secondary Sources?
Wednesday, January 29: Empires or People?- "The History of Great Men" vs. "History From Below"	Discussion Sources: List of Zheng He’s Expeditions (1431); Watch Is The History of Great Men B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 1: Modern World History Begins in Asia"

Week 3

Monday, February 3: Family, Gender, and Peasant Life	Discussion Sources: Glückel of Hameln, Excerpts from The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln (1719); Johann Mortiz Schwager, “On the Ravensberg Peasant” (1786) Watch Was the Scottish Highlander B.S.?
Wednesday, February 5: Capitalism, Money, and Finance	Discussion Source: Evliya Çelebi, Excerpts from The Book of Travels (c. 1630); Charter of the Dutch West India Company, (1629) Watch Was The English East India Company B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 2: Europe and Africa"
This Week:	Topic Proposal for the Research Project due February 7. Make sure to check the professor's feedback on Canvas to see if your topic has been approved, or if you need to resubmit this assignment.

Week 4.

Monday, February 10: Colonialism and Indigenous Genocide	Discussion Sources: The Mayan Account of the Spanish Conquest in the Chilam Balam (1540-1546); Excerpts from the Florentine Codex on La Malinche/Doña Marina and the Conquest of Mexico (1577) Watch Was Columbus B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 3: The Americas and Columbus"
Wednesday, February 12: Snow Day	Snow Day
Assignments to Complete:	Book Proposal for the Book Review due February 14

Week 5

Monday, February 17: Slave Labor and Racism	Discussion Source: Excerpts from King Afonso of Congo, Letters on the Slave Trade (1526) Watch Was the Atlantic Slave Trade B.S.?
Wednesday, February 19: Outsiders- Pirates and Prostitutes	Discussion Sources: The Articles of Bartholomew Roberts; William Acton, Excerpts from Prostitution, Considered (1857; 1870) Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 4: Early Globalization and Revolutions"

Week 6

Monday, February 24: The Enlightenment-- Freedom and Power	Discussion Source: John Locke, Excerpts from Two Treatises on Government (1689) Watch Was The Enlightenment B.S.?
Wednesday, February 26: 18th c. Revolutions	Toussaint Louverture's Saint-Domingue Constitution of 1801 Watch Was The French Revolution B.S.? Watch Was The Haitian Revolution B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 5: Troubled Nineteenth Century"
Assignments to Complete:	Make sure you have the book for your Book Review Paper by Feb. 28. Upload a picture of you with the book using the appropriate link in the course Canvas page.

Week 7

Monday, March 3: The Industrial Revolution	Discussion Sources: Friedrich Engels, On Industrial Manchester (1844); Watch Was The Industrial Revolution B.S.?
Wednesday, March 5: Time, Light, Energy	Discussion Sources: Thomas Beale, Excerpts on Whaling (1839
Assignments to Complete:	Upload a picture of a page of the book for your Book Review Paper with the author’s main argument highlighted or circled by March 7.

Week 8

Monday, March 10: Industrial Labor	Discussion Sources: "The Life of the Industrial Worker in Nineteenth-Century England" (1832); Women Miners in the English Coal Pits (1842). Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 6: Imperialism"
Wednesday, March 12: Socialism	Discussion Sources: Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, excerpts from The Communist Manifesto (1848)
Assignments to Complete:	Book Review due March 23 Midterm Exam due March 14

March 17- March 21, Spring Break- NO CLASS

Week 9

Monday, March 24: Neo-Imperialism	Discussion Sources: Thomas Babington Macaulay, On Empire and Education in India (1833-1835); Paul Leroy Beaulieu, Excerpts from Colonialism and Modern Peoples (1891) Watch Was Imperialism in Congo B.S.?
Wednesday, March 26: Resistance to Imperialism	Discussion Source: Aizawa Seishisai, "Excerpts from Shinron (New Theses, 1825) Watch Was The Meiji Restoration B.S.?
Assignments to Complete:	Find a scholarly journal article related to the topic of your Research Project and upload the full bibliographic citation of the article using the appropriate link in Canvas by March 28.

Week 10

Monday, March 31: Nationalism	Discussion Sources: Bahithat al-Badiya, Excerpts from "A Lecture in the Club of the Umma Party"(1909); Louise Yim on the Japanese Occupation of Korea (1951) Watch Was The 1918 Influenza B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 7: The Great War"
Wednesday, April 2: 20th c. Imperial Wars	Discussion Sources: Ernst Jünger, Excerpts from Storm of Steel (1920); Report on the Deportation of Armenians from Zeitun, July 21, 1915 Watch Were the Causes of World War I B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 8: Modern Crisis"
Assignments to Complete:	Annotated Bibliography, Part 1 due April 4

Week 11

Monday, April 7: 20th c. Revolutions	Discussion Readings: V. I. Lenin, "The April Theses (1917);" Josef Stalin on the Liquidation of the Kulaks, (1929) Watch Was The Russian Revolution Of 1917 B.S.?
Wednesday, April 9: Fascism	Discussion Reading: Adolf Hitler, Excerpts from Several Speeches (1923, 1930, 1932) Watch Is Fascism B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 9: World War II"
Assignments to Complete:	Annotated Bibliography, Part 2 due April 11

Week 12

Monday, April 14: Holocaust	Discussion Reading: Excerpts from the Diary of Jechiel Górny (1942-- click the "View this Diary" link) Watch Is Modern Anti-Semitism B.S.?
Wednesday, April 16: The Nuclear World	Discussion Source: Yoshito Matsushige’s Account of the Hiroshima Bombing;
Assignments to Complete:	Research Project Main Argument Draft due April 18.

Week 13

Monday, April 21: The Cold War	Discussion Source: Excerpts from the Memoir of Rigoberta Menchú (1984); Watch Was the Cold War B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 11: Cold War"
Wednesday, April 23: Decolonization	Discussion Reading: Sarojini Naidu, Excerpts from Several Speeches (1917, 1918, 1946); Kwame Nkrumah, "Speech to the Organization of African Unity" (1963) Watch Was The CIA Coup In Guatemala In 1954 B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 10: Decolonization"
Assignments to Complete:	Research Project due April 25

Week 14

Monday, April 28: Sex and Gender in the 20th c.	Sources: Documents on Women's Lives in Modern India (1986, 1975); Demet Demir, Filipa de Souza Award Address (1997)
Wednesday, April 30: Advertising, Consumerism, and Globalization	Discussion Sources: The Female Smoker Market (1973); R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company New Menthol Cigarette Introduction. How Black Consumers Are Different (1990) Watch Is Globalization B.S.? Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 12: Neoliberal Globalization"

Week 15

Monday, May 5: The Post Cold War Order	Sources: Testimonies From The Genocide In Rwanda, 1994; Watch Was the End of the Cold War B.S .? Read Read Allosso and Williford, "Chapter 13: Limits to Growth?"
Assignments to Complete:	Final Exam due May 9

Various NOVA Policies and Resources:

INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT

Students are responsible for knowing and following the policies in the Student Handbook. The following are highlights of information that students should be aware of as they begin a course.

Academic Integrity Policy

Accommodations and Accessibility Services

Buy Books with Excess Financial Aid

Career Services

Closing Information

Communication

Course Drop/Withdrawal Policy

COVID-19 Updates

Financial Stability and Advocacy Centers

FREE Tutoring

Office of Wellness and Mental Health

Prerequisite Verification Statement

Remote Student Support Services

TITLE IX

Academic Integrity Policy

NOVA promotes and emphasizes the importance of honesty in academic work. It is therefore imperative for students to maintain the highest standard of honor in their scholastic work.

Academic dishonesty, as outlined in more detail in the Academic Integrity Policy (Policy Number: 224), can include, but is not limited to cheating on an exam or quiz, submitting work that is not your own (plagiarism), or sharing assessments online. Consequences of academic dishonesty can include a failing grade on an assignment, a failing grade in the course, and may include additional administrative sanctions such as suspension or expulsion from the college. Procedures for disciplinary measures and appeals are outlined in the Academic Integrity Procedures. It is a student’s responsibility to become familiar with the student code of conduct. Lack of awareness is no excuse for noncompliance with NOVA’s policies and procedures.

NOVA Faculty may choose to use tools such as Turnitin to detect and flag instances of plagiarism in academic writing. These tools can also identify text written by artificial

intelligence (AI) applications such as ChatGPT and flag it as potential plagiarism.

The use of AI to complete assigned work may be considered a violation of the academic integrity policy. Students are urged to be cautious when using any web tools designed to assist with assignments without their instructors’ explicit permission to do so and to cite their sources in all their work.

Accommodations and Accessibility Services

NOVA is committed to ensuring all students have an opportunity to pursue a college education regardless of the presence or absence of a disability. No academically qualified student with a disability will be denied access to or participation in the services, programs, and activities of the College. Your access to and inclusion in this course is important to NOVA and me. Please request your accommodation letter (Memorandum of Accommodations) early in the semester or as soon as you become registered so that we have adequate time to arrange your approved academic accommodations. Returning students must renew their Memorandum of Accommodations (MOA) every semester; these students should submit the request 24 hours or later after enrolling in at least one class. Allow up to 7 business days for the request to be approved.

Accommodations are provided for in-person, online, and remote/synchronous (Zoom) learning. To get started, review NOVA’s Accommodation and Accessibility Services website. Following a meeting with a counselor, you will be issued a Memorandum of Accommodation (MOA). You must provide your MOA to your professors, testing proctor, and/or tutoring center in order to receive your accommodations. You may provide your MOA any time during the semester; however, accommodations are not retroactive. You may email your MOA or provide me with a printed copy. I will send you an email to acknowledge receipt. If I have any questions or if there is anything about your accommodations you wish to explain, we will schedule a meeting outside of class for that purpose. Please remind me of any special arrangements that must be made in advance of tests and assessments. If you need a sign language interpreter, or if you need live captions for your Zoom class, send an email to interpreters@nvcc.edu.

Buy Books with Excess Financial Aid

If your anticipated financial aid is more than what you owe for the semester, you may use your excess aid to purchase books, supplies, or even a laptop through the NOVA Bookstore. Book purchases must occur during the provided disbursement dates every semester. Note that this excess financial aid can only be used to purchase course books (physical and digital) and supplies at the NOVA Bookstore, not from other vendors. Two disbursement periods are available during the fall and spring semesters. Any holds on a student's account regarding a debt to the College must be resolved prior to using financial aid at the bookstore.

Career Services

The College is committed to providing career services to all students as part of the comprehensive educational journey. Career Services assists students with exploring, developing and setting goals related to each student’s unique educational and academic needs. These services include career assessments, occupational information, goal setting, planning and employment resources. You can request an appointment with a career counselor.

Closing Information

NOVA announces campus and college closings on the NOVA homepage. You can also receive notification by cell phone or email if you register for NOVA Alert . Also review NOVA’s guidance on emergency closings, delayed openings, and continuation of instruction.

If a course is canceled due to a weather event or other unforeseen situation, check the course Canvas site or NOVA email as soon as possible for instructions and assignments to avoid falling behind in coursework. You are expected to be up to date with all assignments the next time the class meets.

Communication

Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) faculty, staff, and administrators communicate with students through their official NVCC email accounts ( ______@nvcc.edu). Students are likewise required to use their VCCS email accounts (__________@email.vccs.edu) to communicate with instructors and other college personnel. Students should check their email accounts regularly.

Course Drop/Withdrawal Policy

Please note these important deadlines related to your enrollment in a course:

Students may drop courses through NOVAConnect until the last day to drop with a tuition refund (census date). Students who drop a class during this period will receive a full refund.
Requests to change your grade status to audit must also be completed before the last day to drop with a tuition refund (census date).
Students who do not attend at least one class meeting or participate in an online learning class by the last day to drop with a tuition refund (census date) may be administratively withdrawn from the class. This means that there will be no record of the class or any letter grade on the student’s transcript. The student’s tuition will not be refunded.
The Last Day to Withdraw is the last day to withdraw from classes without a grade penalty. Students will receive a grade of W. Students may withdraw from a course through NOVAConnect. The student’s tuition will not be refunded. Withdrawing from a course after the census date and before the withdrawal date will result in a “W” grade appearing on your transcript.

To identify these important dates for your courses, please visit the College Academic Calendar and scroll down to the specific session for your course. Please note that any drops or withdrawals from a course may impact financial aid, International Student status, or military benefits. Students with questions should check with the appropriate offices.

COVID-19 Updates

COVID-19 information and updates can be found on the Stay Safe with Ace webpage.

Financial Stability and Advocacy Centers

The Financial Stability and Advocacy Centers provide assistance to students who are experiencing financial hardships that might prevent the students’ academic success. The personnel at the Financial Stability and Advocacy Centers work with students to identify college or community services available. For more information, please visit the Financial Stability and Advocacy Centers webpage, or contact the office by calling 703.323.3450 or emailing financialstability@nvcc.edu.

FREE Tutoring

NOVA’s Tutoring Centers offer free in-person and virtual tutoring to all NOVA Nighthawks. Students can drop by any one of campus Tutoring Centers for walk-in services, or set up an appointment for tutoring. To request an appointment for one-on-one tutoring, either in-person or via Zoom, log in to myNOVA to select EAB Navigate. For more information and for Tutoring Center locations, visit www.nvcc.edu/tutoring. In addition, Tutor.com is an online tutoring service that Northern Virginia Community College offers that is free to all students. Tutor.com provides tutoring in a variety of subjects, many of which are available 24/7. To access Tutor.com, click on the Tutor.com: 24/7 Online Tutoring link located in your course on the navigation menu.

Office of Wellness and Mental Health

During your time at NOVA, you may experience challenges including struggles with academics, finances, or your personal well-being. NOVA has support resources available. Please contact the Office of Wellness and Mental Health if you are seeking resources and support, or if you are worried about a friend or classmate.

Prerequisite Verification Statement

As noted in the Course Prerequisites Policy, some courses have prerequisite or corequisite requirements that are established to foster a student’s success in the course. Students may not enroll in a course for which they do not meet the prerequisites by the time the course begins or for which they do not simultaneously enroll in any corequisite. Students may be administratively dropped from any course for which they have not met the prerequisite. If a course has a prerequisite, it is the responsibility of the student to ensure completion of this pre-requisite course first. Any student needing assistance in determining prerequisite or corequisite requirements can reach out to their faculty member or Campus Academic Division office for support.

Remote Student Support Services

If you need academic assistance or need college services but cannot make it to campus, please review NOVA’s Remote Student Support Services to receive virtual assistance. Services provided include enrollment services, advising, tutoring, and financial aid assistance.

TITLE IX

Title IX is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs, activities, admission, and employment. Complaints of sex-based discrimination, sexual violence, domestic violence, dating violence, and sexual or gender-based harassment are governed by the Title IX Policy. For more information or to make a report, visit the Office of Title IX.