GaGA Group Site

Our district has a Google Apps account, and last semester I used the Google Sites tool to conduct a group assignment. On the first day of the class I asked the students to pick which of the course questions most interested them, and I used this to divide them into groups. I created a site for each group and assigned the group's members as editors of the site.

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From the syllabus:

Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of United States history from 1865 to 1945
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the historian's methods in reconstructing the past using primary and secondary sources

The connection between course activities and these learning objectives is explained in the Assignments and Grades section of this syllabus.

Assignments and Grade

History Web Site

Total Points Possible: 200

Helps you achieve learning objectives 1 and 2

The major assignment for this course is to create a history web site, which you will do as part of a group. The site will be available via Los Rios Gmail and Google Apps. You will find, organize, and interpret primary sources as part of your group’s answer to one of the questions that form the thematic structure for our course. We will spend time in class looking at how to set up a history web site, and a grading rubric and detailed instructions are available online.

The due date for the history web site is listed on the course calendar. No late submissions are accepted.

From the module "Assignment Details":

History Web Site - Instructions

The main research assignment for the class is to create a history web site, which you will do as part of a group. I divided the class into groups based on your interest in one of the course themes:

• What does it mean to be an American?
• What is the role of men and women in society?
• What is America’s role in the world?
• What is the role of the federal government?
• How should the environment be treated?
• What are the limits of individualism?

Your research project for the class is to take your course theme and answer the following question: How did the answer to this question change from 1865 to 1945?

Task

Your group will create a web site to answer the question, and you will use primary sources to support your answer. The site will be a Los Rios Gmail and Google Apps (Los Rios GaGA) site. I will create the site for you and add each member of your group as a site editor, which means that you will be able to create pages, edit pages, and upload files. I will prepare a site template for your group and help answer any questions you have about site editing. I will also give you suggested timelines for the various steps involved.
The site will only visible to the members of your group until the due date, and after that it will be visible to everyone in the class. Between the assignment due date and the final exam, you will be encouraged to visit all of the sites created by our class and share your comments on our discussion boards inside our online course offering.

*A special note about Los Rios GaGA*

Because it is a Los Rios GaGA site, you will need to authenticate with your Los Rios username and password to visit it. Google users can encounter problems when using multiple accounts, so you may find it necessary to sign out of your other Google account (if you have one) before you are able to access your Los Rios GaGA pages.

Structure

I would like your team to assemble at least 20 primary sources and write a document analysis of each. The format for these document analyses is the same as the ones you are doing individually for this class (i.e., three paragraphs with one paragraph each focused on the document's context, content, and consequence). It is okay to reuse the primary sources and analyses you turned in for the document analysis assignments. Then group those document analyses into sections based on the topics listed in our course syllabus:

• Reconstruction
• Frontier
• Gilded Age
• Populism
• Imperialism
• Progressivism
• The Great War
• The 1920s
• The Great Depression
• The New Deal
• World War II

Note: Your group does not have to include documents from all of these topics. Some topics will make more sense based on your question, and some will have easier sources to find.

For each group of documents, write a summary web page that ties the documents together. From the summary page, link to each of the document analysis pages that is covered. From the main page, link to each of the summary pages. (Consider the main page of the site as a summary of summary pages.) Add a bibliography page for the site that lists all of the works cited in Modern Language Association format. The library has an excellent handout on this citation style available online (PDF). The bibliography page does not have to be linked from any of the summary pages or the main page, but it should appear in the site map. It can be called "Works Cited" or "Bibliography." If your site includes 20 document analyses grouped into 4 topics, then it will have a total of 26 pages (20 document analyses + 4 summaries + 1 main page + 1 bibliography page)

Sources

Focus each document analysis page on a single primary source. The source will most likely be text, but it can also be an image or other media product. Document analyses of secondary sources will not be considered for the purposes of grading. For the context part of the document analysis, our text is a good source but you may use another secondary source with my approval. Contact me before you write your document analysis, as any document analysis that draws its context from an unapproved secondary source will not be considered for the purposes of grading. All sources should be included in the bibliography page in your cite. If the source can be found online, you are encouraged to link it from the bibliography page.

Format and page length

The length of the document analysis pages is set by its format (three paragraphs). Use the in-text citation style for quotes and citations from the primary source and the secondary source you use to set the context. For the summary pages, aim for a paragraph on each of the linked document analyses and an introduction and conclusion. The summary page does not necessarily need citations, as it will link directly to its associated document analyses. However, any direct quotes must be cited properly (in-text citation). An introductory paragraph, a paragraph on each of the summary pages, and a concluding paragraph make a good length for the main page. As with the summary pages, citations are not needed except for direct quotes. Link the main page to each summary page.

Grading

The history web site is worth 200 points. I will assign one grade for the web site based on the writing rubric for this class. For the portion of the grade that comes from the quality of argument, I am in particular looking for a web site that synthesizes primary sources from a variety of topics in our class. To earn an A grade, a web site must include summary pages connected to at least four of the course topics and include at least 20 document analyses. Good summary pages will be rhetorically hooked together (including a link) so that page readers will be drawn to continue reading from one summary page to the next. I do not expect you to link the document analysis pages to each other, but I do expect the summary page to demonstrate how the linked document analyses connect.

I will not assign a grade based on the quality of the site as a web site but instead on how well you work as a historian (using evidence to support an argument and contribute to a community of scholars). I will appreciate your creativity in setting up your site, but my assessment of your work will focus on how well it functions as an online presentation of primary source research. I do not expect you to change the basic structure of the site (summary pages under main page, document analysis pages under summary pages, bilbiography under main page), but I do expect you to tie together the document analyses and summaries into a coherent narrative that presents an answer to your group's question.

Group feedback

Your individual grade for the assignment will be affected by the perception of your contributions to your group's work by the other members of your group. Two times during the semester I will ask you to submit confidentially your perception of the contributions of the other members of your group. I will take the group's perception of each individual's contributions to adjust that individual's grade for the assignment.
I encourage you to contact me with any questions about your topic, sources, or writing at any point during the process of completing this assignment.

History Web Site - Suggested Timeline

Here is a suggested timeline for the history web site assignment:

Collect primary sources	October 12
Write document analyses	October 26
Write summaries	November 16
Write draft of main page	November 30
Finish site	December 7

Besides email, there is a discussion topic that is only accessible to members of your group. Also, I will allocate a few minutes at each class meeting for the groups to discuss their progress.

History Web Site - Tips & Tricks

This page has some technical tips and tricks for working on your history web site.

Logging in

There are two ways to access a Los Rios GaGA web site:

1. Direct to the site. The link to your site is available on the discussion page in this course.
2. Sign in to the Los Rios GaGA web site (http://apps.losrios.edu) and then click the Sites link. Your group's site will be listed on that page.

If you already have a Google account, you will likely have easier access if you first sign out of that account before signing in to Los Rios GaGA.

Creating pages

Click on the "New page" button at the top of the page to create a new page. You will need to select its location, which will be either under Home (for additional summary pages) or under a summary page (for a document analysis). If you put a page in the wrong location, you can change this by clicking on the Sitemap link and then clicking the Manage pages link. You can use the Manage pages tool at any time to change your site organization, and Google will keep any internal links you have accurate.

Editing pages

To open the page editor for any page, type the "e" button on your keyboard or click the "Edit page" button at the top of the page. Google's web page editor works the same as the text editor inside our online course offering, which you use on the discussion boards. You can copy and paste text into the main field and also use the formatting controls in the toolbar at the top of the page. The formatting toolbar is only visible when edit mode is turned on. When you are done editing, click the "Save" button at the top of the page.

Making links

You can make a link to another page inside your site by clicking the "Link" button in the formatting toolbar while in edit mode. The default option is to choose another page in your site. A site map appears on the dialog box; you can select the page and then click the "OK" button to put in the link. Note that you can also create a new page on the fly from this dialog box.

Links can also be made to other web pages outside your site. You do not have to do this for this assignment, but you may decide to provide a link to the sources listed on your Works Cited page if those sources are available online.

Site options

The site I created for your group is already set up with a theme and some layout options. I will not penalize you for changing any of this, but keep in mind that the purpose of the site is to be informative and easy for a visitor to navigate.

Getting help

The district's help desk can help if you have trouble logging in to Los Rios GaGA  You can always contact me with questions about how to create and edit your pages. Also use the class's Course Questions discussion topic to post a question and see if a classmate can help.

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My thoughts on the experience:

I intended for students to get a taste of what scholars experience as they create knowledge. Finding primary sources, analyzing them, and grouping them is a microcosm of what scholarship is. I also opened the web sites up for the entire class and gave students extra credit for commenting (within our LMS's discussion board) on the sites created by other groups.

I will do this assignment again. I did this in lieu of a traditional research paper, and I liked better the mix of narrow and synthetic analyses that students do for this.

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My students' thoughts on the experience:

I gave my students an optional survey to complete on my use of technology in the class, which was completed by 32 of the 43 students enrolled. Twenty-nine answered my question on this assignment, where I asked them to compare it to writing an individual research paper:

The survey also had a question asking for general comments about technology, and five students commented on the assignment. Three of them bemoaned having to rely on classmates for part of their grade, one wanted due dates to make scaffolding the assignment easier (I guess I should be thankful only one missed that information from my presentations in class and online), and one said the assignment was "interesting."