Faculty

HIST-1301 United States History I

Barbara Lane

Credit Spring 2026

Section(s)

HIST-1301-003 (17055)
LEC TuTh 9:00am - 11:50am RRC RRC1 1218.00

Course Requirements

YOUR CLASS: Meets January 20 – March 12; 9 – 11:50 AM on T, TH ; Room 1218

We will NEVER get out early, so come ready to focus for an extended period.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is a study of the history of the U.S. from 1492 -1877.

COURSE RATIONALE: This course provides a basic survey of US history from 1877 and satisfies three semester hours of the legislative requirement in US history.

COURSE METHODOLOGY: This is primarily a LECTURE course with opportunity for student discussion/debate.

COMMON COURSE OBJECTIVES: http://www.austincc.edu/history

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

The material in American Stories is to be read and studied per the attached schedule.
Some outside reading/viewing will be assigned to complete some work.
Punctual and regular attendance is expected.
The quality and quantity of the work done by the student determines his/her final grade:
1. For the grade of A, the student must achieve an overall average of 90+.
2. For the grade of B, the student must achieve an overall average of 80-89.
3. For the grade of C, the student must achieve an overall average of 70-79.
4. For the grade of D, the student must achieve an overall average of 60-69.
5. For the grade of F, the student will fail to take all exams OR will fail to maintain an average of 60+ OR will commit any act of scholastic dishonesty OR will fail to attend at LEAST 81% of all classes regardless of circumstances.
6. For the grade of I, the student must have a medical excuse certified by a physician. All incompletes must be completed within the first four weeks of the following semester. There are no exceptions to this policy.

GRADING CATEGORIES: Unit Exams = 17% each (4 exams in total), Outside Homework/Quizzes = 17%, Writing Tasks = 10%, Debate Notes = 5%

UNIT EXAMS: Four exams will consist of multiple-choice questions + short answer responses related to the textbook material AND classroom exposition, especially as highlighted by the Learning Objectives issued on Blackboard for each unit. Exams will be administered on exam days and must be completed within a timed window of 55 minutes. Due to the 8-week semester, we must use the rest of the time for work, so do not expect a shortened class. If special accommodations are required, I must receive these in writing from SAS. We will schedule your exam off-site as necessary. If a student misses the unit exam on the original date, he/she MUST HAVE a VERIFIABLE MEDICAL EXCUSE (i.e. note from a doctor’s office). Make an appointment to take the exam by the end of the next class meeting. (IF no verifiable excuse is produced, the student’s only option is to take the exam with a maximum grade of 65 to replace a 0 in the grade book via a retest.)

Retests: If you fail an exam, you may take ONE retest. This is a safety net for you. After you see what you missed on the original exam and master that information, you can take a retest once. The highest grade you can earn on a retest is a 65, so you cannot take a retest unless you make less than a 65 on any exam. The idea here is to get you up to passing standard—a solid D—if you have a very bad test day, which means you will not have trashed your GPA with one failure. However, it is much better for you to simply know the material from the beginning. If you miss an exam without a proper excuse, retest scoring limits apply to the makeup exam, though you must take this cold. Remember, you can only take ONE retest, so you cannot rely on this safety net more than once.

Homework/Quizzes:

It is very hard to stay focused for three hours of lecture time. Therefore, I will assign some YouTube videos as homework. (These are mini lectures.) When you come to the next class, you will be given a quiz that covers that homework. This is not meant to trip you up but to make sure you are engaging off campus. You can access video links through Blackboard. If there is ever an emergency situation in which the in-person class is canceled—weather, instructor illness, campus blackout, etc.—I will post more work on Blackboard.

Writing Tasks:

This is an accelerated course, so we do not have a lot of time for you to do research. However, there are three small assignments posted online that you need to complete on Blackboard that deal with writing in some way. These are not difficult, but I do expect you to use complete sentences and proper grammar and spelling as you are a college student. Failure to do so will cause point reductions.

Debate Notes:

We will have multiple debates in class. These will be required for you to participate. Your grade comes from your notes and your participation within guidelines I will give to you. If you are afraid of public speaking, don’t worry. These debates are formatted to give you a partner, but you still must make contributions.

FINAL EXAM: There is no comprehensive final exam in this course.

ATTENDANCE POLICY: This is an extremely fast paced course that requires your attendance. You may miss ONE class all term outside of exam days without any penalty to your grade because your lowest pop quiz is automatically dropped from your average. Use this absence wisely. If you miss TWO or THREE classes, however, you may have 0s on pop quizzes that drag down your average. Due to the shortened semester, if you miss FOUR+ classes, you will automatically fail the course because you will have missed 25% of the course. (In such a case, I’d advise you to DROP before the end of term.) If you miss a Unit Exam, I require a doctor’s note for you to make it up for full credit.

Readings

TEXTBOOK: American Stories, Vol. 1 by H. W. Brands et al. An older edition is fine.

Course Subjects

Course Schedule: Homework shall be announced in class/on Blackboard, but make note of the exam dates. Exam 1 (Unit 1) = January 29; Exam 2 (Unit 2) = February 12; Exam 3 (Unit 3) February 26; Exam 4 (Unit 4) = March 12.