Bill Montgomery

William E. Montgomery, Ph.D

Professor Emeritus of History, Austin Community College



If you are enrolled in my Hist 1301 16-week courses (Syn 61389 DIL 011 ONL and Syn 61403 DIL 028 ONL) or my Hist 1301 8-week course (Syn 61525 DIL 166 ONL) for the Fall 2018 semester, "Welcome"! You'll find a copy of the tentative Course Syllabus posted below. If you're considering taking Hist 1301 SYN 70906 DIL or Hist 1302 SYN 71098 DIL 107 or SYN 71094 DIL 102 with me during the Spring 2019 semester, you'll find those course syllabi posted here a little later this fall.

Computer technology, especially the Internet, has greatly changed the way we study history. In my Distance Learning courses, we won't meet face to face in a traditional college classroom. It is a purely online course. However, we'll have planty of opportunity to interact using virtual reality. This is not like those correspondence courses back in the old days, where the professor stuck a book in a student's hands and sent exams through the mail. You'll have live study sessions with me and your classmates on the Web. You'll be able to watch streaming videos and lecture presentations. You may even do a little historical sleuthing. The amount of historical documents, including letters, diaries, newspaper stories, video clips, books, and articles available to you with just one or two mouse or touch-pad clicks is absolutely phenomenal. I believe you'll learn a lot and do so in exciting new ways. If you're new to online courses, don't worry. You're not alone, and you'll receive lots of support. Just because it's "Distance Learning" doesn't mean that you're stranded out there all by yourself.

My goal, and the goal of Austin Community College and the History Department, is for you to learn about early United States history and grow in your appreciation of it. That means not only remembering a little history but also engaging in scholarship--the disciplined comprehension, analysis, and even creation of history. History happened, that's true, and there's no changing what happened. However, we understand history by interpreting what happened, that is, by putting factual pieces of history together in certain ways that convey meaning. That's why it's sometimes said that "History is what the historian says it is." But ACC, the History Department, and I also want you to complete the course. We are 100 percent committed to student success, which includes meeting students' personal goals as well as department and college goals. To achieve student success in my Hist 1301 DIL and Hist 1302 DIL courses, we (you and I) will engage in a collaborative learning. For the next four months weeks we'll be partners in what I think you'll find to be an exciting and rewarding adventure.
 

My office location: Rio Grande Campus, Room Attache 103

1212 Rio Grande Street

Austin, TX 78701

My office hours for the Fall 2018 semester:

W 1-4 pm (Others by appointment online on Blackboard)

My ACC telephone mailbox: 512-223-1790 (enter 26371 to reach my mailbox to leave voice mail), BUT PLEASE NOTE that the best, quickest, and most reliable way to reach me is by email. This phone number is a voice-mail box only. I'm not able to answer the phone when you call.

While you're here, check out the History Department Home Page for more information on history courses and faculty at Austin Community College as well as a lot of interesting and useful "history stuff."

COURSE SYLLABI

Click on the course number to look at a syllabus.

 

UPDATE:

Check this Update spot periodically for information about the course you are taking or for about what's upcoming.

 

 

*********ACC STUDENT EMAIL ACCOUNT***********

All ACC students have ACC email accounts. It's free through G-mail and offers several services. That ACC email address is automatically registered on Blackboard, which means that all of the information emails that I send to students in my classes through Blackboard go to the ACC student email box. It is vital that you receive this information throughout the semester. To receive course-related emails, you must check your ACC student email mailboxes on a regular basis. For information about the ACC student email accounts and to set up your ACC student email account, click here .

ORIENTATION INFORMATION

For all students in Hist 1301 DIL the coming 8-week term, there will be a live, real time orientation Sunday evening, October 21, from 8 to 9 pm in the AdobeConnect meeting room on Blackboard.

To navigate to the AdobeConnect meeting room, go to "Web Links " on your Blackboard main page menu. Then choose "Orientation" from the next menu. After signing in as a "Guest," using your first and last name, click on the "Enter" button to join the Orientation Session. If you have to miss the orientation, you can watch, hear, and read a recording of what transpired. There also is a non-interactive orientation presentation, also on Blackboard. It's available on an ongoing basis in Powerpoint format and is posted under "Course Information."

I strongly urge students to attend the live orientation, for it provides us an opportunity to get to know one another and to ask questions about the course. But again, if you cannot attend, you can read through the chat box of the session.

TEXTBOOK AND STUDENT GUIDE

The required textbook for my Hist 1301 course is William E. Montgomery and Andres Tijerina, Building a Democratic Nation: A History of the United States to 1877, Volume 1 (4th Edition). There is also an e-book version of the textbook available directly from the publisher at a price significantly lower than the new print edition (See the course syllabus for more e-book information). The accompanying Student Guide for Building a Democratic Nation, Volume 1 (4th Edition), also by William E. Montgomery and Andres Tijerina, is very useful in helping you digest the textbook material and prepare for the exams. An e-book version of the Student Guide is also available.

The required textbook for my Hist 1302 course is William E. Montgomery and Andres Tijerina, Building a Democratic Nation: A History of the United States from 1877 to the Present,Volume 2 (4th Edition). Also, you should obtain A Student Guide for Building a Democratic Nation, Volume 2 (4th Edition).

If history courses have been a problem for you in the past, or if you've never takan a college history course, I recommend (but do not require) that you purchase Andres Tijerina, How to Pass History, when you buy the textbook. It contains many practical tips. How to Pass History is NOT a required book however.

All of these books are available at the ACC Bookstore location on 12th Street in central Austin and at Bevo's ACC Bookstore on West Avenue. You also can buy your textbook from the ACC Bookstore online or directly from the publisher's online store at Kendall Hunt Publishers.

BLACKBOARD  

For BLACKBOARD help go to Login Information .On Blackboard you'll find several useful features--course documents, lecture notes, a bulletin board, and study groups!  Check the "Announcements" page for information and course updates. You'll also be able to check a calendar to see when tests and other assignments are due. On the Discussion Board you can ask questions about any of the learning objectives you may be having trouble with, and other students can help you answer them. I monitor the discussions and will pitch in with help as needed. From the menu on the student "Welcome" screen, select "Web Links" and then "Test Study Session" to enter the AdobeConnect where study sessions prior to each test are held. And if you're taking Hist 1301, don't overlook the streaming video of Shaping America. Those videos are found under "Course Assignments" from the main menu on the student "Welcome" page. Access to the streaming videos is password-protected. You will receive the password from your professor via email.

STREAMING VIDEO!    

You can watch Shaping America, the video series for the Hist 1301 DIL course, on Blackboard. Login to Blackboard and go to the "Assignments" section. If you have a problem loading the videos, go to the Distance Learning Streaming Video Help site. This has been a dead link but is now live. If you still cannot resolve the problem, send me an e-mail. Hist 1302 DIL has no video component. Again, NOTE that access to the Shaping America stream is password-protected.

SHAPING AMERICA ON CABLE TV

You can also watch Shaping America on cable TV. If you subscribe to Time-Warner Cable, Grande Communications, or Suddenlink Cable you can see the programs as they are transmitted throughout the semester. To see the schedule, go to ACC's ITV Schedule Web page. Shaping America is not available in any ACC Library.

TESTS

All tests in my classes are available only online at all ACC campus and approved off-campus site testing centers. Online testing must be done using a secure, lockdown browsers located in the testing centers. You cannot access the exams from home or office. The online testing system provides immediate and detailed feedback on all of the exam questions and automatically uploads your test score to the Blackboard Grade Book. The exception to this is the Syllabus Quiz. The Syllabus Quiz is explained in the Course Syllabus. You can earn 10 points extra credit on the first exam by scoring a perfect 10/10 on the Syllabus Quiz. You may take the Syllabus Quiz on your home computer or personal device. You do not have to go to the Testing Center to take the Syllabus Quiz.

QUESTIONS?    

If you have any questions about the course, particularly about the C-level, B-level, and A-level requirements, please send an e-mail to me at bmontgom@austincc.edu. Also, remember that Blackboard's bulletin board will allow you to post questions and answers.

The Austin Community College HISTORY DEPARTMENTspiffed up its Web page. Take a look!


DOING RESEARCH ON THE INTERNET

This section is currently being updated.

PICKING A RESEARCH TOPIC

 

To make an "A" in this course, you must write a research paper (see the Course Syllabus for details). Many students don't really know where to start on the research project. Let me help. We'll talk about the research paper as well as the C-level tests and the B-level analytical essays during the live, online orientation. We'll go over all the course assignments, workshops, and online study sessions.


Please feel free to contact me by e-mail at bmontgom@austincc.edu.

Last revised September 5, 2018.