Welcome online students!

I hope you find our class to be a congenial learning space--a place to explore Latin America's culture, history, and politics. I've taken pains to design the online reader, documents, visuals, and activities to maximize your learning. However, if something is unclear, let me know asap! Also if you hit a snag, let me know. I have to throw literally hundreds of e-switches to mobilize this learning lab. And I do make mistakes. So if a quiz won't open or you have other issues, let me know.

Intellectual Growth During the Semester

In addition to learning about Latin America, you will learn about your own learning becoming a more self-reflective learner. We do this in stages:

• Stage One: Apprentice historian, getting individual feedback from instructor and grader as well as annotated model paragraphs posted by the instructor. You will receive individualized feedback on every other discussion through about mid-semester.
• Stage Two: Evaluating the work of other students through peer assessment. In reviewing and judging the work of your peers, you will also learn how to improve your own work.
• Stage Three: Self-assessing. Moving from dependent to more independent learner who monitors and improves your own work. Read more about the importance of self-assessment (PDF).

The attention to improved, self-reflective learning is value added for the course. You will also improve other skills, including deep reading, critical evaluation and analysis of evidence, historical thinking, and writing. Best wishes for a successful semester! Prof. Slatta