Full transcript
0:02hello I am Mrs McBeth and I am your
0:06instructor for this intro to Humanities
0:08course and I am so glad that you are
0:12here you may be taking this class with
0:13another instructor that's not me even
0:15though it has my face on it if so um
0:17you're taking it as a department
0:19standard course so as a course that is
0:21used as a standard across the department
0:23and I hope that you enjoy it um if
0:25you're taking my class hi I'm so glad to
0:28meet you and um I'm glad that you're
0:30going to be in this course I'm going to
0:31do just a little bit of how to navigate
0:35the class how to know how to do all the
0:37online stuff just so that you can be
0:39familiar with the way the course is set
0:40up and know what it is that you're going
0:43to complete so I hope that you've
0:45watched the welcome video tells you a
0:46little bit about the humanities and why
0:48we studed the humanities the humanities
0:50is such an amazing and wonderful
0:52discipline I'm so excited you're here I
0:54hope you're excited too because we can
0:56do this we can learn about the
0:58humanities we can write about the
1:00Humanities and you know what even though
1:02this is a writing intensive class we can
1:04make it happen okay there's no need to
1:06be afraid we're all here to be
1:09successful all right you're here to be
1:10successful and I am here to make that
1:13happen for you so all right now let's
1:17start out with a little bit of how to
1:19navigate the course and how to know how
1:21to complete materials all right so let's
1:24uh go ahead and get started so here you
1:26go we're going to look at
1:30this lovely uh welcome uh page here
1:34right so you going to see a different
1:35title at the top it's because this
1:37course um is uh just in development and
1:40so it's kind of uh this is just the
1:42development page for it but you'll see
1:44it in a regular course format um all
1:46right so let's go to the content
1:48page this is where you're going to go
1:50every time you want to access anything
1:53that has to do with the course right so
1:55first you're going to start out with
1:57this kind of little bit of content and
1:59um um you will uh in this term right the
2:03very first place that you're going to
2:04want to go is in the start here material
2:07right so the start here material is
2:08going to tell you how to get started in
2:11this class what am I going to do this
2:13week you know what is it that I'm going
2:15to learn what are my all these different
2:17kinds of components right to this course
2:20and so that's what I'm going to kind of
2:22get to know uh with regards to this
2:24class so um you know so here's a little
2:27place to start and it's going to tell
2:28you a little bit about what assignments
2:30it is that you're going to need to do in
2:31the class um let's look at like a
2:34regular week right so the way the course
2:37is set up your first week you will
2:39always have a kind of introduction into
2:41the course this video is a part of that
2:43component right you'll have like kind of
2:45a hey here's how to navigate the course
2:48during this week you're not supposed to
2:50be doing nothing right you're supposed
2:51to be getting used to how the course is
2:54set up so navigating through the
2:56different modules maybe clicking on
2:58things just seeing what happens you know
2:59know like looking at all these different
3:01kind of components because once this
3:03start week is over you are 100% supposed
3:06to be familiar with all of the
3:08assignment descriptions where to find
3:09all of that stuff um you know what the
3:12textbook where where the textbook is
3:14where the different things components
3:15are right you're supposed to know all of
3:17that once going into week two right so
3:21um that's why I know you are getting
3:24used to that kind of in this first week
3:26and having a little bit of an adjustment
3:28period in this first week you're going
3:30to take a little quiz that is the I got
3:32to know the course quiz right so that
3:34that way you can say hey I figured out
3:37how to use the you know how to make the
3:39course work for me and um you know I
3:42understand all the different components
3:43of how the class is put together and
3:45then you're just going to write a little
3:46bit about yourself like just tell me a
3:47little bit about you and you know your
3:50familiarity with the human so those are
3:52the two assignments that you're going to
3:53do in this introduction week in addition
3:55to getting familiar with how the course
3:57is set up let's look at then what we're
4:01going to do moving forward so you're
4:02going to notice that the course has
4:04broken up into a period of different
4:07weeks there are weeks two and three
4:09weeks four and five Etc the way that the
4:12course is set up it's broken up into
4:15like grouped weeks right now the reason
4:19why the course is set up in this way is
4:22so that you know each you know grouping
4:26of weeks you'll have one kind of writing
4:29assignment do or you know kind of what
4:32would be considered a part of the
4:33research paper writing assignment um do
4:36in that segment right so you every week
4:38you'll be completing assignments um
4:41these assignments will have we we have
4:43like kind of a a reflective nature a
4:45critical thinking nature you may be
4:47watching something and then just kind of
4:48thinking about it you may be um you know
4:52looking at the textbook and thinking
4:54about it things like that but as far as
4:57your major writing assignment um you
4:59only have one major writing assignment
5:01in this class you write one large essay
5:04and so in order to facilitate the
5:06writing of that essay I've broken up
5:08some of the pieces of how to write that
5:10essay into smaller components and so you
5:13will have one of those writing
5:15assignments every grouping of weeks
5:17right so that way it's not like one
5:20every week you have one like once every
5:22two weeks or once every three weeks um
5:25and it just enables you to have a little
5:28bit more time to adjust that feedback
5:31and then you know use that feedback and
5:33incorporate it into the next assignment
5:35so you will have so let's look at like a
5:38typical week um week two is not a
5:41typical week week two is kind of an
5:42introduction into the expectations of
5:45writing in the humanities um to be
5:47honest um I made that week on purpose
5:49because writing in the humanities seems
5:52to be the hardest part for students um
5:56learning how to write in the humanities
5:58um and how to use real academic uh
6:01sources and things like that um the
6:04differences between what's a real
6:05academic source and what's uh you know
6:07considered a tertiary source or other
6:09type of source um those things seem to
6:11be very challenging for students
6:13whenever they get into this class so
6:15when I was trying to think about how to
6:17structure this course I really wanted to
6:19make sure that we spent a little time
6:21and really focused on what is the
6:24discipline of writing how do students
6:26write for the purpose of this course and
6:29um and that kind of thing so um that's
6:31part of the reason why you may find um
6:34that there is this um there is this uh
6:38kind of week where we just talk about
6:40different components that students in
6:42the past in my experience had a lot of
6:44difficulty understanding whenever they
6:46came into this course so I I allotted
6:49one whole week where students just went
6:51through material that seemed to be kind
6:53of the big hurdle to overcome prior to
6:56even entering into the textbook material
6:58so you have one week that kind of
7:00focuses on that so let's look at what
7:01would be kind of a normal comparable
7:04unit which is U maybe weeks four and
7:07five okay so here you'll find right as
7:10in all weeks you're going to find that
7:12you have an overview and objectives page
7:15this page is going to tell you kind of
7:17what the module is about you know
7:20um talking about you know what it what
7:23your learning objectives are what the
7:25module objectives might be and then
7:27it'll tell you what it is that you need
7:28to do here's your reading part here's
7:31your lecture here's the writing bits
7:33that you're supposed to do and then
7:35you'll see at the bottom right you have
7:37a Writing Practice assignment that's for
7:39your major essay right so you have one
7:41of those every four to five weeks so
7:44that'll tell you a little bit now if you
7:45just click this Arrow over here in this
7:48week it'll take you right into your next
7:51assignment right you can click through
7:54everything that you are meant to do in
7:56this week with this little arrow button
7:59right right so it'll take you right to
8:01the quiz then it'll take you right to
8:03the next Quiz it'll take you right to
8:06your discussion board it'll take you
8:08right to the next thing that you're
8:10meant to do right so you know you have
8:13all of these different kinds of
8:14components and you'll see that I made
8:17some of this using kind of uh some
8:19additional technology so some of this
8:21stuff you might need to click on to make
8:22sure that it opens um and that kind of
8:25thing so you'll see right that in a week
8:29you will generally always have a quiz
8:33you'll have a quiz you'll have
8:36um you'll have sometimes maybe if
8:38there's two chapters in one week you'll
8:39have two quizzes but they're they're
8:41short um and then you'll always have a
8:44discussion board and you always have a
8:46Dropbox and then once every two to three
8:49weeks you'll have a small additional
8:51writing assignment the length of those
8:53writing assignments will vary right
8:55depending on you know the nature of what
8:59it is that you're meant to do sometimes
9:00it's very short like just write a thesis
9:03or hey just find some sources um
9:06sometimes it's a little bit longer like
9:07one week you're meant to write a rough
9:08draft so um it get just it's you know
9:12but you have a couple of weeks to do all
9:14of those assignments in so it's not due
9:17right away you have a little advanced
9:18notice you have a little time to work on
9:19it so you know it's just a little bit
9:21easier to kind of
9:23navigate
9:25um okay so that's basically how the
9:28course is kind of set up you'll have
9:30these kind of overview and objectives
9:31page you'll read a portion of the
9:33textbook you'll watch a part of the um
9:36lecture video um there'll be a quiz
9:39attached to the lecture video and then
9:41you take the quiz um at the end the the
9:44lecture is just meant to be kind of an
9:45overview of what's in the chapter I
9:47tried to keep them at 20 minutes um if
9:50there's two chapters sometimes I
9:52couldn't make it to 20 minutes or
9:54sometimes there were actually two videos
9:56because it's two chapters um you know
10:00they're just to kind of give you like a
10:01basic overview of what would be
10:03contained in the chapter give you some
10:05visuals of what is found in the chapter
10:07um different kinds of uh things like
10:09that um and so um otherwise then you'll
10:14you know there's like a little uh
10:16discussion board component right that's
10:18the part that's meant to mimic The
10:19in-classroom Experience portion and then
10:23um you'll have a DropBox which is the
10:25kind of writing intensive component of
10:27the class but the I tried to make the um
10:29cultural analysis dropboxes a little bit
10:32more um that's word I'm looking for um
10:38maybe like interesting or entertaining
10:41or like kind of uh
10:44fun um now the cultural analysis
10:48dropboxes have various different types
10:50right similar to how the discussion
10:51boards will have various different types
10:53you'll have in the discussion boards you
10:55have three types of discussion board you
10:57have a a documentary that you watch and
10:59then you reflect on and connect to the
11:00textbook you might have academic
11:03journals that you read and connect to
11:05the textbook or you can might also like
11:08you know do an AI image generated thing
11:11and then reflect on it and connect it to
11:13the textbook so those are the different
11:14types of discussion boards that you
11:15might do in the um cultural analysis
11:19Dropbox you're really trying to hone in
11:21on critical thinking skills with those
11:24dropboxes and so um what I like for you
11:27to do is you have to pick kind of
11:30one thing so it has to be very it should
11:32be narrow it shouldn't be broad right so
11:36you shouldn't pick like
11:38Renaissance or um Middle Ages right it
11:42should be specific right so instead um
11:46of picking like Renaissance for example
11:49you should pick you know Michelangelo's
11:52sculpture
11:54David specific right one specific thing
11:57um or for example you know you you can't
12:00pick something broad you know like Da
12:03Vinci's notebooks right that's very
12:05broad you should pick you know um
12:08drawing of a
12:09womb you know in Da Vinci's notebooks
12:13like one specific thing in this thing to
12:16focus on it should be very should be
12:18narrow right rather than broad so it
12:21needs to be you know one particular
12:23artifact and then you you I thought you
12:27know it would be fun to do something
12:29kind of different with it that takes you
12:31out into the world right so uh you know
12:34you for a couple of the assignments
12:37right you go to the web page of one of
12:39the more famous museums in the world um
12:42I just picked the three that had easier
12:44websites to uh navigate and you find
12:48artifacts that are found in the textbook
12:51in the website right so it means they're
12:53housed in that museum um and just talk
12:57about it right or um um you know for
13:00some of it uh maybe you know another
13:02assignment that you're going to do is
13:04you know you might plan how to take a
13:06trip to one of the famous locations that
13:08are listed in the textbook or or to a a
13:11famous artifact that's listed in the
13:13textbook and just tell me how you would
13:15do that you know what about that
13:17artifact is important what makes it
13:19culturally relevant um and just talk a
13:21little bit about it you know just talk a
13:23little bit about it
13:24so those are some of the kind of
13:27assignments that you might be doing for
13:28the these kind of cultural dropboxes and
13:31then for your cultural analysis essay
13:34again you're going to be picking a very
13:37narrow topic and the focus of that essay
13:41really should be um cultural uh
13:44analytical work so you should be
13:46engaging in critical thinking skills so
13:49when I read this essay um it should not
13:52read like an encyclopedia entry um it
13:54should not read like um a Wikipedia
13:57article you know
13:59it needs to read like somebody who is
14:02interested in academics who is writing
14:05as a part of the conversation around
14:08this artifact right so you know
14:11artifacts have different ideas around
14:12them people think a lot of different
14:14kinds of things there are a lot of
14:15theories around it academics you know
14:17they don't always agree and and there is
14:20not always there's sometimes like a
14:21consensus sometimes there isn't
14:23sometimes there's kind of partial
14:24consensus you know it's a very open
14:27field so oftentimes we talk about it a
14:29conversation rather than as a definitive
14:32answer um when people tell you that
14:35academics have a definitive answer I
14:36mean there are some things right but a
14:38lot of it is very um open right because
14:42we're still finding out new things we're
14:44still making new discoveries um and so
14:46even though we have a lot of evidence
14:47for the stuff that we uh theorize or
14:50that we hypothesize um or the things
14:52that we think you know there we're
14:54always still finding out new things
14:55right so um we're always still open to
14:57that to having that new evidence come in
14:59and sometimes change our minds so
15:03um you're again you're going to pick
15:05something narrow so like one particular
15:08artifact so like just like Bosch's
15:11Garden of Earthly Delights or you know
15:13like just um you know I don't know
15:16another art like just Stonehenge for
15:18example right or just Venus of
15:21Willendorf or you know just the Epic of
15:23Gilgamesh and then you want to find a
15:26position to take right some type of
15:29argumentative position and from that
15:31argumentative position you want to find
15:36evidence um you know in the form of
15:38secondary sources that will back up your
15:42theories right so let's say for example
15:44your argument is you know um elements in
15:48the Epic of Gilgamesh are very clear
15:52precursors to you know Jewish um you
15:56know Jewish stories that appear in the
15:59Bible right um or in the in the Hebrew
16:03Bible that's a great Theory right and
16:06there's a lot of evidence to support it
16:08but then so you've created a position
16:11right so here's where I'm going to take
16:13the Epic of Gilgamesh and I'm going to
16:15use the Epic of Gil gesh to
16:17show how some of these uh you know
16:21Jewish narratives in the Hebrew Bible
16:25are very similar and I'm going to
16:26compare them and I'm going to use
16:27evidence to compare the two right or for
16:30example you might say you know in
16:33Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights um
16:37there's a very clear connection between
16:39Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights and
16:41later surrealism like what we find for
16:44example in the paintings of Salvador
16:45Dolly well I might pick a painting by
16:48Salvador Dolly right or even something
16:51by Salvador dolly for example that
16:53cartoon you know that he did with Disney
16:55and I might compare the imagery in that
16:59to Bush's Garden of Earthly Delights and
17:01say okay here's the evidence from Bush's
17:04Garden of Earthly of delights and here I
17:05how I see that mimicked or I see that
17:09different in you know Salvador dol's
17:12cartoon that he did with Disney right so
17:16those are just ideas but that's kind of
17:17to give you an idea of how you're not
17:20meant to give me kind of a summary of a
17:22work or you know a paper should not
17:25basically summarize the plot of The
17:27Iliad or know summarize the life of an
17:30individual uh the writing about cultures
17:33essay uh the main essay that is to say
17:35your major essay for this course is
17:38really meant to be an exercise in
17:40critical thinking skills and to engage
17:43with critical thinking skills and to
17:45engage with critical analysis that is to
17:48say cultural analysis in the context of
17:51the different disciplines that are found
17:53in in the humanities so I hope that kind
17:56of makes sense at the end of the course
17:58you will do two additional assignments
18:00you will do a video presentation where
18:02you create a AI generated image and you
18:06compare it to an image that's in the
18:07textbook and you tell me what's similar
18:09and different about it and then you'll
18:11also do a short reflection to just tell
18:13me what you learned about this class um
18:15I think that's pretty much everything
18:17but I'm so glad that you stayed through
18:20this entire intro video kudos to you for
18:22listening all the way through um I'm so
18:24excited to have you in this class and I
18:26hope that you really enjoy it because I
18:27put a lot of time in effort and and
18:29energy into trying to make it a little
18:32bit more interesting trying to make it
18:33more fun um and so I hope you find it
18:35fun and um if you are confused or have
18:38any questions or have any feedback I'm
18:40here to help you I'm here to support you
18:43um I want to do that as much as as
18:45humanly possible so please write to me
18:47let me know if you have any questions
18:49you never know maybe other people have
18:51questions um and you know everybody else
18:53has the same question and they're too
18:54scared to say so um anyway just let me
18:56know um I'm here to help you in any way
18:58I can all right thanks and I will see
19:01you all in week two bye-bye now