Overview of class

How this class will run (in theory....)

Like many of you I am just getting done with the Spring semester and in denial that class starts soon

I'm playing around with various ideas of how this class will work. Since class starts on the 26th there isn't much time for this to all come together but I am excited about how we can learn online. I sent a survey to students about what they wanted to do in the class. 

Here are some of the results!

One thing i think we will do is avoid using AsULearn as much as possible. While I get that a lot of us are used to it, I don't think the LMS works well for what we want to do (and I HATE the gradebook portion). 

Instead, we will each be making a blog (like this one!) that we will use to write and share ideas. 

I'll share details soon but this can be done with a pseudonym and it should allow for more engagement. Its also ridiculously easy to do

We will also being using an annotation software program  that allows you to make and share comments on PDFs and webpages for the rest of the class to see.

Instead of asking questions in class on the readings, you can just annotate the readings as you might on your own copy and then others can comment etc. (we will either use Hypothesis or Perusall)

Finally, we will have a few longer projects.


These are still up-in-the-air and we will chat about them over the first few days

• One is to create a 'game' of sorts. Using Aris, we will make a game that lets the player discover the location of various hominin fossils (will this work out? i honestly don't know but we shall see).
• The second will follow up on a project i did last Fall, which will create a sort of repository of information on different fossils.
• Create a shared online document that discusses some current controversies and debates in human origins 
• Finally, for anyone who wants to do a more in-depth project, we will work with primary info to analyze data and use it to form the basis of a paper we will eventually submit as a team!

I'm working on putting together the class Slack channel and that will roll out the first day of class. We will use this to watch some online documentaries together and do live comments (think Mystery Science Theater, but even more snark about the people i know in the videos...). This will be optional and you can always come in later and comment afterwards, but we will try to find a time that works for everybody.

Finally, I know a lot of you are at home in non-ideal learning environments (I, for one, now do all my Zoom meetings from my daughter's closet. It works well, but she makes me ask permission first in order to use it so that's fun....). Let me know how i can help and if anything becomes difficult to do. I strive to make this course free of busy work so reach out if there is a project that you think isn't helping you in this class.