Creating Lives

Students craft the life paths of their characters through weekly diary entries on a course website. They also write an analytical paragraph beneath that explains their choices. Through their avatars, on a weekly basis, students must integrate class readings, discussions, and lectures.

This method highlights the significance of everyday actions in world events, and develops the ability to shift perspectives to people from different backgrounds. It is a highly analytical endeavor. Students find it, in fact, academically more rigorous than writing traditional papers, as it requires comprehensive analysis of broad historical context in order to then take the second step of situating individuals’ experiences. This often results in closer attention to course materials and high levels of attendance and participation.