Running head: FULL COURSE DESIGN 1

Civil War and Reconstruction Full Course Design

Erica McCarthy

Post University
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Civil War and Reconstruction Full Course Design

The study of the American Civil War and Reconstruction policies is often pieced together

toward the end of a U.S. History survey course; that is, it is not given much in-depth discussion

as a general rule. However, studying the American Civil War and Reconstruction policies that

followed is required to form an understanding of both recent American history in regards to

segregation and the Civil Rights movement, as well as the current American political climate. It

is considered routine today to hear the words “civil war” in political speech without the person

speaking having a solid understanding of what those words mean and the history behind them.

To ensure that future generations of Americans can fully understand how America got to the

point it is at today, a comprehensive, in-depth study of the American Civil War and

Reconstruction policies is necessary.

As a result of this missing piece in history courses, this paper will showcase the full

design and implementation of such a course. This paper follows the traditional ADDIE model of

instructional design (though that was not the original intention) and includes project analysis,

design, development, implementation, and evaluation sections.

Project Analysis

The first step to the ADDIE model is an analysis of the requirements of the course, as

well as the needs of the learners. More specifically, the analysis stage is considered the goal-

setting stage, in which the instructional designer decides what they want their course to be able

to accomplish for the learner (Kurt, ADDIE Model: Instructional Design, 2017).

Currently, the Civil War and Reconstruction are most often taught as part of the survey

United States history courses. At Post, U.S. History I ends with the end of the Civil War, and

U.S. History II starts with Reconstruction when, in actuality, these two events are interconnected
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and should be taught that way. Reconstruction cannot be taught effectively when taken out of the

context of the Civil War, and ending a course with the surrender at Appomattox (as U.S. History

I does) ignores the importance of what came next and causes students to think that the surrender

at Appomattox was the end of the Civil War. Building a course that combines the entirety of the

Civil War (including the lead-up from roughly the early 1800s) through to the end of the

Reconstruction era gives students a better idea of how the Civil War happened and the

consequences therein.

While Post University does not, at this point, have a political science or history degree,

this course could fit into any number of degree plans in place of a traditional survey course that

does not sufficiently teach everything that it should. Students can utilize the knowledge of the

Civil War and Reconstruction in all manner of politically charged situations that many of them

will find themselves in if they have not already. More than that, a significant understanding of

this era of American history will help students put more current events into a better context and,

hopefully, make them better citizens. Given that Post University has a diverse student body, it is

a wonder that such a class has not already been put into place; though it is likely the reason for

that is that leadership is uncertain where to put it, that does not negate the need for it.

Learner Analysis

The intended audience for this course will be college students of all demographics. Post

University has a diverse student population that covers everyone from students right out of high

school through to the elderly looking to finish a degree. It encompasses first-time college

students, full-time workers, full-time parents, single parents, etc. Some of these students will

have taken history courses in the distant past; others will have taken courses sooner than that.

This course will not be part of the scaffolding, so the expectation is that students in this course
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will be familiar with college-level work, both in the online and the traditional face-to-face

format. No two students learn in the same way, so the expectation is that there will be a variety

of learning styles that will need to be adjusted for. There will likely be students who learn better

by reading, others who learn better by listening, etc., so the goal will be to have activities that

appeal to learners of all styles.

It will not be necessary to come into the course with prior knowledge of the Civil War.

The purpose of the course will be to start in the early 1800s and discuss all of the events that led

up to the event. Ideally, students will be able to connect those events with current events today,

which connects to vital critical thinking and analysis skill sets that students should have. Because

Post University has a structure in place for how to design its courses, there should not need to be

too much adjustment here.

Environment Analysis

Post University is a private, four-year, for-profit university. Students can either attend the

main campus or the online campus. The online degree program is accelerated, so the courses are

eight weeks in length. The key stakeholders in this project would be the students, the faculty

teaching the course, the program chair, the Director of General Education, and the Dean of the

School of Arts and Sciences (since this course would fall under the auspices of liberal arts

classes). For the students and faculty, their interest in the project would be learning outcomes and

course structure – is it easy to navigate, does it have all of the required resources and tools for

success, will the students learn what the course indicates they will, etc.? For the program chair,

the Director of General Education, and the Dean, their interest would be in regards to where and

how it would fit into the current degree programs.

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Because Post University utilizes Blackboard across both the traditional face-to-face

classrooms, as well as the online classrooms, Blackboard will be utilized for this course.

Students will be able to access this class through the Internet. For the online program, the class

will be asynchronous, allowing students to access all of the course materials and participate in

class on their own time. There will not be any live component to the course, short of the

instructor’s office hours or appointments with students. This course will be delivered in much the

same way as the other courses at Post University – each week; the unit will open and give

students access to the readings, resources, discussion boards, and assignments. The purpose of

opening the units one week at a time is to ensure that students have fully grasped the concepts of

the previous week before them starting the next. With United States history, it is necessary to

have a solid understanding of what happened before to connect to the next piece. By opening

each unit individually, students are better able to fully grasp concepts prior to moving on.

Task Analysis

There will end up being two sets of learning outcomes for this course – more well-

rounded outcomes that include critical thought and analysis skill sets, as well as outcomes more

specific to the topics themselves. For the more general outcomes, students will be able to:

 discuss major themes in the development of American politics, society, and

culture during the period from 1800-1880
 apply historical perspective to contemporary issues
 identify and critically analyze historical interpretations
 analyze primary source documents in their historical context

In regards to the more specific outcomes, at the end of the course, students will be able
to:

 Analyze events, motivations, conditions, and actions leading up to the Civil War
 Identify main turning points leading up to the Civil War
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 Discuss the differing viewpoints of slavery in the territories, and how those
differences led to secession and civil war

In order to learn how to do this, students will engage in the following tasks:

 Reading primary source documents and analyzing them using a document

analysis worksheet. This will teach students some of the basic methods used in
considering evidence.

 Reading secondary sources (textbooks), watching videos, and listening to/reading

recorded lectures to gain a comprehension of the topics. Reading the texts will
give the students a foundation in the topic, which will help them understand the
lectures and participate in discussions.The lectures are structured to teach students
how to think about history and what is important.

 Actively participating in weekly discussion boards that require them to thinking

critically about the topic and answer a question in depth citing sources. Students
will be expected to give their perspective of a topic and support that perspective
with evidence, ask thoughtful questions, and interact with their classmates in a
thoughtful manner.

 Construct well-written essays. Students will learn how to write thoughtful,

analytical essays arguing a point of view in a historical context.

Through the variety of tasks here, students should meet the learning outcomes of the

course.

Situational Analysis

One of the biggest challenges of this course is teaching the history of American slavery in

a respectful, but complete, manner. A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center (2018)

indicates that schools, in general, are not teaching the history of American slavery adequately,

stating that “students lack a basic knowledge of the important role it played in shaping the United

States” (para. 1). Slavery was a key component of the American Civil War, and so it is vital to
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give students the full picture. However, it is no secret that race relations in the United States right

now are shaky, and with the diversity of the student population, it is imperative that the course is

taught with respect and compassion, but still within the context of history. As of this writing,

brainstorming still needs to be done as to how to overcome this barrier; however, it is a

requirement in order to do justice to the course itself and the history behind it.

As it stands, the only design constraint for this project is time. Since most, if not all, of

the work can be done by the instructional designer/subject matter expert (i.e., me), it will just

take time to put the pieces together. Most, if not all, of the readings and resources can be

acquired through the internet for free (with the sole exception of the textbooks needed for the

course – while those can be found in eBook format, there will be a monetary expense on the part

of the students for that). The technology already exists in Blackboard/Coursesites, so there is no

need to adjust for new technology.

Media/Technology Analysis

In order to design and develop the course, Articulate 360 will likely be required for the

final product before upload into Blackboard, though Powerpoint will probably be utilized

beforehand to get the basic storyboard down. The ID already has a basic working knowledge of

Articulate and can utilize that for the storyboard itself. Implementation will take place through

Blackboard, as it is the LMS utilized by the university.

Project Design

The design phase of the ADDIE model includes learning objectives, content, assessments,

etc., otherwise known as the pieces of the course that make up the learning itself.
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Development Schedule

This course should take approximately eight weeks to develop, with an additional two

weeks fully scheduled to ensure that it is ready for delivery. The course is envisioned to be an

eight-week course, which encompasses eight units.

In each of those eight development weeks, one unit will be fully developed, complete

with all assessments, activities, and resources. By the end of those eight development weeks, the

course will be developed in its entirety. In each of the eight development weeks, the ASSURE

model (rather than the more common ADDIE model) will be utilized, and each unit will follow

those steps. These steps include: analyze what learners already know, develop the learning

objectives for that unit, select and prepare the resources, media, and materials that will be used

that week, develop the activities students will be required to participate in, as well as the

assessments and metrics used to evaluate student learning (Kurt, ASSURE: Instructional Design

Model, 2015). The final two weeks will be spent evaluating each unit and verifying that the

course will allow the students to meet the learning objectives set forth successfully.

Because it is unlikely that this course will be rolled out to live students, the evaluation

portion of the ASSURE model, in which the feedback is generally from the learners themselves,

will (hopefully) be fulfilled by a panel of experts who can objectively evaluate whether the

course does what it sets out to do. Unfortunately, this does not give a real-time picture of what

live students would think of the course, especially given that a panel of experts already has a

foundational knowledge that goes beyond what the traditional undergraduate student would have;

however, given the limitations therein, it is the best (and indeed the only) option.

Course Learning Objectives

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Students in the Civil War and Reconstruction course will meet many different learning

objectives; some of these objectives will be generalized historical objectives, while others will be

specific to the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

 Analyze primary source documents for crucial historical context.

 Formulate a thesis statement and defend it using primary source evidence.
 Analyze and construct an argument regarding the inevitability of the Civil War.
 Understand antebellum origins of conflict between the North and the South and
the failure of compromise.
 Identify the chief reasons for the secession of South Carolina and the other
Confederate states.
In each of these objectives, the intended audience is the student, and for most of these

objectives, the behavior is a higher level in Bloom’s Taxonomy (Analyze, Create, and Evaluate).

In each case, the condition is “using primary sources,” though, for some, that portion is omitted,

as the idea is that students can take all of the information given them throughout the course to

analyze and discuss the inevitability of the Civil War.

Finally, in regards to the degree of mastery, that is where rubrics and metrics will come

into play. Because some of these objectives will take a trained eye to recognize whether students

have fulfilled said objective, a standardized rubric will be utilized for those assignments.

Lesson Structure

This course will cover many topics, as there are many events that directly led to the Civil

War that need to be covered. Many of them will be combined into units together to ensure that

the course keeps the eight-week structure. However, should a university that does not use an

eight-week structure utilize this course, there is plenty of room for expansion of the topics. This

course will be focused primarily on the politics of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The order

of the topics is as follows:

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1. Unit 1: Background/Foundation of slavery as an institution in the United States, up to

1820. Sub-categories for this unit include the reasonings behind codifying slavery in

the United States Constitution, as well as economic arguments in favor of and

opposing slavery as an institution. The Framers of the Constitution could not agree on

the “peculiar institution” of slavery (as John C. Calhoun called it), and so it was

included in the Constitution. This background is required in order to understand what

comes next.

2. Unit 2: The Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the Nullification Crisis of 1832. These

are the first moments of compromise and crisis within the greater struggle against

slavery. The Civil War could have started much earlier because of the Nullification

Crisis, but did not. This unit will explain why.

3. Unit 3: Mexican-American War/Compromise of 1850. These three pieces go together

as part of a greater whole. The Mexican-American War, which began in 1846,

resulted in the American acquisition of massive amounts of land in the Southwest,

including New Mexico and California. The question of allowing slavery in these new

territories, however, caused significant upheaval in government, thus requiring the

Compromise of 1850, as California (which spans the 36°30’parallel) did not want to

be split into two states. The Compromise of 1850 admitted California as a free state,

while allowing the slavery question in the remaining territories to be decided by

popular sovereignty.

4. Unit 4: Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854/Dred Scott Decision of 1857. Following the

Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 allowed all territories west of

Missouri and Iowa to decide on the allowance of slavery by popular sovereignty, thus
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repealing the Missouri Compromise and opening up the potential for slavery across

the territories of the Louisiana Purchase—including Kansas, which lay north of the

36°30’parallel. For two years, there was significant violence in Kansas as a result of

this, with a senator being caned in Congress. The Dred Scott decision in 1857

affirmed the right of slave owners to bring their slaves into the Western territories,

which also undermined the concept of popular sovereignty.

5. Unit 5: Lincoln’s election and the secession of the South. During the election of 1860,

South Carolina (who previously had tried to secede in 1832 as part of the

Nullification Crisis) argued that if Lincoln won the election, they would leave the

Union. He did, and they did, followed by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia,

Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee (in that order).

While the border states of Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware did not

secede, they did send troops to join the Confederacy.

6. Unit 6: Politics of the Civil War/Sherman’s Total War Tactics. During the Civil War,

President Lincoln had declared a number of policies that were (and still to a certain

extent are today) controversial. These include the Emancipation Proclamation (which

freed slaves in all of the areas currently occupied by Northern troops) and the

suspension of habeus corpus, as well as allowing General Sherman to completely

obliterate the South through his concepts of “total war.” These tactics and politics led

directly to some of the issues of Reconstruction.

7. Unit 7: The South Surrenders/Politics of Reconstruction. President Lincoln had a set

plan in place for the reconstruction of the South; however, his assassination in 1865

put his vice president Andrew Johnson, a Southerner, in office instead. Johnson had
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an entirely different plan in place for the reconstruction of the South. With both

presidents, Congress had a different plan as well, leading to questions of

constitutionality of who is allowed to put Reconstruction plans into place.

8. Unit 8: The Aftermath of Reconstruction. Reconstruction lasted from 1865 until 1877

(roughly), when the Republicans gave up the fight for racial equality in the South.

Reconstruction ended with the Compromise of 1877, and directly led to many of the

issues of segregation in the South – some of which (many of which) still exist today.

Activities. The activities within these units will include readings and videos to engage

the learner in understanding the material. Discussion boards will require students to answer

open-ended questions in a thoughtful and analytical, yet concise, manner which will demonstrate

both their thesis writing skills, as well as their skills using both primary source and secondary

source evidence to support their arguments. The discussion boards will also allow them to

demonstrate critical thinking in (potentially) disagreeing with their classmates in a civilized

debate format. A final research paper/interactive timeline of events, arguing the inevitability of

the Civil War, will bring all of these skill sets together in one cohesive assessment. In order to

ensure students understand basic concepts as well, there will likely be mini-quizzes that test

knowledge of the topic.

Assessment. Each of the learning outcomes will be assessed through standardized

rubrics. In discussion boards, students will have to demonstrate critical thinking. Critical

thinking skills are required in everyday life and allow students to “provide rational reasons which

sustain and justify” their beliefs (Vieira, Tenreiro-Vieira, & Martins, 2011, p. 45). These skills

also enable students (and people in general) to “protect themselves from manipulations,

safeguarding themselves from deceivers and exploiters” (Vieira, Tenreiro-Vieira, & Martins,
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2011, p. 45). Teaching students critical thinking skills – teaching them how to tell the difference

and to analyze and think about what they are reading – will help them identify and differentiate

facts from opinion in the future.

Unfortunately, assessing a student’s critical thinking skills requires a well-trained eye,

meaning that a standardized rubric will be essential for those assignments. This includes the final

paper/interactive timeline and discussion boards. The mini-quizzes, however, will be completely

objective – there will only be one right answer, and students will either get it right or get it

wrong. Giving students mini-quizzes will allow the instructor to check which students

understand the material, which need a bit of help, and which students need more help to meet the

learning objectives of the course.

Development

The development portion of the ADDIE model begins the production of the course itself

(Kurt, ADDIE Model: Instructional Design, 2017). In the case of this project, storyboards for two

complete units are attached as a PDF to this paper.

Implementation

The implementation phase of the ADDIE model is where the course is released and in

which students actively engage with the course and the materials (Kurt, ADDIE Model:

Instructional Design, 2017). In the case of this project, the pilot test will be completed by a panel

of experts, as there is no way to test this course with actual students without releasing it to be

taught in real time. The training will be delivered via CourseSites, which works similar to

Blackboard for the testing. In regards to the pilot test, the course will be delivered by the

instructional designer; should the course work as intended, any history instructor at Post

University should be able to teach this course with a little bit of prep work. Since all instructors
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at Post have a minimum of a master’s degree in the field in which they are teaching, that should

suffice for this course as well. Post University offers new instructors training; that should suffice

for new instructors teaching this course, while established instructors should only need to take

some time to familiarize themselves with the course materials. Learners, generally, should

already have their learning environment set up. As mentioned previously, students should be

familiar with what college-level work entails; this should not be a student’s initial course. As

such, learners should have their environments already well established.

Evaluation

Because this course is unlikely, at this point, to be rolled out to students, the course will

be evaluated by a panel of outsiders – specifically, experts in both history and instructional

design, as well as civilians who represent a student population to ensure that the course fulfills

all of its objectives. The Level 1 smile sheet is attached as Figure 1.

Conclusion

The purpose of this project was two-fold. The first purpose was to learn and apply the

various pieces of the ADDIE model of instructional design in designing an online training (or, in

this case, an asynchronous online course). The second purpose was to prove that the Civil War

and Reconstruction could be a full course that could (and should) be offered as a liberal

arts/history elective within Post University.

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References

Kurt, S. (2015, November 23). ASSURE: Instructional Design Model. Educational Technology.

Retrieved from https://educationaltechnology.net/assure-instructional-design-model/

Kurt, S. (2017, August 29). ADDIE Model: Instructional Design. Educational Technology.

Retrieved from https://educationaltechnology.net/the-addie-model-instructional-design/

McClure, L. (2017). How to tell fake news from real news. TED-Ed Blog. Retrieved from

https://blog.ed.ted.com/2017/01/12/how-to-tell-fake-news-from-real-news/

Vieira, R. M., Tenreiro-Vieira, C., & Martins, I. P. (2011). Critical thinking: Conceptual

clarification and its importance in science education. Science Education International,

22(1), 43-54. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ941655.pdf

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Smile Sheet

COURSE EVALUATION FORM

Rating scale for all questions is:

Strongly Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Not Applicable
Disagree Agree
1 2 3 4 5 6
1. I found this course to be intellectually challenging and stimulating
2. I learned and understood the subject matter in this course.
3. The workload in this course was reasonable and appropriate.
4. The course materials and assignments helped me understand the subject matter.
5. The assignments were graded fairly, accurately, and promptly

1. The instructor provided clear expectations for the course.

2. The instructor communicated effectively.
3. The instructor was knowledgeable about the subject matter.
4. The instructor provided helpful feedback on my assignments and work.

1. What, if anything, did you especially like about this course?

2. What aspects of the course could be improved?