Flipping a U.S. History Course using Peer Mentoring

This project provides a redesign of HIST 202A (U.S. History to 1877) and HIST 202B (U.S. History since 1877), two lecture General Education courses. The redesigned HIST 202A/B takes the form of a modified flipped course, making extensive use of historical sources, activities, and assignments available online at no cost to students. Our redesign also follows a “learning communities” approach. For every class meeting, faculty create small-group learning opportunities that feature collaborative learning and scaffolded skill-building. Student skill-building areas emphasize source analysis, thesis identification, note-taking, academic writing, and reading. The professor's work with the small-group learning communities is assisted by specially-trained advanced students acting as peer mentors or "facilitators." By cultivating academic skills and personal relationships, our redesign promises to promote student motivation, retention, and academic performance, as well as to cultivate key academic skills students need to succeed later in their college careers.