Questions? Check out our FAQ below to learn more about the History for the 21st Century Project, our modules and materials, and how you can participate and contribute! If you have a question that isn’t answered here, please visit our contact page to let us know!
- What is H/21?
- What kinds of materials does H/21 offer?
- How are H/21 modules created, reviewed, and approved?
- What is the teaching philosophy behind the modules?
- How can I use H/21 materials?
- How can my students use H/21 materials?
- Can I suggest changes, improvements, or additions to existing H/21 materials?
- Can I use materials from H/21 linked sources?
- Can I propose or write new H/21 materials?
- Are there other ways I can participate?
History for the 21st Century (“H/21”) is a collaborative project of the World History Association designed to enable college and university faculty to effectively introduce 21st-century students to the study of history. Our mission is to support faculty by offering student-centered, inquiry-driven, peer-reviewed, and peer-tested course materials for free to faculty teaching first-year General Education history courses.
What kinds of instructional materials does H/21 offer?
H/21 offers complete, introductory-level course modules that each include 4-6 lessons. Each module includes a comprehensive set of teaching materials, which typically include module overviews and schedules, secondary and primary and source readings for students, and lecture slides, suggested discussion prompts, activities, and assessments for instructors. Each module also provides instructor guides for the educator on its design, purpose, and use.
To browse our content, visit the modules page and navigate to World Modules. There you’ll find our current list of completed and tested modules available for download. Registered instructors will also have access to our instructor materials!
How are H/21 modules created, reviewed, and approved?
All of our modules are commissioned, designed, and peer-reviewed by historians with content expertise. During production, submissions for modules typically undergo several rounds of peer-review and revision. Then, we test them in multiple real classroom settings and make final revisions based on instructor and student feedback, prior to publication.
What is the teaching philosophy behind the modules?
We believe that introductory college history courses should help students:
- Develop critical, analytical, and communications skills and
- Understand the nature and practice of history in order to better navigate the world we live in today.
Instead of comprehensive coverage, our modules are designed to engage students from where they are, and invite them to ask questions about how historical understanding can help them navigate the world. The modules aim to offer a range of ways to engage students through discussions and exercises exploring historical events and ideas, and to engage in deep analysis of the past.
We also believe that, despite our own training and experience, we need (as educators) to have open minds about what is effective for our students’ learning. Students today are highly diverse digital natives, with a wide range of backgrounds, beliefs, circumstances, and plans for their futures. Our discussions and assessments aim to help students engage with material from new perspectives that can help them connect to history, and make meaning of it in their own lives today.
You can use our modules any way that works for you! We know that every educator and classroom is different. H/21’s content is designed to be flexible and adaptable, and we encourage educators to download and adopt our content in ways that make sense for them and their students..
- You might drop a complete module into your existing history course,
- Adapt part of a module into a lessons you already have, or
- Construct a course around our modules entirely!
You can find a few examples of ways that faculty have used modules in their classes here!
Although our modules and the content and assessments included in them are designed for introductory college history courses, let us know if you find they are useful for upper-division history courses, AP courses, or even non-history courses!
How can my students use H/21 materials?
All H/21 materials are available at no charge to students and registered users of the H/21 site. Readings and primary sources are provided on the modules page; registered users may access instructor materials. Simply sign up, download what you want, and present it to your students.
Can I suggest changes, improvements, or additions to existing H/21 materials?
Absolutely! We claim no monopoly on how to do this. In fact, we believe the best approach to effective teaching is a strong community of practice, in which instructors share materials, ideas, and what worked and didn’t in open communication with one another.
We want to know how you used our materials and what worked (and didn’t) for you and your students. If there are additional sources, materials, examples, or exercises that would enrich the module, visit our contact page, and reach out to let us know! If we want to incorporate them into the core module, we will contact you.
Can I use materials from H/21 linked sources?
There’s a lot of good stuff out there and we’re happy to provide links to it. However, we don’t claim copyright on it and don’t make any claims about its quality or accuracy.
Can I propose or write new H/21 materials?
Yes! H/21 is always looking for proposals and module creators. If you want to propose a new module, read the FAQ for Module Authors and our Call for Proposals. Submit your ideas to us at info@history21.com, and we will let you know what we think.
Are there other ways I can participate?
Of course! We are always looking for:
- Instructors willing to test drive our content in their classrooms,
- Potential peer-reviewers for our modules in production,
- Feedback on our existing content, and
- Suggestions for future content.
You can also help us by offering financial support or donations!
Check out the contact page to reach out!
