What's Wrong with Online Readings? Text, Hypertext, and the History Web

The author achieved something that he had been striving to do for several semesters when, in 2002, he revised his survey course on the history of the United States up to Reconstruction by replacing most of the photocopied readings he had assigned in the past with online texts. Readings on the web now provided the basis for 10 of the 12 weekly tutorial discussions in the course, as well as for six of the 10 essay questions. Not only did using online material allow him to assign sources that he would not otherwise have been able to provide to students, it reduced the size and cost of the course reader, and relieved the strains on the library system created by over a hundred students seeking the same texts. He felt confident that his students would be just as enthusiastic about a larger online component in the course. However, he was wrong. In this article, the author discusses the negative reactions and complaints of students towards online readings. Student reactions to online materials should certainly introduce a note of caution into the rush to use computers and the web to deliver course readings. However, historians should respond not by turning their back on that medium, but by looking more closely at its properties, and the expressive, rather than additive, possibilities that they offer. (Contains 37 notes.)