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Course Description

This course is a survey of art history from the Renaissance to the present. Students are introduced to art and its place in the history of the Western Civilization, in relation to time period, culture, geography, religion, society, science, economics, stylistic movements through summaries, articles, and on-line sites of the museums of the world. A major concern is the development of a vocabulary of art, architecture and art history to more fully understand and appreciate artists, architects and their work.

This is a Core Course

Prerequisites

Learning Outcomes

• Be able to describe the major styles in Western art from the Renaissance to the present.
• Identify works of art by medium and technique
• Be able to write about works of art in their historical, cultural, political and philosophical contexts.
• Use web resources to carry out basic research.
• Identify major artists and artwork by style and period.
• Write brief, meaningful comparisons of art works shown.
• Demonstrate the ability to utilize art historical terminology.
• Identify geographic centers, time periods and stylistic characteristics of major art movements.
• Identify individual styles of major artists.
• Understand the impact of individuals, historical events, science, and religious and philosophical concepts on art making and viceversa.
• Understand iconography and its importance in our ability to interpret the meaning of images.
• Ability to write about art in a clear and effective manner.
• Ability to think critically
• Develop an understanding of art principles and elements

Affective Objectives

• Demonstrate interest in the topic by participating in discussions and assignments.
• Demonstrate the ability to follow assignment instructions as well as intrinsic motivation by meeting or exceeding the production requirements.
• To have the self-discipline to maintain consistent (weekly) contact with class, read other students' contributions, and read assigned pages and sites.
• Demonstrate the ability to tolerate diverse views.
• Ability to prepare adequately for examinations.
• Demonstrate the ability to accept constructive criticism.

Course Requirements

1. Read the Start Here in the Home page. The first quiz is about this Course Information Sheet and about the information in "How to be successful..." and "Frequently Asked Questions."
2. This is an On-Line Course -- students do all of the course content on-line. Meetings and office visits are optional.
3. Read about artists and periods in the Webpage Chapter Summaries, and read the text book pages as indicated in the chapter summaries page. If you are a very good reader, you can read the whole chapter. Read the specified pages in your text book and make notes from your reading. Reading the pages in the chapter summaries and in the book will not be enough to remember the data unless you take notes.
4. Choose one question per chapter, from the chapter assingments, and post a well written discussion, on or before the last day for that chapter's quiz. These postings, based on your reading, are 20% of your grade and there is no 'make up' options.
5. Visit required links as listed in assingments (recommended links are optional. Links to images can be ignored, and just look at the images in your book.)

Some links will take you to websites were you will read a definition that is not written in your book (these links are required)

Some links will lead you to sites where you can find better explanations for historic, literary, scientific or philosophical events that influenced the period and/or important definitions.

Some links will lead you to view more art by the artists being reviewed to help you understand better thei style. These are optional.

7. Submit:

The "Web-quest," a long assignment related to Chapter 20 and The Enlightenment, which includes short essay questions, and a longer Essay.

Weekly chapter quizzes

One short essay per chapter: well researched, (one to three paragraphs,) posted in the discussion board, and

A final exam or a Time Travel Brochure

A pre-test and post-test.

It is best to take quizzes in a Blinn lab, or any other reliable computer lab. A home computer may have an unreliable, or a slow internet connection, or may crash because of lack of short term memory to handle images.

Quizzes are timed. The time limits will keep students from being able to reply to all questions if they are not already familiar with the material.

Students can submit a "Travel in Time Tour Catalogue," instead of the final exam. The Time Travel Tour will be presented as a tourist catalogue where one can visit places, people and art in the past. The catalogue can be submitted as an html (website) document, a PDF, an RTF (Rich Text Format,) or a hard copy scrap-book*.

Text Book:

Gardner's Art Through the Ages, The Western Perspective, Volume 2, 12th Edition, Kleiner, Mamiya and others.

Book comes with

• Turn It In,
• Art Study CD
• "Art Basics" pamphlet for definitions
• Infotrak College Edition (password.)
• Used texts include CD. The Turn It In code must be purchased separately. If the Art Basics is missing, you can compensate by using the Wadsworth Thomson Book Companion Website.

Purchase package from the Blinn College Bookstore or the Blinn College Traditions Bookstore. On-line and over the phone purchase options are available.

Optional Course Packet: A printed version of all the chapter summaries (it is cheaper to buy the packet than to print the summaries yourself.) Students who get the packet swear that it was the best thing they did in the course. The course packet is in the Blinn College Copy Center, in the Bryan Campus.

Required Resources

• Students need to have reliable access to the Web and ability to do competent searches.
• Students need to be able to save files in Microsoft Word and send them as attachments through the WebCt mail tool. If you don't have Microsoft Word, you can save your files as "rtf" (rich text format) in simple text, or you can download this free software: http://www.openoffice.org/. OpenOffice is a legal free software completely compatible with Microsoft Office software.
• Students need to be commited to remaining in communication through traditional means if electronic channels fail.
• Students need to have the ability to submit quizzes and tests over the internet.
• Access to technical support: for technical support go to: http://www.blinn.edu/disted Students might have (and be willing) to come to Blinn to recieve tech support instructions if needed.
• In the Event of an Interruption in your web service (whether it is your computer or the Blinn server) Try contacting me via e-mail, to barnillas@blinn.edu
• If the problem is with the Blinn System, wait a few hours and try again before calling. Call my office and give detailed information about the problem you are having. Speak slowly, loudly and clearly. Leave your name, number and time of call. If problems persist, let me know if you are going to deliver your work or send it via snail-mail, specifying where you are dropping it (mail box, post office, etc.) Send the mail to:

Prof. Arnillas

Division of Fine Arts

Blinn College, Bryan Campus

PO Box 6030

Bryan, Texas 77805 - 6030

ADA

Blinn College would like to help students with disabilities achieve their highest potential in college. In order to receive accommodation on exams or assignments, proper documentation must first be provided to the Office of Disabilities Services located in the Counseling Services Center (209-7250). You must self-identify and conference with me during my posted office hours to begin receiving accommodations in class.

Civility Message

Members of the Blinn College Community, which includes faculty, staff and students, are expected to act honestly and responsibly in all aspects of campus life. Blinn College holds all members accountable for their actions and words. Therefore, all members should commit themselves to behave in a manner that recognizes personal respect and demonstrates concern for the personal dignity, rights and freedoms of every member of the college community, including respect for college property and the physical and intellectual property of others.

Course Credit Hours: 3

Grading: Whole Letter Grade (A - F) (see points below)

"A" is Excellent- Student accumulated 880 - 1000 points: Student covered all the material successfully, submitted assignments on time. The material is thoughtful and deep and demonstrates the ability to analyze, interpret and compare the art-work intelligently and sensitively. Besides from this, student is capable of writing coherent and critical papers that take into consideration the social, political, economic and religious context of the period.

"B" is Very Good- Student accumulated 750 - 879 points: Student covered all the material successfully and submitted assignments on time. In addition to this, the material is thoughtful and demonstrates that the student has developed the ability to analyze and interpret art. Student is capable of writing grammatically correct papers with accurate information.

"C" is Average- Student accumulated 630 - 749 points: Student covered the material with reasonable success and submitted all assignments. The papers and assignments included accurate facts and were written grammatically correct, but there is no evidence of critical thinking or in-depth knowledge.

"D" is Below Average- Student accumulated 500 - 629 points: Student has some knowledge of the material covered in the course and submitted some assignments. Student is capable of describing art work and submitted a paper that did not meet the standards for grammar and structure.

"F" means the student Failed - Student accumulated less than 500 points: Student may have participated and submitted material, quizzes and papers but failed to prove that s/he has acquired a minimum amount of factual information about Art from the Renaissance through Postmodernism. If student submitted papers and assignments, the material failed to meet the minimum grammatical, descriptive, analytical and structural standards for a college level assignment.

Grading System:

• The participation grade is based on a 'cumulative' point system. Students will earn from 1 to 25 points for weekly submissions in discussion boards. The amount of points is a result of difficulty of question addressed, proper writing, thoroughness, and correctness of answer. Faculty provides thorough feedback about discussion submissions through the web mail. Participation is expected to be consistent and ongoing. Communication and collaboration with other students via discussion board also count towards pariticipation points.
• Students who get more than 200 pts in quizzes and/or participation will still receive 200 pts. The extra points from quizzes are so students can still get a perfect score if they do poorly in one or two quizzes, or if they miss one quiz.

Dates and Deadlines:

Most dates are flexible, but there are deadlines for every assignment.

• Students can take the quizzes as they progress in their readings and understanding of the material, as long as it is before or on the last date for that quiz.

Tentative Schedule:

Students have several date options for the final exam to accommodate schedules. There is a WebCT calendar with dates and links to all assignments. No make up quizzes, exams or assignments.

*Students who choose to submit a hard-copy "Time Travel" scrap-book and wish to have it back after grading, are responsible to pick it up from Blinn College, Bryan Campus.

Updated by B. Arnillas July/2006