Chapter 1: Introduction

This book is designed mainly for a survey of the ancient world through the Christendom.  It does not pretend to offer a comprehensive exploration of the eras in the content, but aims at exposing students to specific ideas that defined human conducts and realities in those eras.

The chapters are divided into two.  The first part presents readings that explain the nature of the era and address what students should gain from the chapter.  The second part presents assessment questions students should be able to answer after reading the chapter.  These questions are designed to foster critical thinking and communication skill. Part of the second part as well is a set of quiz that measures close reading and students’ ability in recalling information.

As this book is customized for Online Introduction Humanities I at University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas (UTSA), it has an interface with the Learning Management System at UTSA.  Accordingly, students should expect to engage in online discussion based on the chapters and readings in the book.

More important, students are invited to contribute to and enrich the text by identifying/developing pertinent resources to include in the book. For each of the resources, students should offer a convincing argument to justify the inclusion; they should also develop the assessments based on the identified/developed resources.