Building course content around primary sources can provide an engaging, multi-sensory experience for students that helps develop critical thinking and information literacy skills.
The following Open Education resources have been developed by Suffolk University faculty in coordination with Suffolk University Archives staff.
To learn more about OERs, please see the Sawyer Library's Open Educational Resource Guide.
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O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night in Action
Darcie Billena and Hoaka Hashimoto
This student essay was completed as part of Professor Quentin Miller's course, ENG 120: From Ireland to America (and Back Again). Students researched and wrote about themes related to Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night and Boston's school desegregation crisis using collections from Suffolk University's Moakley Archive.
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Ireland in Long Day's Journey into Night
Kathryn Kilbride
This student essay was completed as part of Professor Quentin Miller's course, ENG 120: From Ireland to America (and Back Again). Students researched and wrote about themes related to Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night and Boston's school desegregation crisis using collections from Suffolk University's Moakley Archive.
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ENG 120: From Ireland to America (and Back Again): Report on Incorporating Primary Sources from the Moakley Archive
R Quentin Miller
Professor Miller, a recipient of a course development grant from the Moakley Archive at Suffolk University, describes his (and his students') experiences using primary sources in his travel course, ENG 120: From Ireland to America (and Back Again).
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Funding El Salvador’s Civil War: The Clash of U.S. Executive and Legislative Branches (student version)
Julia C. Howington
This open educational resource was developed using resources from Suffolk University's Moakley Archive. The primary sources selected for this lesson provide insight on a crucial moment in late twentieth-century American foreign diplomacy when the executive and legislative branches debated U.S. interests in El Salvador during the 1980s and ‘90s. By closely reading these documents students will be able to: identify the positions taken by the executive and legislative branches positions on U.S. interests in El Salvador during the 1980s and ‘90s; identify and differentiate government stakeholders’ points of view; and develop the skill of close textual analysis.
This includes an instructor version and one for students.
Target Audience: ideal for undergraduate students in 100- and 200-level courses.
Time needed: 15 minutes in class 1, and 75 minutes in class 2
Learning Goals
1. Identify the positions taken by the executive and legislative branches positions on U.S. interests in El Salvador during the 1980s and 1990s
2. Understand that public policymaking is contested
3. Evaluate both the information and its sources
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Thinking historically about Boston City Directories
Pat Reeve
This open educational resource was developed for a Suffolk University undergraduate history research methods course, “Gateway to the Past: The Historian’s Practice.” This guide to Boston City Directories describes the types of information contained in this source and ways it might be used by researchers.
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Busing and Beyond: Creating a Holistic Approach to Undergraduate Teaching and Learning with Archival Collections
Patricia Reeve and Julia C. Howington
Suffolk University faculty, archivists, and librarians formed a collaborative team in 2015 to develop and disseminate open educational resources (OERS) based on the research collections held by Suffolk University. Archivists and librarians provided reference assistance, bibliographic instruction, research guides, technological support, and digitization services. The curricula were designed to develop students’ information literacy skills and allow them to take advantage of — and navigate the challenges of — a complex and sometimes overwhelming information landscape. In the next phase of the project, the team will develop and test additional OERs, evaluate the effects of student and faculty engagement with OERs, and create guidelines and recommendations for further OER use, expansion, and development at Suffolk and beyond.
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Mapping Data: Creating and Interpreting Historical Maps
Patricia Reeve
This open educational resource was developed for a Suffolk University undergraduate history research methods course, “Gateway to the Past: The Historian’s Practice.” This lesson allows students to examine population change over time in Boston and its effects on the school desegregation debates.
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Primary Source Analysis Essay (student version)
Patricia Reeve
This open educational resource was developed for a Suffolk University undergraduate history research methods course, “Gateway to the Past: The Historian’s Practice.” The exercise uses documents from the Moakley Archive centered on Boston's school desegregation crisis in the 1970s.
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What History Matters, and Who Decides? Introduction to Archival Research
Patricia Reeve
This open educational resource was developed for a Suffolk University undergraduate history research methods course, “Gateway to the Past: The Historian’s Practice.” This lesson allows students to examine course catalogs at the Archives to document and explain changes in Suffolk University's history curriculum over time. There is also an instructor's version.