Start writing family history
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| 2 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| No examination | No residential school |
Register for the course
| Start | End | Fee | Register |
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No current presentation - see Future availability |
| This course is expected to run until October 2009. | |||
Summary
This 12-week online course helps you to interpret and write about family history. It offers a guide to the principles of studying history that are a foundation for more advanced historical studies. You will learn about historical sources – interpreting evidence and selecting suitable examples – and develop your appreciation and understanding of family history and the ways in which the past is remembered and represented. Using sources from different historical periods, you will investigate the changing nature of the family and, putting the principles of historical research into practice, write about your own family history.
Course content
Through online interactive exercises, activities, short readings and longer assignments marked by your tutor you will have an opportunity to practise, improve and reflect on a range of core skills in historical research, concentrating throughout on family history. These skills include distinguishing between primary and secondary sources and interpreting oral and visual sources. The course consists of five blocks:
What is family history? This introductory block asks the basic questions: why study family history at all, what is the family and what is history? You will be invited to consider the difference between genealogy and family history, the value of different kinds of sources and how they may be used in writing.
From family tree to family history investigates some of the main sources of family history, including the census and registers of births, marriages and deaths. Through a variety of online exercises and activities you will be encouraged to reflect on the nature of these sources and the ways in which they can be used when writing family history. The block will demonstrate how you might use individual case studies to make general judgements and arguments about the family in the past.
Writing lives: autobiography, biography and diaries in family history concentrates on diaries, letters and autobiographies. Such first-person narratives can be rich and important sources for writing family history because of the insight they give into the way family life was experienced. Through selected extracts, you will be shown how to critically read first-person narratives and how to use them as evidence. The block will also introduce some of the issues involved in reading and writing biography as history.
Picturing the family: photographs in family history looks at some of the ways photographs can reveal, and sometimes conceal, important information about the past. This block teaches the skills and provides some of the knowledge needed to interpret such pictorial sources.
Family stories: oral history considers how spoken memories can provide information about the past. It will introduce you to the skills needed to record and interpret oral history. The course’s audio CD provides examples of oral history that are the basis of exercises and activities for this block. Through them, students will be encouraged to consider the many ways that the family is remembered and the importance of family stories to family history.
These five blocks are taught online via the course website, where you can access most of the course materials, and supplemented by an audio CD and a printed course guide. You are encouraged to participate in an online forum through which you can interact with other students and with your tutor.
For further information visit the Start Writing website.
Entry
There are no entry requirements for this course.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
Qualifications
A173 is a optional course in our
- BA (Honours) Humanities (B03)
- BA/BSc (Honours) European Studies (B10)
- Diploma of Higher Education in Social Sciences (E50)
- Certificate of Higher Education in Social Sciences (C95)
- Certificate of Higher Education in Humanities (C98)
It can also count towards most of our other degrees at bachelors level, where it is suitable for a BA. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this course can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.
If you have a disability or additional requirement
One section of the course uses visual resources. If you use special hardware or software, you should find out, well before the beginning of the course, whether it is compatible with the course software. The course materials are available on audio cassette and written transcripts are available for the audio-visual material. You will need to spend considerable amounts of time using a personal computer and the internet. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.
If you are a new student, or new to courses using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our booklet Meeting Your Needs which you can download or request from our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
You can also find information about accessible course materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.
Course materials
What's included
Course website, online forum, online library access, audio CD, printed course guide.
Computing requirements
This course includes online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave.
You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new computer since 2002 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
Your tutor will mark and comment on your written assignments. You can contact your tutor through email and the online forum. If you are new to the OU, you will find that your tutor is particularly concerned to help you with your study methods.
Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.
You can choose whether to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) on paper or online through the eTMA system. You may want to use the eTMA system for some of your assignments but submit on paper for others. This is entirely your choice.
The second TMA builds on the skills developed in the first one.
Students also studied
Students who studied this course also studied at some time:
Future availability
The details given here are for the course that starts in May and October 2009 when it will be available for the last time. A replacement course is not planned.
How to register
We regret that we are currently unable to accept registrations for this course. Where the course is to be presented again in the future, relevant registration information will be displayed on this page as soon as it becomes available.
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An undergraduate course.
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Student Reviews
I loved this course! The on-line materials are interesting and very easy to follow. The supporting exemplars and case studies ...
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I have been researching my family history for over 15 years and to be honest I was hoping this course ...
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