Specific Course Goals Include:

• To develop students’ knowledge of the literature of this period and its historical and cultural contexts through critical reading, writing, and thinking.
• To recognize that reading such literature is important because it helps us to understand how we are human and how others, who are different, are equally human.
• To understand how various cultures’ thought (as expressed in the literature of these cultures) contributed to and still informs contemporary culture(s).
• To be able to identify and characterize the major periods and development of ideas in this era of literature.
• To understand that while different times and places are indeed different, they can be fruitfully compared and contrasted by using connecting themes.
• To recognize some of the literary traditions that carry themes and ideas from one time and place to the next, creating an intellectual history of human civilization.
• To investigate the effect literature as a technology has had on the history of ideas and aesthetics. 
• To engage technology and media effectively in the learning process.
• To participate as an effective member of a collaborative online community.
• To have fun while doing the above!