HRAF expands resources for teaching online

HRAF News Vol. 2020-7

As faculty members shift to the new paradigm of teaching online, HRAF is committed to expanding resources that facilitate engaging remote learning experiences. Check out our latest post and Teaching Online page for more information. A full announcement about our newly developed eHRAF Workbooks for teaching and learning will be forthcoming. In this month's newsletter, we are pleased to feature our new Course Membership option for faculty at non-member institutions, our eHRAF Archaeology Tutorial Video on YouTube, and the latest publications from HRAF's Advanced Research Center .

Now that most instructors have begun teaching at least partially online or in some hybrid format, unforeseen challenges have arisen amidst experiments with online instruction.

While there is plenty of existing advice on adapting methods for delivering materials, the focus within academia moving forward will likely be on enabling successful learning and engagement through adequate resources, virtual classroom management, and innovative digital coursework.

The latest post in our series in support of instructors addresses some common classroom questions that may arise while teaching online, along with tips for how the eHRAF databases and other resources can help to resolve them.

We have also created a new page, Teaching Online , to collect all of HRAF’s online teaching resources in one place, including information about our forthcoming eHRAF Workbooks.

Click here to read Solving online teaching conundrums.

HRAF is pleased to announce a new category of membership designed specifically for instructors at non-member academic institutions.

Course Membership is available for instructors (not currently affiliated with a member institution) who wish to utilize eHRAF World Cultures for teaching a course. Course Membership is open to instructors affiliated with new or reactivating member institutions with at least a year’s gap between institutional membership and the request for course membership.

Course Membership is available for access to a subset of the eHRAF World Cultures collection that belong to the Probability Sample Files (PSF) . The PSF consists of 60 largely nonindustrial societies that meet certain data quality controls, one randomly chosen from each culture area. Some additional culture collections will be made available in this subset to facilitate teaching in conjunction with our eHRAF Workbooks.

Click here to read about the Course Membership option.

For the last five years, researchers affiliated with

HRAF's Advanced Research Center have conducted cross-cultural and cross-archaeological research on the possible effects of natural hazards and other ecological stressors on culture.

Our three recently published papers have asked the following questions:

1) Is subsistence diversification a common strategy in societies facing more hazards and resource stress?

2) Is cultural tightness more likely with greater ecological stress?

3) What kinds of societies were more resilient following the catastrophic darkening of the skies in 536-547 CE in the northern hemisphere?

Can we learn from the past how best to adapt to environmental unpredictability? Examining indigenous practices may help suggest practical sustainable solutions for food insecurity in response to climate change.

Click here to read about the latest research from HRAF.

Our new eHRAF Archaeology Tutorial Video has made its debut on our YouTube channel . The video is ideal for classroom instructors who plan to teach with eHRAF Archaeology. Showing the video in class is a great way to introduce your students to our database. The video situates archaeology within the four major subfields of anthropology.

Topics covered in the video include: