Utah History - Fall 2025

This Utah Studies course is specifically designed for K-12 teachers and includes both content on the history of Utah and discussion of methodology for teaching this content. The course also focuses on the use of open education resources, improving student writing, and thinking like a historian as it explores issues in Utah's history and near future.

In this course you will explore topics related to Utah History from Pre-Historic times to the Modern Era.  “Utah is an amazing place, rich in resources, in geographic wonders, in inspiring history, and in the diversity of its peoples” (Utah Core State Standards for Social Studies).

Throughout this course, we hope you will enrich your knowledge of Utah History while also developing your own classroom ideas. The course explores the Utah History content and classroom applications through the integrated use of video, text, classroom activities, and web-based technology. It is the goal of the instructors and the course designers that you will be able to take not only content and activities back to your classroom, but sound pedagogical approaches that can be applied with a range of content.

Expected Learning Outcomes

At the conclusion of this course participants should be able to:

1.     Demonstrate an understanding of the basic geography, history, economic, and politics of Utah by completing various readings, papers, and discussions.

2.     Select quality primary source documents and help their students make use of analysis tools to think like historians.

3.     Locate and develop open-source and alternative texts and materials and reduce the damaging dependence on textbooks.

4.     Consider and appreciate alternative perspectives from other people based on location, culture, political affiliation, and background.

These online USBE CANVAS courses have been designed for active educators who are working on fulfilling the requirements for specific social studies endorsements. While the courses are not completely self-paced, they are asynchronous. Coursework unlocks weekly, so that the participants engage in the course material as a cohort, one week at a time. Weekly course materials are available for review on Thursdays at 12:00AM.  All weekly assignments and discussions are due the following Wednesday at 11:59 pm. Educators can work on the course material when convenient within each week of the course. Each week will take an estimated 4 to 5 hours to complete.  Of course, this will vary for every individual.  Readings and assignments are rigorous and reflect the requirements for university level coursework. I encourage you to spend time each week as you reflect on the content and the classroom application ideas woven throughout the assignments

This is a 3-credit course in collaboration with Southern Utah University (SUU). Students will receive instructions and a CRN for registering through SUU for credit from the course instructor. SUU will open registration for this course beginning October 22, 2025, and requires a $69 recording fee for this course. Upon completion of the course, grades will be available on an SUU transcript.

PLEASE NOTE: You may only register for two of these endorsement courses at a time.