Hadrian's+Wall

.. Hello Carla,

A very warm welcome to our course ‘Hadrian's Wall: Life on the Roman Frontier’. I’ll be your Lead Educator, and I’m very much looking forward to getting started.

You can access the course here: @https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/hadrians-wall/todo/605

hadbookie

We’ll be exploring this remarkable landmark and the people who lived and worked on and around it together over the next six weeks. We will be using a variety of specially-prepared tools designed specifically to give you a flavour of our innovative teaching methods here at Newcastle University, including cold case forensic challenges in weeks two, three and six, and a dramatic visualisation of a late Roman dinner in week five.

By the end of our time together you will have:
 * explored and gained an appreciation of the archaeological skills and methods used to uncover the story of Hadrian’s Wall and its people
 * discovered how to read and interpret key ancient texts related to Hadrian’s Wall
 * been introduced to the diverse soldiers and civilians who lived along Hadrian’s Wall
 * investigated the architecture and changing uses of the many different buildings which made up the Hadrian’s Wall system

I will be initiating discussions as we go, together with my colleague Dr Rob Collins, and our four mentors: Skylar Arbuthnott, Emma Gooch, Dr Sophie Moore, and Evan Scherer. Please feel welcome to use these discussions to ask questions and offer insights. We are all students together and we will all learn from one another. I won’t be able to answer any email questions directly, but my colleagues and I will be raising key debating points and engaging with comments offered by course participants. We'll also respond to common problems and questions with updates and notices as the course proceeds. We are hoping that learners will move together roughly in step in order to be able to support each other through these discussions. However, you are also welcome to move faster or slower through the course, if that fits in better with your available time. You will be able to view your progress through the course at: @https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/hadrians-wall/progress

We have planned three optional live events to give you a chance to 'meet' us and each other in real time including a very informal Twitter chat using the course hashtag #FLHadrian on Saturday 27 September at 7.15-8.00pm GMT+1 (British Summer Time). We'll send further details of these events nearer the time in the course notices - they will give you a great opportunity to engage directly with other experts on different aspects of the Wall.

It is very important to stress that all elements of this course are entirely free. We offer recommendations for further reading, but you don’t need to buy any of them unless you want to. The entire course is designed so that all you need is provided free in the platform.

Experience has shown that different people want very different things from the course. Part of the strength of this type of course, I believe, lies in the flexibility to meet these different aspirations. For those who want to be able to document that they have participated in this course and engaged with the content, a Statement of Participation can be purchased: @https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/hadrians-wall/statement-of-participation If you think you are likely to want a Statement of Participation, and I must stress it is entirely optional, you need to be aware that you will need to have completed the majority of the steps and attempted all the tests within the course to be eligible for one.

My colleagues and I are totally committed to making this an enjoyable and informative experience for everybody, from those who are encountering Hadrian’s Wall for the first time, to those who have studied it for years. To help us to do our best and to plan effectively, we want to know about people’s hopes, interests and aims. So please don’t be shy during the course, tell us about them, and also please fill in the pre-course survey at: @https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Hadrianprecoursesurvey It really helps us plan for the future.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. It looks quite a long introduction to me, but there is a lot to introduce, particularly for those doing a FutureLearn course for the first time. As you will soon see, on the course, we aim to keep articles and papers pithy and concise.

And with that I will sign off for the moment, I hope you have as much fun learning about Hadrian's Wall as I have over the past thirty plus years. I’m looking forward to sharing this journey with you.

Best wishes,

Ian Haynes Professor of Archaeology Newcastle University

You can update your email subscription preferences at @http://www.futurelearn.com/settings Or stop receiving email updates from all of your courses at @http://www.futurelearn.com/unsubscribe/a904f320-9111-4985-8e8f-c0b6883ee0e3

Need support? Try our FAQs at @http://about.futurelearn.com/about/faq

