Frequently Asked Questions
Questions? We've got your back. Check out our FAQ below to learn more about OER Project and our newest course offering, World History Project.
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We are a coalition of educators and historians solely focused on boosting student engagement and achievement through transformational social studies programs. By empowering classroom teachers with better curriculum, content and a vibrant community, we deliver more compelling, impactful and usable histories.
The OER project offers 2 courses—Big History and World History—both of which are completely free, online and adaptable to different standards and classroom needs. Unlike textbooks, lesson websites and other commercial products, everything has been purposely built to truly empower teachers and leave traditional history courses in the past. -
OER stands for Open Educational Resources. When you grab a free worksheet off Pinterest for your 10th graders, that’s an OER resource. The OER Project offers two cohesive and coherent OER curriculums: World History Project and Big History Project.
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World History Project is the newest course from the OER Project. It’s a free, online curriculum from the same folks that brought you Big History Project. We learned from our successes with BHP to create this new course, specifically tailored with high school world history teachers in mind.
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You can find more information on the World History Project by going to our website, oerproject.com. There you’ll be able to register for the course and check out our materials. If you have specific questions, please email us at:
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Both BHP and WHP share a common DNA and a common approach, awesome content and a compelling community. Both OER courses are completely free, online and adaptable to different standards and classroom needs.
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BHP teaches history at the largest possible scale, starting with the Big Bang and ending with the future. WHP is the story of humanity, looking at our early times, through the industrial revolution through today to the future.
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The Big History Project provides foundational skills and concepts for middle and high school students that form a solid foundation for high school work. The World History Project develops essential skills and concepts that prepare students for AP courses or even serves as an AP course itself. Ultimately, we encourage you to check out our oerproject.com website to learn more about both courses to decide which one is best suited for your use. If you have any specific questions, please email us at:
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BHP and WHP are two distinct courses (with a tiny bit of overlap!) so we do not recommend using materials from both at the same time, in the same course.
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A very popular pedagogical approach we’ve seen with our partnering districts is to have middle school social studies teach Big History Project, while their high school teachers use World History Project’s curriculum. The World History Project extends the skill development of the Big History Project, providing a strong starting point for high school history students.
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While you may choose to use the World History Project materials with any grade level you’d like, we designed it to best fit with 10th grade world history standards.
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The WHP course has a clear focus on narrative and skill-building. In World History Project, students put the narratives of history into a context, looking for evidence to support, extend and challenge their thinking as well as that of scholars. The course has a clear focus on reading texts as historians do, with an eye towards context, comparison and continuity. There is also a strong focus on the essential reasoning practices from AP classes and working with primary sources to prepare students for advanced high school and college work.
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The World History Project is designed from the ground up to meet World History standards across the United States. With a careful balance between content and skills, and the flexibility to incorporate content addressing local requirements, the World History Project is for everybody.
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Our skills practice progressions are perfect for scaffolding. Each of our skills (CCOT, contextualization, etc.) are introduced early in the course and then spiral through each unit. We also will have leveled texts available for each article in the course. They are not available now but will be there in time for back-to-school.
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Yes, there are two different versions of the course, the 1750 course and the Origins course. The 1750 course is best for teachers in states like CA and NY, where state world history standards begin in the year 1750. For those whose standards start with early humans, the Origins course is the best choice.
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Both! We believe that great courses should provide engaging content that draws upon the insights of multiple disciplines to inform historical inquiry. We know it’s important for students to engage and learn about different perspectives when studying history. WHP students also develop a set of intellectual tools that help them think critically, tie together big ideas, and build informed arguments—and practice these skills across disciplines. Students will spiral through skill-building activities throughout the WHP course content, building their expertise around practices like CCOT, comparison and contextualization.
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We have partnered with Bob Bain from the University of Michigan, Trevor Getz from San Francisco State University, and 24 other illustrious historians who are an integral part of our World History Project Advisory Board. Our WHP article authors also represent a diverse array of academics and historians who contributed their time to the project.
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Teacher feedback is extremely important to us. In the 19-20 school year, we are partnering with 50+ schools to pilot our course materials. We partnered with our pilot teachers to gather feedback on our course content materials so that our articles, videos and activities represent age-appropriate and teacher-approved materials.
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You can email us at help@oerproject.com if you have any further questions! We’ll make sure you get the information you need.
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a. Explore both courses at oerproject.com, and register to learn more.
b. Coming soon: in-person PLCs next summer!
c. Coming soon: a free, online Teaching World History professional development course