Classroom Experiences

Book a unique educational course for students.

Collaborate with the Center. Primary source materials help students make a personal connection with history, offer research opportunities, deepen understanding, and spark questioning and creativity. Planning your curriculum takes work, and the Instructional Services team is here to help make incorporating primary source instruction into your syllabus easier and more accessible. Our staff is available to teach collaboratively with you from our new menu of adaptable course offerings or to help curate a selection of materials that can be displayed in one of our dedicated seminar rooms.

Bring your class for a single visit or schedule several throughout the semester. Our team is also available to facilitate optional research labs designed to support student-driven research at the Center. If you have any questions, requests for staff presentations, or need help planning a classroom visit, contact us at instruction@hrc.utexas.edu.

We look forward to seeing your students get inspired at the Ransom Center.

• Menu of course offerings

  The following course options will be delivered virtually for the time being. Our virtual sessions have no occupancy limit and are available during the entire extended class day, Monday through Friday. As these sessions are both limited and in great demand, we encourage you to make reservations as far in advance as possible, ideally four weeks in advance of your proposed class session.

  • Primary Source Deep Dive - Designed in consultation with you to complement your syllabus, this dynamic, introductory-level seminar led by a Ransom Center educator focuses on the basics of primary source literacy by guiding students through the process of examining, evaluating, and interpreting archival materials.
  
  
  • Archival Research 101 - Led by a Ransom Center educator, this seminar provides students with a crash course in navigating the iterative process of archival research through an introduction to our website, archival terminology and praxis, and ethical engagement with primary source materials.
  
  
  • Optional Research Labs - Ideal for assignment-specific instruction or for instructors who want their students to have a more sustained experience with our collections, the optional labs facilitated by Ransom Center educators enable students to return to the Center after one of our seminars to put their new close-looking skills into practice by examining materials curated to support major course themes, concepts, and/or learning objectives.
  
  

  
  

• Prepare for your visit

  To select materials for your visit, you will need to create a research account and watch a brief orientation video. You can find information about our holdings by using the library catalog, searching our finding aids, and perusing our research guides.

  Requests for materials must be submitted two weeks before your class session in order to allow us time to page the materials, consult with curators, and suggest substitutes for fragile items. To learn more about how to request materials, please visit Research and Access.

  Please plan to visit the Reading and Viewing Room the week before your class visit to consult the materials, select page openings for books, and determine manuscript pages for display.

• On the day of your visit

  Virtual sessions: For synchronous sessions, an Instructional Services educator will join your scheduled virtual class and provide access to the digital materials at the start of the session through a shared link in addition to screen-sharing. Asynchronous sessions can be created in advance and may also be supplemented by live "office hours" with one of our educators depending on availability. If you or your students have any special needs or considerations, please inform the staff when making your reservation.