Does the pitch clearly state the topic to be covered?
What is the ideal society?
And, how would you build it if you had the chance?
The students will be challenged to build their own civilization in the first part of the course using Sid Meier's game, Civilization. In the second part of the course the class will transition to "Reacting to the Past," a role-playing game which recreates the threshold of democracy in Athens in 403 B.C.
Humanities classes focus on learning about cultures but why not provide students with the means to try and build one themselves? What is ideal way to govern? Should leaders control the people? Should the people do anything they want? How do you balance social vs. individual needs? Can your civilization survive? Can it thrive? How will you mediate conflicts within your civilization?
Democracy is one of the options to govern in Civilization and students will experience first-hand its drawbacks and its advantages. They will have to decide if it works or not in practice. As stated by Winston Churchill:
"Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this 
world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or 
all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."
(House of Commons, 11 November 1947, http://richardlangworth.com/worst-form-of-government)
The challenge for students is to understand how democracy actually works out in practice. The game will allow them to consider the topic of governing a population and teaching civilization and democracy so that students understand history and the need to balance individual vs. social needs. 
Does the pitch describe the setting and/or who the learners are?
The setting is a for-profit University where learners are working adults in night classes. The challenge is to use technology in an engaging way for students who do not need abstract ideas but need to see the practical challenges of building a civilization, testing whether democracy is the best form of government, and how to reconcile competing needs and priorities. It is important in that it cuts to the heart of issues besetting the American Republic today.
How well does the pitch explain why this area is challenging? How strong is the evidence provided?
This is a challenging area since students are working all day, have families, and many other adult responsibilities. It is difficult to convey the humanities material without directly involving them and providing a vehicle for them to learn. Many of our students have attended college previously and it did not work for them. Nonetheless, the mission of the University is to make high quality post-secondary education accessible to adults of diverse backgrounds and is organized around three primary goals: Educational Access, Academic Quality, and Student Success. In our University, we have to be conscious of how traditional androgyny does not always motivate our first-generation college students. Also, we also have a certain percentage of active duty military students or retired military who would find the gaming aspect, and the role-playing course work more involving. The curriculum must be innovative, relevant, and engaging for students. The University is investing in enhancing teaching and learning with technology. New technologies are integrated to enhance student learning, student engagement, and relevancy to the workplace.  
What other insights, if any, can you provide that would help your classmate refine or develop their focus?
I will provide a brief description of how I plan to address the learning challenge. As I understand it, that is the next step of the process. Classes meet for four hours in the evening between 6 - 10 pm. Most of the students have put in a full day of work already before attending class and have numerous other adult responsibilities. Thus, the classes need to be dynamic, and engaging. I can schedule classes in a computer Lab thus the proposal is realistic and should work well on campus. 
As described, my pitch has included a brief, concrete description of a situation in which learning is challenging for a number of reasons: full-time working adults, active military, or ex-military adjusting to civilian life, coupled with lengthy 4-hour session classes which can be held in a computer lab. The nature of the content is difficult enough in traditional short session classes, and often students do not obtain actual experience in building a civilization but they just read about it. In my case, I have taught in a wide variety of settings, K-12, traditional college age students, weekend college students, and at my present position which leads me to conclude that this project will go over well. 
Relevant Academic literature, news articles, etc., will be listed
COURSE  DESCRIPTION/PRINCIPAL  TOPICS
This  course introduces students  to  the  idea of civilization  from  its origins  in  the  late  Bronze  Age to the Renaissance with  special  focus on Athenian  democracy. The  course  will  be  introduced with Civilization, a gaming accessory to illustrate the issues of balancing governance, social demands, defense, and a myriad of issues brought on with organizing a society. Thereafter, the class will transition to “Reacting   to   the   Past,” a role-playing   game   to   enable   students to   relive   important   intellectual   debates   in  a   specific historical  moment. With The  Threshold  of  Democracy: Athens  in  403  B.C., students will draw  on Plato’s Republic as  well  as on excerpts  from  Thucydides’ History  of  the Peloponnesian War, and  other  contemporary  sources  to  debate the  Reconciliation  Agreement  between  Athens  and  Sparta after nearly  three  decades of  war (431-404  BC). Topics  may  include:  Homeric poetry;  Greek  religion;  from  Dark Age  to  city-state,  900-600  B.C.; Herodotus  and  the  Persian Wars  (490–479  B.C.); Freedom  and  imperialism:  the  Athenian  Empire; Athenian  democracy and  society; Attic  drama;  Thucydides  and  the Peloponnesian  War  (431–404  B.C.);  Radical ideas  and  radical  reactions; Socrates  and  Plato. By  examining  democracy  at  its  threshold, the  game  provides  the  perspective  to  consider  its  subsequent  evolution.
STUDENT  LEARNING  OUTCOMES
Students  will:
1. Explain how key social, cultural, and artistic contributions contribute to historical changes.
2. Explain the importance of situating a society’s cultural and artistic expressions within a historical context.
3. Identify major historical developments in world cultures during the eras of antiquity to the Renaissance.
4. Identify and describe key artistic styles in the visual arts of world cultures during the eras of antiquity to the Renaissance.
5. Identify and describe key literary works, styles, and writers from world cultures during the eras of antiquity to the Renaissance.
6. Explore the presence of cultural parallels between the world’s cultures.
7. Examine the influences of intellectual, religious, political, and socio-economic forces on social, cultural, and artistic expressions.
8.      Use technology and information resources to research issues in the study of world cultures.
9. Write clearly and concisely about world cultures using proper writing mechanics.
10.  Demonstrate   their  
knowledge
of   basic   literary,   philosophical,   social,   and   cultural  
developments
that  affect  the  interpretation  of  texts,  artifacts,  and  historical  events.
11. Develop  strategies  on
how  to  read  and/or  interpret
literary  
texts  and  artifacts  from  the  
ancient  world,
such  as  art  objects,  material  remains,  monuments,  inscriptions,  and  so  on.
12. Appraise  information  in
primary  sources  
so  as  to
appreciate  the  values  of  the  ancient  
Greek  culture.
13. Distinguish  the
different  theoretical  approaches  in  evaluating  primary  sources  from  the  
ancient  Greek  world.
14. Create  and  Role
-
play  a  character  based  on  primary  sources,  representing  key positions,
as  outlined  in
the  Student  Reader.
15. Engage
in   debate   through  
improvisation   and   composition   of   consistent,   historically  
accurate  and  carefully  argued  speeches.
Master List assignment
Civilization is a game created in the 1990s by Sid Meier. There is an article on Wikipedia but fans have created sites as well.
Assignment 2.2: The Problem Pitch
INTRODUCTION
This assignment is the first in a series that will result in your 
course-long project. At the end of the course you’ll have a “product 
pitch” for a well-designed and pedagogically-sound educational 
technology. The first step, what you’ll do in this assignment, is to 
identify the problem you would like your project to address. From there,
 you’ll go about incorporating all the elements of a good learning tool,
 resulting in your final pitch.
WHAT TO DO
To start, identify a learning challenge - something that’s hard to 
teach or hard to learn, and which might benefit from additional 
resources and alternate approaches. You should have some experience or 
source that can back up your assertion that there is a need there. In ed
 tech, we always try to start with the problem and figure out what 
technology or design would best address the need.
For example, you might choose high school biology if you have 
been reading about the lack of students interested in STEM careers. Or 
even better, you might get more specific and choose the topic of DNA 
replication if you have a teacher friend who has told you about where 
and how students struggle with those concepts.
Next, craft it into a “problem pitch”  which describes the topic and 
setting, who the learners are, why it’s so challenging, and why it’s 
important. The pitch should include a brief, concrete description of a 
situation in which learning is challenging for any number of reasons. 
Articulate the reasons as best you can. Is it hard because of the nature
 of the content, the context in which it’s taught, or common 
misconceptions? Add credibility by grounding your assertions in some 
evidence, which could include personal experience, observations of your 
own learning, your classroom, relevant academic literature, news 
articles, etc.
Your pitch is focused on the initial idea and by nature probably 
doesn’t have any fancy visuals. So this assignment will most likely 
consist of less than a page of text, perhaps with a few links to support
 your points.
FEEDBACK CRITERIA
Although there is no need for a formal rubric in this assignment, 
these are the areas you should evaluate and respond to for each problem 
pitch you review:
- Does the pitch clearly state the topic to be covered?
 
- Does the pitch describe the setting and/or who the learners are?
 
- How well does the pitch explain why this area is challenging? How strong is the evidence provided?
 
- What other insights, if any, can you provide that would help your classmate refine or develop their focus?
 
Please note that for this assignment, there may or may not be a 
description of how the designer plans to address the learning challenge.
 That is the next step of the process so if it’s mentioned here that’s 
fine, but if not that’s fine too as next week’s assignment will move on 
to that step.
DUE DATE
Technically the only due date is to submit this assignment by the end
 of the course. However, to get the benefit of peer feedback, we stronly
 suggest you 
submit it by the end of Week 2: October 28th.
 After that time the majority of course participants will be moving on 
to Week 3 work and won't be focused on this specific topic.
DELIVERY FORMAT
In week 1 you turned in your assignment through the Peer Review tool.
 This week you will still get feedback from your peers, but in a less 
formal way. Each of you will post your pitch to the forums where it will
 hopefully generate some discussion. Once you post your pitch, please 
read through at least 3 other students’ pitches and comment on them. 
This way if people are drawn to topics they have experience with, the 
person writing the pitch can benefit from that expertise and use their 
classmates as a resource as they develop their idea.
What is Learning?
Activity Break: Learn to Juggle