Lone Star Politics- Vantage Learning Platform

Tradition and Transformation in Texas

FAVORITE SAGE VANTAGE FEATURES

Features Instructors Love

Features Students Love

Enables Easy, 3-Step Course Creation. Our simple interface enables you to create your course in minutes so you can focus on content. Just enter your course information, select your assignments and grading preferences, and review your settings.

Drives Student Engagement. An evidence-based learning design integrates text content with frequent multimedia activities and learning assessments to facilitate better student preparation, engagement, and learning retention.

• A student dashboard offers easy access to text content and visually tracks progress on assignments and assessments.
• Study tools, including flashcards and note-taking, highlighting, and definition look-up capabilities, give students all they need for class preparation and course success.
• Assignable Knowledge Checks (with helpful hints) provide formative assessments after each major section of text content to reinforce retention of key concepts.
• Critical Thinking Checks and Chapter Quizzes provide summative assessments at the end of each chapter to measure progress and long-term retention.
• Assignable video activities build critical thinking and data literacy while consistently engaging students in an interactive application of text content.

Ensures Student Accountability. Auto-graded assignments feed your gradebook while instructor reports complement your ability to track student activity, assignment completion, and learning objective mastery. These real-time analytics provide quick insights into individual and class performance for tailoring course instruction to help you address the needs of struggling students.

Delivers First-day-of-class Access and Flexibility. With our 2-week grace period access, all students can use Vantage on the very first day of class. The flexibility to use Vantage on mobile, desktop, or tablet devices means your dynamic Vantage content will consistently be available to learners any time they need it.

Offers Best-in-class Technical Support and Training. Our personalized support for instructors, students, and LMS administrators facilitates an easy transition to Vantage and the quality service you’ve come to expect from SAGE.

• Customizable Learning Management System (LMS) Integration. Our approach to integration empowers you to drive students to the content you want them to see in your LMS immediately following Single Sign On (SSO). In addition, automatic grade sync and full gradebook integration options can bolster timesaving, streamlined access to all your course content.
• Dedicated Technical Support. We are proud to offer robust technical assistance from our team of SAGE educational technology experts based in New York. Instructors and students can access extended weekday and weekend support via phone, email, and online communication.
• Live and Self-Service Training. Synchronous training sessions are available to every Vantage adopter and complement our full suite of self-service “how-to” tools. Guided walk-throughs of basic and advanced Vantage features and live Q & A discussions empower you to personalize your course design and determine how Vantage can best support your teaching goals.

KEY FEATURES OF LONE STAR POLITICS: TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION IN TEXAS, EIGHTH EDITION

New to this Edition:

• A new chapter on civil liberties and civil rights (Chapter 7), focuses on Texas-specific narratives within the broader struggle for civil rights in the United States. The struggles for inclusion by African Americans, Hispanic persons, Native Americans, Asian Americans, women, and LGBTQ+ persons are highlighted, allowing for all students to find themselves represented within the book.
• A greater focus on diversity and inclusion is woven throughout, including the book’s main narrative, feature boxes, data, and photos.
• Chapter objectives linked to section headings and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s (THECB) standards have been updated.

Key Features:

• Chapter objectives and Core Assessment questions align with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s (THECB) Academic Course Guide Manual (ACGM), reinforcing chapter content and ensuring that learning outcomes are achieved.
• Federalism in Action boxes appear in nearly every chapter and highlight city and state issues, such as Texas’s response to COVID-19, campus carry, voter I.D. laws, and transgender bathrooms.
• Texas vs. ______ boxes are an extension of the book’s comparative method, incorporating a data literacy approach that encourages students to think about how Texas differs from other states.
• Texas Legends boxes showcase figures and events that have shaped—and continue to influence—Texas politics. Examples include Sam Houston, Barbara C. Jordan, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and Texas Supreme Court justice Raul Gonzalez.
• Discussion Starters and Active Learning assignments appear at the end of each chapter to help spark conversation in the classroom and promote communication and teamwork.