There are materials included on the HIS 120 Syllabus Page for every week that are identified as "Optional Extras."  These are resources that you are not required to access.  But you are encouraged to do so..

I have already included substantial reading, viewing, and writing responsibilities as part of the core curriculum (those materials on the Syllabus Page identified as "Reading Assignments" and "Listening And Viewing").

I appreciate that you as individual students enter this course with varied interest levels in the curriculum; that you do not work at the same speeds; and that you have different amounts of time to devote to HIS 120 (though you should consider dropping the class if you are unable or unwilling to devote a few hours each week to the course).

However, there is, in my opinion, just so much worthwhile material available about World History.  I've tried not to overload the common core curriculum.  But I have carefully selected additional worthwhile resources and included those as Optional Extras.

Write about any of these materials at any time in your Journal.  If there is something of particular interest and you do not have time to watch or read it as well as all the regular weekly responsibilities, it is certainly appropriate to do some substituting and mixing and matching.

I am very open to you pushing far beyond the course requirements and regularly accessing many optional extras or going deeply in-depth on a couple of topics of particular interest.  One limitation of a grade-based system is that some of you whose performance is too syncopated with instructor expectations can lack awareness of what you are capable of when you truly push yourself academically.  Part of what I like about the Journal format is its elasticity.  Although your goal should not be to write as many pages as possible, I am very open to you devoting as much time and effort to this course as possible.  If that extra effort leads to a large project of far greater length than what is outlined as the core expectation, that is no burden from my perspective but rather something to be celebrated.