The History of Alaska: America's Last Frontier? 10-month Subscription
From Indigenous roots to oil booms, this 16-week high school course packs on-location videos, source documents, and narrative lessons into a credit-earning, no-boring-bits trek across Alaska.
$149
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Please note: this item is non-refundable.
The History of Alaska: America's Last Frontier?
The History of Alaska: America’s Last Frontier? is a one-semester high school course that examines Alaska’s history from Indigenous cultures through modern political and environmental debates.Students begin with the Tlingit, Haida, Athabaskans, Yupiit, Iñupiat, and Unangax̂, then move through Russian fur trading, the U.S. purchase, the Klondike gold rush, World War II activity in the Aleutians, Cold War infrastructure, oil development, and current questions about land, identity, and resource use.
The course is structured around four components each week: on-location video filmed across Alaska, document-based lessons, primary source readings, and narrative text. Together, these give students multiple ways to work through the material while building context over time.
The emphasis is on understanding how these events connect. Students examine how economic, political, and cultural forces overlap, rather than studying each period in isolation.
Guided notes, quizzes, and written responses provide structure and accountability. Quizzes are automatically graded, while written work is evaluated using provided rubrics.
Parents are supported with grading tools, answer keys, and a full dashboard in the self-graded version, making it easier to track progress and assign credit.
Families can choose between a self-paced, graded course or an enrichment option without grading. Both follow the same content and structure.
This course meets the Alaska Studies requirement and typically counts as ½ credit, based on approximately 65 hours of work over a semester.
By the end, students can connect events that are often taught separately—seeing how trade, war, resource development, and Alaska Native claims all shape the state’s history.
Note: Some course materials may include historical artwork with partial nudity.
How to Use The History of Alaska
- Start by setting a weekly pace. The course is designed to be completed over 16 weeks, totaling about 65 hours of work.
- Have your student work through each session in order. Each one combines video, reading, primary sources, and guided notes. Therefore, it works best when used as a complete sequence rather than skipping between parts.
- Plan for sessions to take between 30 and 90 minutes. Some topics will move quickly, while others benefit from a slower pace.
- Use the quizzes and written responses to check understanding. Quizzes are automatically scored, while written work can be evaluated using the provided rubrics.
- Choose the grading option that fits your needs. The self-graded version includes dashboards, answer keys, and a built-in gradebook. At the same time, the enrichment option allows for a lighter approach.
- Keep track of completed work as you go. This makes it easy to document the ½ credit at the end of the course.
- As your student moves through the material, encourage him to notice how the events connect—how trade, conflict, and resource development shape the same story over time.
- Unit 1: The Na-Dene and the Eskimo-Aleut
- Unit 2: The European Arrival
- Unit 3: Fur!
- Unit 4: A New American Frontier
- Unit 5: Gold!
- Unit 6: Alaska Territory
- Unit 7: Alaska and World War II
- Unit 8: State of Alaska
- Unit 9: Oil!
- Unit 10: Alaska in the 21st Century
Publisher: The Nomadic Professor
Author: Dr. William Kesler Jackson & Nate Noorlander
Age Recommendation: 14+
Grade Recommendation: 9th Grade+
Faith-Based: No
Subscription Info: Online 10-Month Subscription
System Requirements: Internet access
Lessons/Projects: 10 Units, made up of 5 sessions each
Format: Online
Copyright: 2025
Typical High School Credits Earned: .5 credit History course
The History of Alaska fulfills the hours and content requirements for the credits listed above. Students, instructors, supervisors, and/or parents should organize coursework into a portfolio that can be used to justify the credits and grades claimed on final high school transcripts. The Nomadic Professor does not provide the high school transcript. Each Nomadic Course comes with an Instructor’s Guide with further details about how to document hours and content for transcript credit.
Receive complimentary access to The History of Free Speech course with any Timberdoodle purchase of The Nomadic Professor!
Find answers to the most frequently asked questions about this product below:
After you place your order (usually within a few days), the team at The Nomadic Professor will reach out to you for enrollment information. They will ask what date you plan to begin the course and what email addresses you'd like to use for the instructor and student. The Nomadic Professor grants access to the course two weeks prior to the date you plan to begin so you can poke around and familiarize yourself with the course layout before getting started.
The daily online quizzes are graded automatically and recorded in the student's grade book. A parent or instructor must grade the other assignments and manually enter the scores into the grade book. In some cases, students can be trained to assess their own work, perhaps overseen by a supervisor, but this should be decided case by case. To assist with grading student work, all graded assignments include (1) an answer key and (2) an easy-to-use checklist rubric. In most cases, teachers can grade student work in a few minutes a day or in short sessions at the end of each week. The grade book is pre-weighted and will immediately reflect changes as you enter new scores. Further grading guidance is included within the course as part of the course Instructor's Guide.
The Nomadic Professor provides helpful video instructions, including introductory videos you can view before beginning the course and explanatory videos embedded within the course.
From the publisher: "The short answer is that Nomadic Courses actively avoid partisanship, ideology, and dogma. While we can’t (and don’t want to) escape the narrative we find most convincing, we are forthright with the students: we constantly remind them that they are reading an argument, not an authoritative, voiceless textbook, posing as The Final Answer. Further, we actively and rigorously train them in how to identify evidence and challenge conclusions, even our own evidence and conclusions, while avoiding the unnecessary headache of pretending that 'all answers are equally valid.' If you’re interested in a longer answer, you can read our full blog post on this question."
The courses are designed to be accessible to a range of students. Dr. Jackson’s content is as rigorous as the college courses he teaches, which makes it appropriate for college students and adult learners.
But the publisher also provides a unique level of support throughout each session and unit, which means the courses are a very good fit for high school students as well. (Families and classrooms will have to make case-by-case judgments about how well the content is suited for advanced middle school students.) Every session comes with clear expectations, guided notes (with an answer key), vocabulary, guidance in vocabulary retention, and quizzes (with feedback for nearly every question). Every unit also features a document lesson (with an answer key) that comes with video guidance from Nate, where he spends time in the sources with the student, modeling how to read like a historian.
We believe that our community, Nomad Nation, offers a valuable supplement to our online courses, by allowing parents, teachers, and students to communicate with other parents, teachers, and students. However, it is only a supplement to the course, and a student will not miss any content if they opt out. When you sign up for the course you will get a follow-up email inviting you to the community, which you may ignore without losing any of the awesome benefits the core course has to offer.
The text and on-location videos in each course were written by the Nomadic Professor. The scaffolding and guidance in each course were developed by Nate Noorlander.
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