Category: Assignment Description

Opportunities to earn extra credit will be offered throughout the semester. These may include additional tutorials, workshop attendance, attending a digital humanities related lecture, etc. Opportunities will be made visible in the #general channel of Slack and the Events page of the DH@MSU website (digitalhumanities.msu.edu/calendar/events). A few opportunities will be listed here.

In order to earn extra credit, you must attend one of these events (or another one that you get approval for in advance) and write up 4-5 sentences elaborating on something you learned during the event. Direct message your write up to the instructor in Slack.

Each extra credit activity you do will add 0.5% to your overall grade for the semester. You may earn up to 3% total in extra credit.

Ideas for extra credit opportunities for Fall 2021

• Create your own Walking Harlem tour
• Do a DH Tutorial
  • Select a tutorial from Miriam Posner’s website (http://miriamposner.com/blog/tutorials-ive-written/) and do it. When you have finished, DM the instructors in Mattermost with 2 screenshots from your progress during the lesson, and share your experience of what you learned (and/or struggled with) in at least 4 sentences.
• Programming Historian Lesson
  • Explore the lessons available at Programming Historian (https://programminghistorian.org/en/lessons/) and go through one of them, following along with the lesson. When you have finished, DM the instructors in Mattermost with 2 screenshots from your progress during the lesson, and share your experience of what you learned (and/or struggled with) in at least 4 sentences.
  • Note: Some of these lessons are relatively advanced and might involve coding.
• Attend DH-related virtual events
  • MSU and non-MSU
• Co-Work & Extra Help Time for Final Projects
• Meeting with MSU Libraries Reference Services
  • Go to the reference desk at the Main Library (it’s around the corner from the Circulation Desk) or get in touch with a librarian via email or chat and get help from a librarian in conducting research for your final project. They will be adept at helping you to find scholarly sources which are key for background and context on your topics.
  • Note, you can also setup an appointment with a librarian who has a specialty in the area of research you are exploring instead of just going to the Reference Desk and speaking to whoever happens to be there at the moment.
  • After you meet with the librarian, DM the instructor on Slack, explaining what sources you found with the librarian and in ~4 sentences (or more) what new research strategies you learned.
• Meeting with a Digital Scholarship Librarian

(15% of overall grade)

The exam will include a project critique and will ask students about their understanding of digital humanities.

Students will be sent a link in Slack to the the take-home exam at 5pm ET on Wednesday, November 17. Make a copy of the exam and fill it out, adding your name to the document, and turn it in to the instructor as a direct message in Slack by 11am ET on Friday, November 19.

(7% of overall grade)

Introduction and goals

Digital Humanities projects come in many forms, rely on a wide array of data types, and involve any manner of technologies. In this assignment, you will critically examine the goals, methods, and materials behind a DH project. Becoming accustomed to navigating a project site and exploring how each project approached its data, process, and presentation is a crucial skill for this class.

Description

For the third project critique, choose one project to evaluate from the list of projects below:

• O Say Can You See – https://earlywashingtondc.org/
• Monroe and Florence Work Today – https://plaintalkhistory.com/monroeandflorencework/
• Shakespeare & Company Project – https://shakespeareandco.princeton.edu/
• Closer to Van Eyck – http://closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be/
• Land Grab U – https://www.landgrabu.org/
• Witches in Early Modern Scotland – https://witches.is.ed.ac.uk/
• Family Letters – https://familyletters.unl.edu/en
• Visualizing Early Baltimore – https://earlybaltimore.org/
• Derrida’s Margins – https://derridas-margins.princeton.edu/
• Codex Atlanticus – ​​https://codex-atlanticus.it/
• Carrying Our Ancestors Home – https://coah-repat.com/home

Use the Project Evaluation Template to examine the project. In class, you will share your project evaluation as a presentation with slides (instead of turning in the filled out template document). Turn in your slides via Slack at the beginning of class. You will have 7 minutes to present on the project, and you should cover all of the sections of the Template in that time. You will be graded based on the information provided in the presentation, but any information included in your slides that you don’t get to in the presentation will help your grade.

Rubric

• Project Background and Goals (20%)
• Presentation (30%)
• Material and data (50%)

(5% of overall grade)

Introduction and goals

Digital Humanities projects come in many forms, rely on a wide array of data types, and involve any manner of technologies. In this assignment, you will critically examine the goals, methods, and materials behind a DH project. Becoming accustomed to navigating a project site and exploring how each project approached its data, process, and presentation is a crucial skill for this class.

Description

For the second project critique, choose one project to evaluate from the list of projects below:

• American Religious Sounds Project – https://religioussounds.osu.edu
• The Suffrage Postcard Project – https://thesuffragepostcardproject.omeka.net
• Richard Pryor’s Peoria – https://www.becomingrichardpryor.com/pryors-peoria
• Colonial Frontier Massacres in Central and Eastern Australia, 1788-1930 – https://c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres
• A Street Near You – https://astreetnearyou.org
• Women of the Early Harlem Renaissance – https://scalar.lehigh.edu/harlemwomen/index

The Project Evaluation Template includes descriptions for each of the sections and question prompts. Be as thorough in your responses as you can.

Make a copy of the Project Evaluation Template, rename it to include your last name, and fill it out, being sure to respond to each section. Don’t forget to insert your name, the title of the project, and the project’s URL at the top of the document. Turn in the Project Critique in Slack by the beginning of class.

Rubric

• Project Background and Goals (20%)
• Presentation (30%)
• Material and data (50%)

(5% of overall grade)

Originally due Mon, 10/18 – extended to be due at the beginning of class on Fri, 10/22.

Introduction and goals

Digital Humanities projects come in many forms, rely on a wide array of data types, and involve any manner of technologies. In this assignment, you will critically examine the goals, methods, and materials behind a DH project. Becoming accustomed to navigating a project site and exploring how each project approached its data, process, and presentation is a crucial skill for this class.

Description

For this first project critique, everyone will evaluate the same project in class: Navigating the Green Book (http://publicdomain.nypl.org/greenbook-map/).

The Project Evaluation Template includes descriptions for each of the sections and question prompts. Be as thorough in your responses as you can. We will go over the template and discuss the sections during class.

Make a copy of the Project Evaluation Template, rename it to include your last name, and fill it out, being sure to respond to each section. Don’t forget to insert your name, the title of the project, and the project’s URL at the top of the document. Turn in the Project Critique in Slack as a direct message to Kristen by the beginning of class, Friday, October 22 Monday, October 18. If you thoroughly complete the template, then you will receive full credit for this assignment. Partially completed critiques will lose points.

(9% of overall grade)

Introduction and goals

While students will have exposure to several DH tools and methods in class during the semester, there are many additional options for data collection, management, and visualization. In preparing for this presentation, students will gain experience in critically analyzing a DH tool by asking questions about its context, audience, and use cases. By sharing this tool with the class, students will share newly-gained expertise and learn from each other. After these presentations, students will also have a better sense of what options they will have for pursuing the final project.

Description

Each student will present a digital humanities tool to the class. The tool will come from the list below (or at the approval of the instructor).

In a 6 minute presentation, address the following questions:

• Background and technology:
  • Who made this tool or platform? Who maintains it now? (this could be individual(s), companies, or a combination of the two) 
  • Where in the world is the tool based? 
  • What background can you find about the tool? 
  • How long has it been around? Is it updated regularly?
  • Is it open source? (definition of open source) 
  • Is it freely available? Does it operate on a freemium pay model? Was it funded by government or foundation grants?
  • Who is its primary audience? (K-12 students and teachers? Journalists? Data scientists? Humanists? Non-profits?)
• Use cases:
  • What is the tool capable of doing? 
  • What is it most commonly used for?
• What are its strengths?
• What are its limitations?

While providing a live demo of the tool may be useful, plan to have backup slides with screenshots in case the technology/connectivity fails on the day of the presentation.

Students are encouraged but not required to use the provided slides template for their presentation. Slides are not graded on their own, but they are a key component to a successful presentation because they help keep presentations to time and provide structure. Students are strongly encouraged to include slides with screenshots of projects instead of clicking out to live project websites. This encouragement is for two reasons: 1) in case the live site crashes or connectivity goes down, the project can still be shown; and, 2) to help keep the presentation to time. For more tips on creating effective slides, see the Tips for Successful Slides page. 

Tool Options

All tools below are welcome topics for the Tool Presentation assignment. The groupings are meant to provide a bit of additional information for students to understand how the tools might relate to the final project.

Tools around which you can build a final project:

1. Tableau – https://public.tableau.com/ (visualization, mapping, etc)
2. Twine – http://twinery.org/ (gaming)
3. TAGS – https://tags.hawksey.info/  (twitter collection)
4. GraphCommons – https://graphcommons.com/ (networks)
5. Palladio – http://hdlab.stanford.edu/palladio/ (networks, mapping)
6. Esri StoryMap – http://storymaps.arcgis.com/  (narrative mapping)
7. Airtable – https://airtable.com/ (databases)
8. Vistorian – http://vistorian.net/ (maps, networks)
9. Onodo – https://onodo.org/ (networks)
10. CollectionBuilder – https://collectionbuilder.github.io/ (archiving)

Tools that can help with a final project but aren’t quite enough to be the final project:

1. StoryMap JS – https://storymap.knightlab.com/ (narrative mapping)
2. Tiki-Toki – https://www.tiki-toki.com/ (timeline)
3. Timeline JS – http://timeline.knightlab.com/  (timeline)
4. MapWarper – http://mapwarper.net/ (georectifying maps)
5. OpenRefine – http://openrefine.org/ (data cleaning)
6. RAW Graphs – https://rawgraphs.io/ (visualization)
7. Tabula – https://tabula.technology/ (transforming tables into data)
8. Tropy – https://tropy.org/ (data organization)
9. Distant Reader – https://distantreader.org (text analysis)

Rubric

• Analysis (70%)
  • Provides a thorough background on and context of the tool (30%)
  • Provides multiple examples of how the tool can be used (20%)
  • Analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of the tool, providing at least one of each (20%)
• Presentation Skills (30%)
  • Appropriate use of time (did not finish too early or over time) (5%)
  • Presentation is organized and flows naturally (10%)
  • Communication is clear, engaging, and polished (including, eye contact with audience members, did not speak too fast or too slow) (10%)
  • Used slides that enhanced the presentation (5%)

(9% of overall grade)

Introduction and Goals

Digital Humanities work is done in a variety of fields, each of which favor different approaches and methodologies. In preparing for this presentation, students will become familiar with concrete examples of DH work and a range of approaches to DH in an area of the humanities. By sharing their newly gained experience with the class, students will develop comfort in discussing DH trends and learn from each other. 

Description

Each student will present on digital humanities approaches within a particular field. While more than one student may end up covering a humanities field, each presentation will be given individually. The presentation should reference at least one scholarly source (for example, an article in academic journals, materials on Humanities Commons, or an academic book. Scholarly sources do not include things such as the History Channel website, news articles, Wikipedia, etc) and include an example of a DH project. Students may use the Research Supplement document as a guide for research and may showcase a project example from the guide, but any sources or projects used from that document do not count towards this requirement.

In a 6 minute presentation, address the following questions:

• What methods of DH are used in this area of study? (for example: mapping, text analysis, digital editions, network analysis, digital archiving, etc)
  
• What are some of the well known DH projects in the discipline? (feel free to mention as many as you like, but spend time discussing one project)
  • Use the Project Evaluation Template to share information about the project you are highlighting. Be sure to cover the “Project Background and Goals” section of the Template in the presentation.

Students should use slides for their presentation. Slides are not graded on their own, but they are a key component to a successful presentation because they help keep presentations to time and provide structure. Students are strongly encouraged to include slides with screenshots of projects instead of clicking out to live project websites. This encouragement is for two reasons: 1) in case the live site crashes or connectivity goes down, the project can still be shown; and, 2) to help keep the presentation to time. For more tips on creating effective slides, see the Suggestions for Successful Slides document. 

Field options:

• Art History
• English
• History
• Linguistics
• Philosophy
• Religious Studies
• Archaeology
• Anthropology
• Theater
• Classics

Rubric

• Research (70%)
  • Presentation reflects research using at least one scholarly source, which is cited during the presentation.
  • Provides examples of DH methods commonly employed in the field
  • Discussed at least one DH project, providing background and project goals information, as prompted by the Project Evaluation Template
  • Provides a narrative of the discipline’s relationship to DH
• Presentation Skills (30%)
  • Appropriate use of time (did not finish too early or over time)
  • Presentation is organized and flows naturally
  • Communication is clear, engaging, and polished (including, eye contact with audience members, did not speak too fast or too slow)
  • Used slides that enhanced the presentation