Surveying  Digital  Humani1es  at  Small  Liberal  Arts  Colleges  

Rebecca  Frost  Davis  Director  of  Instruc1onal  and  

Emerging  Technology  St.  Edward’s  University  

 

NITLE  Digital  Humani1es  Ini1a1ve  

•  Finding  pockets  of  innova1on  •  Connec1ng  into  coherent,  collabora1ve  effort    •  Advance  the  development  of  digital  humani1es  at  liberal  arts  colleges  

•  Promote  the  valuable  contribu1ons  these  colleges  make  to  and  within  the  broader  digital  humani1es  movement  

DH  and  Liberal  Educa1on  

Alexander  &  Davis.  “Should  Liberal  Arts  Campuses  Do  Digital  Humani8es?  Process  and  Products  in  the  Small  College  World.”  In  Debates  in  the  Digital  Humani0es,  ed.  MaPhew  K.  Gold.  Minneapolis:  University  of  Minnesota  Press,  2012.  

Defining  Liberal  Educa1on  

•  Small,  residen1al,  private,  bachelors  gran1ng  college  

•  Study  of  the  liberal  arts  and  sciences  •  Prepara1on  &  skills  for  democra1c  ci1zenship  •  Pedagogical  methodology  &  prac1ces    

 -­‐-­‐Jo  Ellen  Parker,  “What’s  So  Liberal  About  Higher  Ed?”  

Academic  Commons  

High  Impact  Prac1ces  (Kuh)  

•  First-­‐Year  Seminars  and  Experiences  

•  Common  Intellectual  Experience  

•  Learning  Communi1es  •  Wri1ng-­‐Intensive  Courses  

•  Collabora1ve  Assignments  and  Projects  

•  Undergraduate  Research  

•  Diversity/Global  Learning  

•  Service  Learning,  Community-­‐Based  Learning  

•  Internships  •  Capstone  Courses  and  Projects  

NITLE  Survey  of  Digital  Humani1es  at  Liberal  Arts  Colleges  

•  AY  2012-­‐2013:  survey  &  interviews  •  Current  results  – 32  ins1tu1ons  – 50  responses  

•  Ques1ons  – Ac1vi1es  – Support  – curriculum  

faculty  

library  

administrator  

IT  

museum  

Why  DH?  (individual)  

0%# 5%# 10%# 15%# 20%# 25%# 30%#

future#scholarship#

individual#interest#

digital#literacy#

pedagogy#

collab;undergrad;research#

student#engagement#

public#mission#

liberal#educa=on#

student#marketability#

online#learning#

recrui=ng#

Ins1tu1onal  Structure  

Center&

Ini)a)ve&

Group&

Projects&

None&

Curricular  Structure  

•  Of  32  ins1tu1ons  surveyed:    – 1  has  a  major,  minor,  or  program  – 4  have  a  digital  humani1es  course,  e.g.,  Introduc1on  to  Digital  Humani1es  – 23  have  courses  with  some  Digital  Humani1es  

Avenues  to  Engage  Undergrads  in  Digital  Humani1es  

0%# 10%# 20%# 30%# 40%# 50%# 60%# 70%#

Coursework#

Undergrad#Research#

Thesis/Project#

Work#

Internship#

What’s  in  a  Name?  

•  Digital  Humani1es  •  Digital  Scholarship  (Occidental  College)  •  Digital  Studies  (Davidson  College)  •  Digital  Pedagogy  (Whiher  College)  •  Digital  Liberal  Arts  (Great  Lakes  College  Associa1on)