Digital Pedagogy

On August 9th and 10th, Stu Jordan (Faculty Director, Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) and Emily Sherwood (Director, Digital Scholarship Lab) co-facilitated the Digital Pedagogy Workshop aimed at helping faculty develop a project for a course that utilized digital tools and methods. Ten faculty members from seven departments spent a day and half working with the Digital Scholarship Lab and Outreach Librarians to design, develop, and test-run projects that will be implemented in courses this academic year.

Format

The workshop started with a design thinking exercise led by Alexandra Fredrickson from the iZone. The exercise helped energize the group and primed them for the goal of the workshop: to develop innovative assignments. CETL’s Stu Jordan facilitated the morning session. Faculty articulated goals for their class and discussed challenges in knowing whether or not students had met those goals, particularly for those that are not easily measurable.

Image of faculty working with two library staff on a mapping project.
Stella Wang (Writing, Speaking, and Argument) works with Blair Tinker (DSL) and Kathy Wu (Outreach)

As the morning progressed, faculty focused on the specific assignment they were designing for the workshop. They brainstormed ideas and solutions with Outreach Librarians and members of the Digital Scholarship Lab and drafted their assignments. That collaboration continued in the afternoon as participants turned their efforts to learning the digital tools and methods that their students would use to complete the project.

Image of a faculty member and librarian working on their laptops.
Eileen Daly-Boas (Outreach) and Zeynep Soysal (Philosophy)

On Friday, faculty did a small test-run of the assignment they had developed and continued productive conversations with the library and CETL staff who were there to support them. During a discussion of the challenges of assessing non-traditional assignments, faculty noted the importance of emphasizing the process during these projects and allowing students the opportunity for reflection.

The workshop concluded with a showcase where faculty shared their assignment, discussed challenges they encountered, and identified their next steps in preparing the assignment for implementation. Project examples included: GIS for sedimentary basin analysis; mind mapping to determine the validity of arguments; animations to show facility with Japanese language and culture; and Mediate (a time-based media annotation tool) to help students analyze language, visuals, and emotional content within advertisements. It was exciting to see the range of projects and ideas generated in a short amount of time.

Participants

  • Solveiga Armoskaite (Linguistics)
  • Carmala Garzione (Earth and Environmental Sciences)
  • Ting Huang (Chinese)
  • Whasil Lee (Biomedical Engineering)
  • Rachel O’Donnell (Writing, Speaking, and Argument)
  • Kate Phillips (Writing, Speaking, and Argument)
  • Zeynep Soysal (Philosophy)
  • Mariko Tamate (Japanese)
  • Stella Wang (Writing, Speaking, and Argument)

What’s Next

This fall, CETL and the DSL will continue the conversation around Digital Pedagogy with a faculty learning community. In January, faculty will re-convene to discuss their experiences developing and piloting these projects at a showcase event.

Thanks

Faculty works with library staff to discuss possibilities for a new assignment using digital tools.
Stephanie Barrett (Outreach), Josh Romphf (DSL), Joe Easterly (DSL), and Solveiga Armoskaite (Linguistics)

Many thanks to the faculty for their time, engagement, and willingness to experiment with new tools and methods. Thanks, as well, to Stu Jordan for co-facilitating the workshop. As always, our thanks to Katy Festa (Library Advancement Program Manager) for supporting the workshop. Finally, this workshop wouldn’t have been possible without Blair Tinker, Josh Romphf, and Joe Easterly of the Digital Scholarship Lab and Outreach Librarians Kim Hoffman, Stephanie Barrett, Eileen Daly-Boas, Moriana Garcia, Kristen Totleben, and Kathy Wu. Their expertise, flexibility, and patience made the workshop a success.