Digitizing the Humanities: Codifying Project Processes

While Enhancing Critical Thinking Skills

© Center for Educational Resources, Johns Hopkins University 2004. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

Who we are

Center for Educational Resources

Johns Hopkins University

Theron Feist, Sr. Information Technology Specialist

Rae Brosnan, Sr. Information Technology Specialist

Mike Reese, Assistant Director

Agenda

• Arthur Vining Davis Foundation Mini Grant Program

• Framework: Program, Project, and Technology Development Standards

• Questions & Answers

AVD Mini Grant Program Dynamics

The Grant : $200K awarded from Arthur Vining Davis Foundation in early 2001

The Objective: To develop critical thinking skills in humanities courses

The Team: Small CER staff and no established project teams.

The Program: No established processes or protocols. Minimal grant prescribed guidelines.

High Level Process Overview

Course /Project 1

Course /Project 2

Course /Project X

TechnologyDevelopment

2

3

Development Standards

3-Tiered Process Management Scheme

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TechnologyDevelopment

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ject

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TechnologyDevelopment

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ject

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nd

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Reporting Standards ProjectReports

Ag

gre

ga

te

ProgramReports

Program 1

Program Level

Program Level Objectives

• Define overarching goals, requirements, and standards

• Define application criteria for individual project awards

• Establish application guidelines and deadlines

• Solicit applications• Compile, review, analyze

applications• Identify and award winners• Determine High Level

Evaluation Plan

1

Program

All

Pro

ject

s In

he

rit

Pro

gra

m S

tan

da

rds

Tier 1: The Program

Existing Organizational /Program Standards

Define Goals,Requirements,

StandardsR

eq

uire

men

ts In

form

App

lica

tion

EstablishApplicationGuidelines,

Criteria, Deadlines

Application ReinforcesProgram Standards

Compile,Review, SelectProject Awards

Projects

Program Application

Application Process Purpose• Define current course dynamics and structure• Communicate course objectives• Describe potential solutions• Determine faculty commitment to the project

Application Process Benefits• Facilitates faculty ownership and buy-in• Sets expectations for faculty and CER• Informs project level needs analysis• Preliminary definition of project scope

Proposals Accepted

• Intro. to the History of European Art I & II• Intro. to Fiction and Poetry I & II• Intro. to Film• Great Books: The Western Tradition• Museum Studies• History of Florence• Philosophy• Photography – The Documentary Tradition• The American West

Project Examples

Introduction to Film

• Well established course

• Strong history and course structure

• Data collected from past students

• Film-based learning objectives

• Critical thinking-based learning objectives

Great Books: The Western Tradition

• New course with no JHU History

• One out of four instructors / departments in place

• Primary goal was to build course, technology tools were secondary (but also essential)

• Logistics and partnerships were key initial focus

• Reading, writing, and discussion intensive

Introduction to the Study of Film

Project Level

Course /Project 1

Course /Project 2

Course /Project X

TechnologyDevelopment

2

3

Development Standards

3-Tiered Process Management Scheme

Re-usableProducts

Pr o

gr a

m S

tan

da

r ds

Pro

ject

Sta

nd

ard

s

TechnologyDevelopment

Pro

ject

Sta

nd

ard

s

TechnologyDevelopment

Pro

ject

Sta

nd

ard

s

1

Reporting Standards ProjectReports

Ag

gre

ga

te

ProgramReports

Program 1

Defining Project Level Objectives

Project Level Objectives

• Define course environment and objectives in further detail

• Identify project team members• Identify resources to build/implement• Define evaluation process• Begin to discuss ownership and hand-off• Report on project progress to the CER

Director

2

1) Analysis

Evaluation and Reporting Process

AcceptedProposal

DetailedObjectives

Team /Resource

Identification

4) Implement2) Design 3) Develop 5) Sustain

Fe

ed

ba

ck

StandardReports

Fe

ed

ba

ck

Fe

ed

ba

ck

Tier 2: The ProjectE

xp

an

d A

na

lys

isfr

om

Pro

po

sa

lU

se

Sta

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ard

Re

so

urc

e P

oo

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se

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oD

efi

ne

Ev

alu

ati

on

Project Analysis Example

Introduction to Film

• Survey existing course resources

• Interview faculty and past students

• Analyze past performance

Great Books: The Western Tradition

• Interview primary faculty and participating faculty in detail

• Review existing materials from past, similar courses

• Examine technology solutions to meet faculty goals

Introduction to the Study of Film

Project Staffing

• CER staff act as PM• Additional faculty• Other departmental staff• Resource librarians• TAs / AVD Fellows• Departmental IT specialists• Undergraduate staff• Enterprise IT specialists

Project Management Tools

Building from a common framework provided by the ADDIE model we set additional standards in order to manage projects in a uniform fashion. These included the following:

• Standard Budget Templates• Standard Project Plan Format• Documented Common Goals• Common Data Collection

Template via Web Based Surveys (PPI)

• Standard Reporting Format for Monthly Project Reports

Analyze

Design

Develop

Implement Evaluate

Monthly Reporting Template

I. Project Description

II. Project ProgressA. Past Month Milestones

B. Past Month Milestones Detailed

C. Future Month Milestones

III. Issues/Concerns

Common Evaluation Approach

• PPI

• Focus Groups

• Faculty Interviews (pre and post)

• Student Interviews

• Student/faculty surveys

A Common Evaluation Data Collection Tool

Standard data collection template for Participant Performance IndexDeveloped at University of Michigan

Technology Development Level

Course /Project 1

Course /Project 2

Course /Project X

TechnologyDevelopment

2

3

Development Standards

3-Tiered Process Management Scheme

Re-usableProducts

Pr o

gra

m S

tan

da

r ds

Pro

ject

Sta

nd

ard

s

TechnologyDevelopment

Pro

ject

Sta

nd

ard

s

TechnologyDevelopment

Pro

ject

Sta

nd

ard

s

1

Reporting Standards ProjectReports

Ag

gre

ga

te

ProgramReports

Program 1

Technology Development Level Objectives

Technology Development Level Objectives

• Implement new resources• Conduct formative and

summative evaluation • Recommend next steps and

improvements• Identify new funding

opportunities • Ensure sustainability of project

/ grant / technology deployments

4) Implement2) Design 3) Develop 5) Sustain

Re-usableProducts

TechnologySelection

Clarify SupportRoles

Build vs. Buy

Design forReUse

Seek Fundingfor Expansion

ClarifyImplementation

Roles

ApplyDevelopment

Standards

3

Develop forReuse

DevelopIterative

Prototypes

DocumentProcess and

Tools

DevelopTraining

Programs

RecommendNext Steps

Tier 3: The Tools / Technologies

Support & Sustainability

Project TeamIdentifies Technology Needs

Departmental / Enterprise IT Staff

Technology Development Support Process

CER IT staffmanages all internaltechnology projects

SoftwareDevelopment

Requireddetermine long

term hosting andsupport solution

CER IT staff reviews needs and helps determinesupport requirements. IT staff proposes ways toleverage enterprise wide infrastructure solutions.

No DevelopmentRequired,

use existinginfrastructure

Make liaison with department / enterprise ITstaff for integration into the development/

support process from day 1!

Sustainability Example

Issues and Recommendations

Issues Recommendations

Many students reported the online film clips do not play, are choppy, lose sound or picture, and in general don’t work well.

TAs: Review the clips on multiple machines in various settings (on campus, off campus) and investigate methods to reduce the clip size.

There are too many online film clips; students feel obligated to view all of them because they aren’t able to distinguish which one(s) are most important.

TAs and faculty: Reduce the number of clips online and/or rank or rate the clips as to their importance to the concept.

Introduction to Film ResultsArt History Results

Issues Recommendations

Glossary would be more useful if it contained images in definitions.

Add images to glossary for some words.

Link words defined in the glossary when they are used within another word’s definition

Hotlink glossary definitions.

Random Image ID Activity – Give instructions to maximize screen to help visibility

Add to instructions for activity

Add a link to the textbook’s web site (Stockstad at Prentice Hall)

Working group will discuss; probably not appropriate because of nature of Stokstad’s activities on the web site – could be confusing to students.

High Level Process Overview

Course /Project 1

Course /Project 2

Course /Project X

TechnologyDevelopment

2

3

Development Standards

3-Tiered Process Management Scheme

Re-usableProducts

Pr o

gra

m S

tan

da

r ds

Pro

ject

Sta

nd

ard

s

TechnologyDevelopment

Pro

ject

Sta

nd

ard

s

TechnologyDevelopment

Pro

ject

Sta

nd

ard

s

1

Reporting Standards ProjectReports

Ag

gre

ga

te

ProgramReports

Program 1

The Real Story

• It’s never easy for faculty to separate from the existing support structure and team

• It’s hard to establish CER staff as project manager while instilling ownership in faculty

• Finding department resources to maintain project resources is difficult

• Large teams can be difficult to manage

Successes

• We funded 11 projects instead of 4

• Resources are being adopted by other courses within departments (and beyond)

• Librarians are now working with faculty in different areas

• Multidisciplinary approach being adopted

• Undergraduates get valuable opportunity

• New funding being attracted

Thank You

For more information about the projects:http://cer.jhu.edu

• Documentary Traditions: mreese@jhu.edu

• Introduction to Film: rae.brosnan@jhu.edu

• Great Books: tfeist@jhu.edu