Fall 2024 | Tu/Th 9:30am-10:50am | UH 08 | 3 credit hours

Assignments

The majority of coursework for this class will be creating your digital portfolios. We will use Reclaim Hosting to set up a personal website in WordPress. Each week, we will learn a new tool or new issue in the field of digital history. After practicing the tools and/or thinking critically about the topic, you will publicly post your work on your portfolio by the start of the following class. These weekly activities are meant to be introductions to each tool and topic and will build on each other as the semester progresses.

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Blog Post #1: DH Project Review

Due: Tuesday, August 27

For your first assignment, write a blog post that reviews one of the digital history projects listed below. Be sure to address the five areas outlined in the Organization of American Historian’s guidelines for reviewing DH projects that we discussed in class and include screenshots (with alt text and captions) of the project. Turn in the link to your post on Canvas.

• Content: What historical topic, period, and place does it cover? What is the purpose of the project? What sources is the project based on? What arguments or interpretations does it make?
• Design: Is the content clearly communicated? Does the structure make it easy for a user to navigate through the site? How accessible is the site for individuals of all abilities?
• Audience: Who is the audience for the site?
• Digital Media: What digital tools and technologies does the project use? How was the project built?
• Creators: Who created it, and who did what work on the project? Who funded them?

Projects for Review:

• Geography of the Post
• Electing the President, 1840-2020
• Histories of the National Mall
• Mapping Occupation: US Army Posts during Reconstruction
• Locating London’s Past
• September 11th Digital Archive
• ReSounding the Archives
• Colored Conventions Project and Digital Records
• Old Bailey Online
• Mining the Dispatch
• Photogrammar
• Valley of the Shadow

Blog Post #2: Digitization

Due: Tuesday, September 10

You will write a blog post about our visit to Special Collections and the Digitization Lab at UTA Libraries. You can also draw from the class readings on the syllabus. Your post should address the following questions:

• What did you learn about the process and workflow of digitizing primary sources? How do sources get from the physical form to the digital? 
• What technologies and tools are involved in digitization?
• Who performs the labor of digitization? Is that labor visible or invisible, and how so?
• What are the accessibility concerns when digitizing historical materials?
• How do archival collections and digitized materials create arguments?
• What is gained and what is lost when digitizing a vast array of historical materials? Do those gains and losses differ based on the type of primary source?
• What stood out to you or surprised you during the visit?

Grading Rubric for Blog Posts

Blog posts will be assessed based on the following criteria. Each post is worth 10 points:

• Organization: The post is focused, organized, and clearly answers the prompt in the required word length (at least 200-300 words for undergraduate level and 350-500 words for graduate level). 
• Engagement with Topic: The author illustrates in-depth engagement with the topic by referencing the readings and projects for the week and relevant in-class activities.
• Media: Appropriate and relevant images, screenshots, links, and/or videos are embedded within the post with alt text and captions.
• Citations: The post uses citations in the Chicago style for all sources used. 
• Writing Style: The post is written in a casual academic style with complete sentences and correct grammar.

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Mini Skill #1: Setting Up a WordPress Site

Due: Tuesday, August 27

Together in class, we will install WordPress through Reclaim Hosting.

After setting up your digital portfolio in class, put a link to your site in Canvas and in the #digital-portfolios channel in our class Slack group.

Mini Skill #2: Zotero Part 1

Due: Tuesday, September 3

Together in class, we will download and learn how to use Zotero. Join the HIST 4385 Group Library: https://www.zotero.org/groups/5640463/hist_4385 (you must be registered and logged into zotero online first). Using JSTOR, the UTA library catalog, and other library databases, find a book AND a journal article on a topic that interests you about the era of the American Revolution (For grad students, find a book and an article on your research topic if you prefer). Add the items to the group library for our class.

Mini Skill #2: Zotero Part 2

Due: Tuesday, September 17

Using at least two of the different digital collections we looked at in class, find five primary sources. Add your sources to the HIST 4385 Group Library: https://www.zotero.org/groups/5640463/hist_4385 in Zotero (you must be registered and logged into zotero online first). Then, write a blog post in your portfolio that cites the sources using Chicago Style citations in the note format. For each source, be sure to also include which database they came from. Summarize the sources in one sentence each. Discuss what you learned from analyzing these sources and what you learned from researching sources online.