Course Offerings

Winter 2024▲

See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.

Introduction to Digital Culture and Information

DCI 101 - Brooks, Mackenzie K.

What does it mean to be a citizen of a digital world? How do you think critically about the ways that technology shapes our society? How do you learn new digital skills when platforms are constantly changing? How do you find and use information effectively without being overwhelmed or misled? Through hands-on activities and project-based learning, this course serves as an introduction to the study of digital culture and information. Students will develop the critical capacity and technological fluency necessary to understand, analyze, critique, and create in a world dominated by digital media, software algorithms, and information overload.

Topics in Digital Culture and Information: Geospatial Analytics

DCI 295A - Tombarge, John W.

Engaged citizenship in a global and diverse society requires individuals to understand the social and economic situations wherein people live. This class will provide students with the tools to do just that by introducing methods of geospatial analysis for research and strategic communications. Maps offer an effective way to convey information, and, with geospatial analysis in their research toolset, students will be able to create maps that allow their readers to visualize the relevant data. In this class, students will form research questions, find appropriate data, and apply geospatial analytic tools to study social issues and reach informed conclusions. Students need no specific technical experience as the class will introduce a suite of Geographic Information Systems software and geospatial tools.

Creating Digital Scholarship Seminar

DCI 393 - Kiser, Paula S.

This seminar provides students with the skills, theoretical background, and methodological support to transform a work of traditional scholarship within an academic discipline into a public-facing work of digital scholarship. Students decide on a digital project in consultation with classmates and the instructor. Students survey and analyze examples of digital scholarship to determine what form each student's project should take.

Fall 2023▲

See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.

Introduction to Digital Culture and Information

DCI 101 - Teaff, Elizabeth A. / Clear, Mattie

What does it mean to be a citizen of a digital world? How do you think critically about the ways that technology shapes our society? How do you learn new digital skills when platforms are constantly changing? How do you find and use information effectively without being overwhelmed or misled? Through hands-on activities and project-based learning, this course serves as an introduction to the study of digital culture and information. Students will develop the critical capacity and technological fluency necessary to understand, analyze, critique, and create in a world dominated by digital media, software algorithms, and information overload.

FS: First Year Seminar: Every Map Tells a Story

DCI 180A - Tombarge, John W.

Place-based technologies permeate our lives, from the location services on our smartphones to the spatial-decision support systems that guide applications in areas such as disaster management, health care and public health, digital humanities, resource and water management, urban and regional planning, sustainability, and business analytics. This class will investigate the power of maps and spatial data to document and illustrate local and global issues. Learn how to use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to explore the world around you and share ideas. Apply GIS principles and tools to create your own maps and tell your own stories.

Digital Collections and Exhibits

DCI 201 - Kiser, Paula S.

Students explore W&L's history through primary sources in Special Collections and Archives to develop a public-facing online collection of materials and a narrative exhibit. This course teaches students how to plan and implement a digital collection and exhibit from the initial concept through the final project.

Topics in Digital Culture and Information: Digital Editions

DCI 295D - Brooks, Mackenzie K.

Can we trust text? What happens on the journey from handwritten manuscript to your phone screen? Does the meaning change when the format changes? How do the hands of editors, publishers, printers alter a work? When we can search millions of books in an instant, how do we find nuance in the materiality of text? This course explores the definitions, purposes, and uses of scholarly editions of literary and historic texts in the digital age. Using material from Leyburn Library's Special Collections and Archives, we will work together to build our own digital edition. Along the way, students will learn foundational tech skills for digital publishing.

Directed Individual Study: Oral Histories

DCI 403A - Kiser, Paula S.

A course designed for students who wish to undertake a digital scholarship project of their own conception and execution. Applications must be approved by the department and accepted by the student’s proposed director. In consultation with a director, students plan an independent course of study which must culminate in the production of a work of public-facing digital scholarship. May be repeated for degree credit if the topics are different

Spring 2023▲

See complete information about these courses in the course offerings database. For more information about a specific course, including course type, schedule and location, click on its title.

Topics in Digital Culture and Information: Crowdsourcing on the Internet

DCI 295C - Vaughan, Katherine (K.T.)

Crowdsourcing has become a major part of academic and corporate research across disciplines in the sciences and humanities. “Citizen science” and “citizen archivist” online programs allow non-experts opportunities to participate in research in new and surprising ways. Students will explore citizen research projects and platforms that support scholarship across the research lifecycle, from data gathering to manipulation to evaluation and publication. Examples may include Zooniverse, Making History (Library of Virginia), and Wikipedia.