digital resource study | uc berkeley | syllabus 2004 initial findings on the use of digital...

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Initial Findings on the Use of Digital Resources in Humanities and Social Science

(H/SS) Undergraduate Education

Diane Harley, Ph.D.Principal Investigator

Alison J. Head, Ph.D, Jonathan Henke, MIMSCenter for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), UC Berkeley

Project website: http://digitalresourcestudy.berkeley.edu

Syllabus 2004 | July 19, 2004

© 2004, Digital Resource Study| Diane Harley, Ph,D. | http://digitalresourcestudy.berkeley.edu| 7.19.04

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04 Acknowledgments- Ian Miller, David Nasatir, Ph.D, Xi Sheng, Jing

Guo- UCB Professors Charles Faulhaber, Lewis Lancaster,

Rick Rhinehart, and Ruzena Bajcsy; - Daniel Greenstein, Laine Farley, Roy Tennant, and

Rosalie Lack, the California Digital Library (CDL); - Merilee Proffitt, Arnold Arcolio, and Guther Waibel,

Research Libraries Group (RLG); - Elizabeth Losh, UCI; Glen Worthey, Stanford University;

Flora McMartin, MERLOT; Barbara Sommers, UCD; Richard Flacks, UCSB; Julie Gordon and Paula Murphy, UCOP; Michael Hardie and Mara Hancock, Educational Technology Services, UCB; Maryly Snow, Susan Stone, SPIRO, UCB; Pat Maughan, UCB Library.


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04 Purpose

Scan and define the whole universe of digital resources available to undergraduate educators in the humanities and social sciences (H/SS), and examine how understanding use/users can benefit the integration of those resources into undergraduate teaching.

Determine, by employing empirical data, how and if available resources are being used in undergraduate teaching.


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04 Research Project Overview

Two-year project (2003 – 2005)

Funding: Mellon and Hewlett Foundations;

CDL; CITRIS; VCR, UCB

Goals:

– Describe and map the universe of digital resources, uses, and users in the H/SS.

– Determine how digital resources are currently used in H/SS undergraduate education.

– Determine how (or if) an understanding of use and users can help the integration of resources into the classroom.


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04 Why Bother?

• Strategic Planning and Investments-Who pays for digital resource production/maintenance?-What digital resources are worth investing in?

• Focus on the Humanities and Social Sciences-Different than science and technical courses-Role of technology in the delivery of general/liberal arts

education

• Consolidation of Effective Strategies for Understanding Use and Users-What is the value of use studies for the user? What do we

know now?


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04 Current Research Activities

• Ongoing discussion with faculty, librarians, educational technology professionals, and resource/site owners.

• Faculty survey:– Sampling opinions about digital resource use among

various disciplines and institutions (N=4500).

• Testing methods of traffic log analysis (TLA) and online user surveys on local sites.

• Consolidating knowledge about users, and convening site owners, funders, and use researchers.


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04 Associated Research Challenges

How can digital resources be defined?– Agreeing on a working definition from different perspectives.

• Objects that employ rich media and span text, images, sound, maps, video, and many other formats.

• Sources include collections developed by large institutional entities (e.g., libraries and museums), those developed by individual scholars, and everything in between.

• Particularly interested in free,unrestricted content, but considering any resource faculty say they use, regardless of whether it is restricted or not.


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Images or visual materials (drawings, photographs, art, posters, etc.), Maps, simulations or animations, Digital film or video, Audio materials (speeches, interviews, music, oral histories, etc.), Digital facsimiles of ancient or historical manuscripts, Online or digitized documents (including translations), Government documents, Data archives (numeric databases; e.g., census data), News or other media sources and archives, Online reference resources (e.g., dictionaries), “Portals that provide links or URL’s relevant to particular disciplinary topics, Personal online diaries (e.g., weblogs), Online class discussions (including archived discussions), Curricular materials and websites that are created by other faculty and/or other institutions (e.g., MIT OpenCourseWare, World Lecture Hall, Merlot), Digital readers or coursepacks, Interactive Media (e.g., VR, Games), Tutorials, Other types of resources

Types of Digital Resources


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• How can plethora of digital resources be classified?

• What is a user? What is an owner?– Scholars to school kids; Chinese literature to

archaeology, luddite to technophile…

– Aggregators, tool developers, content creators

– Every user an owner/creator and every creator/owner a user?

• How can existing user research be consolidated?– User studies as diverse as the resources themselves.

Associated Research Challenges


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04 Ask Faculty: Survey

• Survey design and implementation:

– Random stratified sample of Calif. Community colleges, liberal arts colleges and UC; range of H/SS disciplines

– Challenges: IRB, tracking respondents

– Online survey: Pros and cons

– Response rates


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04 Survey Instrument

Discussion Groups

• Four major questions:

– What digital resources do you use in undergraduate teaching?

– How do you use them?

– What obstacles do you encounter?

– In a perfect world, what would you do with digital resources?


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A Complex Universe

• Digital collections vary in type, purpose, and perceived value.– Dizzying range of objects used, including personal

collections. Free and commercial resources.

– Used for wide range of educational “purposes” and goals

• Variation in faculty enthusiasm and involvement.– A semblance of non, light, heavy, and fundamental users.

Some actively negative/luddites

• Different disciplines/institutions, different needs?

• Wide range of obstacles to using resources —cultural, economic, as well as technical.

Preliminary Findings: Faculty Discussion Groups


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Common Types of Digital Resources Used

- Images or visual materials (drawings, photographs, art, posters, etc.)

- “Portals” that provide links or URL’s relevant to particular disciplinary topics

- News or other media sources and archives

- Online journals (e.g., JSTOR)- Online reference resources

(e.g., dictionaries)- Digital film or video

Testing Early Impressions with Survey

Preliminary Findings: Faculty Survey


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Sources of Digital Resources

- Search engines/directories (e.g., Google, Yahoo)

- My own personal collection of digital materials

- Public (free) online image databases

Testing Early Impressions


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04 Testing Early Impressions

How Are Resources Used in Teaching?

- Presented during my lectures/class (e.g., images, audio, etc.)

- Assigned to students for review and/or study

- Assigned for student research projects or problem-based learning assignments

- Posted directly on my course website- Linked from my course website


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Motivations for Using

- To integrate primary source material into the course

- Because it improves my students’ learning

- To provide students a context for a topic

- To get students excited about a topic


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Barriers & Frustrations

- I don’t have reliable access to physical resources in my classroom (e.g., projectors, high-speed connections, etc.).

- The digital resources are distributed in so many places that it is difficult for me to organize them for use in my teaching.

- There are too many resources out there for me to take advantage of — I am overwhelmed.

- I don’t have time to assess the credibility of the available resources.

- The content I need or want is just not available online.

Preliminary Findings: Faculty Survey


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Activities for Which Support or Assistance is Important

- Obtaining or setting up technical infrastructure (servers, computers, smart classrooms, etc.)

- Creating my own website

- Digitizing existing resources


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Most used Sources for Support

- Campus educational technology or IT support staff

- My departmental or college staff- Campus librarians


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04 User Profiling

• Developing generalized user and non-user types• Data sources and methods:

– Discussion groups and faculty survey.– Run frequencies for specific categories of interest.

• Descriptive categories:– Demographic variables (including age, institution).– Work-related variables (including discipline).– Use variables (degree of use, sources, teaching uses,

motivations, barriers, and support).

• Personas:– Hypothetical archetype of a specific user.– Behavioral patterns with goals, not job descriptions.


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04 Next Steps

• Data analysis and faculty survey:– Disaggregate responses by

institution/discipline– Explore development and utility of user

profiles

• Classification and analysis of different types of resources/engage resource owners.

• Future meetings with key stakeholders.

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Initial Findings on Use of Digital Resources in Humanities and Social Science Undergraduate Education

Diane Harley, Ph.D.

Principal Investigator

Alison Head, Ph.D., Jonathan Henke, MIMSCenter for Studies in Higher Education(CSHE), UC Berkeley

Project website: http://digitalresourcestudy.berkeley.edu

Syllabus 2004 | July 19, 2004

digital resource study | uc berkeley | syllabus 2004 initial findings on the use of digital...

Documents

digital resource use

use of digital resources

available resources

integration of resources

uc berkeley project

understanding of use

ucb library

undergraduate teaching