DGT HUM 101
Introduction to Digital Humanities
Description: Lecture, 75 minutes; discussion, 75 minutes. Foundation course for students in Digital Humanities minor, providing theoretical and conceptual framework for understanding genesis of digital world. Use of contemporary cultural-historical methodology to focus on rise of new media and information technologies in 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, such as photography, film, radio, television, Internet, and World Wide Web and their impact on how individuals, groups, and cultures experienced their worlds. Letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2023 - Professor Kurtz is amazing! She's a great lecturer and would often ask us questions and make her lectures interactive. She's very approachable and always willing to help. Prof Kurtz provides many resources to aid in creating our project, including previous student projects. Late assignments are accepted, often with no points off, and there are many opportunities for extra credit. Discussion attendance is graded, since that is where we work with our project group. The whole course essentially revolves around a short DH group research project, using a dataset chosen as a group and creating a website about it with data visualizations and commentary. Tutorials are given during lecture on software used for creating data visualizations (Tableau, Palladio, Voyant, etc.). If you aren't familiar with these tools you'd likely need to take some more time outside of class to learn them. It will help a lot to have tech savvy group members or some previous experience, though this class is certainly still possible without either. The pace at which the project progresses can be pretty fast, however, so I'd recommend to plan things out early and often with your group.
Fall 2023 - Professor Kurtz is amazing! She's a great lecturer and would often ask us questions and make her lectures interactive. She's very approachable and always willing to help. Prof Kurtz provides many resources to aid in creating our project, including previous student projects. Late assignments are accepted, often with no points off, and there are many opportunities for extra credit. Discussion attendance is graded, since that is where we work with our project group. The whole course essentially revolves around a short DH group research project, using a dataset chosen as a group and creating a website about it with data visualizations and commentary. Tutorials are given during lecture on software used for creating data visualizations (Tableau, Palladio, Voyant, etc.). If you aren't familiar with these tools you'd likely need to take some more time outside of class to learn them. It will help a lot to have tech savvy group members or some previous experience, though this class is certainly still possible without either. The pace at which the project progresses can be pretty fast, however, so I'd recommend to plan things out early and often with your group.
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Most Helpful Review
Fall 2020 - If you are looking for an Easy A, this is not it. The best way I can describe this class is that it was like trying to build an IKEA dresser without instructions. It was intensely frustrating and would have been a lot more efficient with more guidance, tools, and instructions. In the end, after cobbling together my best effort, I feel like I've gained something, but I'm not entirely sure what. The group project component was exhausting. Were it not for the already infuriating and devastating events of 2020, I would've found it even worse. With a couple of classes on Tableau and no classes on HTML, CSS, or Javascript, we were expected to draw upon the limited explanations in lectures to produce a working final project. Unless you already have some knowledge of data visualization and analysis, this class will be a demanding one. I think the instructors clearly have experience in their fields. Professor Garcia is a very compassionate and articulate professor, and she is very in tune with students' needs. She welcomes everyone to reach out to her and ask for help. Our TAs were also very skilled and helped with a lot of tasks. I think the course altogether could have benefited from a greater emphasis on the "how" of Digital Humanities rather than the "why." Perhaps in previous quarters, this class was a cop out, but now it is a lot more rigorous. Be careful.
Fall 2020 - If you are looking for an Easy A, this is not it. The best way I can describe this class is that it was like trying to build an IKEA dresser without instructions. It was intensely frustrating and would have been a lot more efficient with more guidance, tools, and instructions. In the end, after cobbling together my best effort, I feel like I've gained something, but I'm not entirely sure what. The group project component was exhausting. Were it not for the already infuriating and devastating events of 2020, I would've found it even worse. With a couple of classes on Tableau and no classes on HTML, CSS, or Javascript, we were expected to draw upon the limited explanations in lectures to produce a working final project. Unless you already have some knowledge of data visualization and analysis, this class will be a demanding one. I think the instructors clearly have experience in their fields. Professor Garcia is a very compassionate and articulate professor, and she is very in tune with students' needs. She welcomes everyone to reach out to her and ask for help. Our TAs were also very skilled and helped with a lot of tasks. I think the course altogether could have benefited from a greater emphasis on the "how" of Digital Humanities rather than the "why." Perhaps in previous quarters, this class was a cop out, but now it is a lot more rigorous. Be careful.
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