Humanities Data Coursebook
What is this?#
The Humanities Data Coursebook is a set of open modules for teaching skills and methods for working with humanities-based data. Each section contains a text-based lecture, hands-on activities, assignment and assessment ideas, and further reading and resources. This coursebook grew out of a specific course, DCI 102: Data in the Humanities, taught within a minor in Digital Culture and Information at Washington and Lee University.
Who is this for?#
The coursebook is designed for an undergraduate audience new to working with digital methods. While a background in the humanities is helpful, it is not a prerequisite. This coursebook contains methods that can be applied to a range of disciplines. The modules can be used for self-study, or taken and adapted by any instructor.
What are the learning goals?#
- Recognize and assess data-driven digital projects.
- Integrate research goals and digital methods with discipline-specific inquiry.
- Develop skills necessary to create, structure, clean, manipulate, and visualize data.
- Engage in collaborative, interdisciplinary, project-based learning.
- Create professional website to document and present unit assignments.
How to use#
This coursebook is written in Markdown, so it can be easily adapted to a variety of other publishing platforms. Markdown is a basic syntax for writing for the Web, so the basic structure can be transformed into other formats. Specifically, this site uses a a static site generator called MKDocs along with GitHub pages. You can find the repository of Markdown files on GitHub.
Who made this?#
This coursebook was made by Mackenzie Brooks, Associate Professor and Digital Humanities Librarian at Washington and Lee University.
License#
Acknowledgments#
- This coursebook was inspired by the Text Analysis Coursebook created by Brandon Walsh and Sarah Horowitz. Both should be acknowledged beyond the coursebook for their generous and ongoing conversations about pedagogy and Digital Humanities.
- Manatee icon credit: Freepik from www.flaticon.com.