Mellon Digital Humanities Grant

Looking at…

About Austin

  • a private, national liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, TX
  • $137M endowment
  • 1,250 students & >100 faculty (12:1 student-faculty ratio)
  • >36% ethnic minorities (mainly Hispanic)
  • 54% admit rate, 22% yield for Fall 2014
  • profiled in Colleges That Change Lives
  • “a reputation in academic excellence, international study, pre-professional preparation, leadership development, and hands-on, adventurous learning opportunities”

The Grant

Collaborative Pedagogies in the Digital Age

Three years and $500,000

Digital Pedagogy - DigPed

Part of their strategic plan:

  • “expandeded access to both traditional and new communication technologies”
  • “by 2020, every graduating student is prepared to create a strong professional online presence” (not in plan)
  • “provide faculty with the training and tools…to more fully integrate technology into the liberal arts classroom”

Components

  • opportunities to enhance courses through digital content, projects, and connections
  • real-time collaboration of faculty and students with experts and colleagues around the globe
  • hardware and software updates
  • FT instructional technologist for course development (training)
    • teach the Mellon-enhanced course at least 3x in 7 years
  • biannual colloquium with national and international experts on digital pedagogies
  • faculty stipends

Participation

  • average of nine faculty members participating each year, not limited to humanities
  • number of digitally enhanced courses a year will vary
  • as many as one-third of faculty over the life of the program = dozens of course offerings

Leaders

  • My guess: 3 leading faculty, the Tres Hombres of digital pedagogy

    1. @bolillotejano: Patrick Duffey, Spanish, the grant director
    2. @bboessen: Brett Boessen, Media Studies, Digital Learning Fellow
    3. @MorrisPelzel: Morris “Mo” Pelzel, Digital Pedagogy Designer; the new hire

What they’ve done

  • On-line at http://acdigitalpedagogy.org/ and Twitter @ACdigped
  • JanTerm Course “How the Web Works
    • students build & manage their own space on the web
  • Faculty workshops, aimed at grantees
    • Using Social Media for Teaching and Learning
    • Where It’s At: Basic Digital Mapping for Your Class
    • Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Open Pedagogy
  • Example courses:
    • Chinese 101
    • Music History
    • Organic Chemistry

Back Story

Sources

(Free) Tools