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Student Digital Research Projects

This guide provides an overview of how to design digital research projects to enhance teaching and learning at American University.

Five Steps for Successful Digital Project Design

Incorporating a digital research project into your classroom requires planning and preparation to make sure that your students are set up for success. Here are five steps to consider when designing your project:

  1. Design
  2. Preparation
  3. Creation
  4. Evaluation
  5. Preservation

Each step is described in more detail below.

1. Design

Ideally, you will want to start planning and designing your project early to ensure enough time to refine the project and develop a scaffolded approach to student learning.

To start your assignment design, start by thinking about your course learning outcomes. What types of assessments and research projects could demonstrate mastery of those outcomes? What is your vision for the skills that students will learn? Work backwards from here to figure out what requirements you’ll have and what tasks students will have to take to complete the project. 

Next, consider what research questions your students will be answering. Remember that a digital research project should still incorporate all of the components of a traditional one. Students should be asked to incorporate sources, synthesize information, relay important arguments, and present a unifying thesis to answer a research question.

Think through options for final products for the research project. What final products would align with learning outcomes and students’ research goals? Will you accept any type of final product or will it be more defined based on the goals of the assignment?

Choose the digital methods, tools, or existing technical infrastructure that students will use for the project. You can limit the number of choices or leave it completely open to the students.

Lastly, make sure to have an understanding of the technical skills that students might need to successfully complete the project. Walk through the tasks you’re asking students to do and try out the technologies you’re asking students to use so you have a sense of what they will need and how to avoid potential barriers.

2. Preparation

Once you have a sense of the basic design for the assessment, you should spend some time determining how you will support your students during the project. Consider the following questions:

  • How will you scaffold learning for this research project? Schedule project-related assignments throughout the semester for maximum learning. Think through what your students need to know, bring, or develop before they try to start the project?
  • Have you allowed enough time for students to be successful? They will need more time for more in-depth projects, or to complete a digital final product instead of a paper that they’re more used to.
  • What kind of access will your students need to various technologies, spaces, and people? When in the semester will they need them? Think through ahead of time whether students will all need to go to a certain lab at the same time, or reserve a certain resource all at the same time. What can you do to prevent any scheduling conflicts? Do students understand how to make appointments or reservations for the resources they'll need? Will students need to have anything prepared before meeting with Library or other support staff?

3. Creation

Determine ahead of time what support you can or will be willing to offer to your students during the creation phase. If your students need help during the semester while they work on their project, what will you or won’t you be able to help them with? If you can’t help them with a particular piece of the project, think now about who can and make sure your students know how to get in touch with them.

4. Evaluation

As part of your assessment design, create a rubric that clearly outlines the grading criteria for the project. Whenever possible, try to prioritize process and effort alongside the final product. This will help your students feel more comfortable experimenting and will keep them focused on the research aspects of their project.

As much as possible, try to avoid grading students on the professional quality of their final product. Evaluate their work according to the goals of the project, the quality of their research, and how they chose to present it. In most instances, students should not be expected to produce a professional-quality documentary, podcast, or website as part of their research project.

However, remember that the ultimate task is still generating new knowledge and contributing towards scholarship. Although the final product may look different, it is important to maintain academic rigor in the project design so that students are still completing research and contributing to the scholarly conversation in a field.

5. Preservation

Before students begin work on their digital research projects, decide whether you want to preserve their work. Are you interested in making the products they recreate available for external audiences or future students in upcoming semesters? If so, try to think about what preservation steps you'll want to take before the projects are finished. 

If you plan to share their work openly, consider having the students add a Creative Commons license to their work so others can reuse it.

Resources for Digital Project Design

General Reading:

Scaffolding and Play Approaches to Digital Humanities Pedagogy: Assessment and Iteration in Topically-Driven Courses by Daniel G. Tracy and Elizabeth Massa Hoiem is an article that presents ideas to incorporate multimodal projects into topic courses alongside appropriate scaffolding. 

Making Time: Workflow and Learning Outcomes in DH Assignments by David "Jack" Norton (2019) is a book chapter from Debates in the Digital Humanities that runs instructors through steps for creating a structured workflow and time management system when assigning digital research projects.

Digital Storytelling: A Powerful Technology Tool for the 21st Century Classroom by Bernard R. Robin (2008) is an article proposing a framework for developing digital storytelling tools.

Teaching Quantitative Methods: What Makes it Hard (in Literary Studies) by Andrew Goldstone (2019) is another book chapter from Debates in the Digital Humanities that focuses on data concerns when planning an assignment.

Templates and Step-by-Step Guides:

Assignment Packages: Use the University of Delaware's preformed assignment packages as a jumping-off point if you're not sure where to start with designing digital projects.

Visualizing Objects, Places, and Spaces: A Digital Project Handbook: This handbook walks users through the methods and tools that are best to choose for different types of digital projects. It's great for beginners who want to know what they'll need to know and use to create their chosen final product.

Other Considerations for Instructors:

Teaching Students How to Use Images Responsibly: This blog post brings up important points about teaching students about copyright and responsible use of images in their research projects.

Guide to Teaching Visual Rhetoric: This guide from the University of Texas provides a wealth of information on how to teach your students about visual rhetoric, which is how to effectively communicate meaning via visual elements such as images, typography, and texts.

Evaluating Media Use in Digital Projects: This guide from Gettysburg College identifies important considerations when evaluating student digital research projects.

Open Student Work: This guide from UW Bothell provides information what to consider when working with student research projects that might be distributed openly online.