Digital humanities course at AUCA: First steps and lessons learned

In fall 2019, the first DH course was introduced at an undergraduate level at AUCA. The course aims to introduce students into the field of DH and equip them with methods and tools to be used across various disciplines throughout their liberal arts education. The course includes theoretical frameworks and approaches and is clustered around three digital methods: text mining, visualization, and digital mapping. We use case studies from different humanities subjects to showcase how digital humanities offer a new paradigm of looking at research and problem-solving. We co-teach this course as a faculty –librarian team, and collaborate with other faculty and IT staff to involve them as guest speakers and/or trainers. By the end of the course, students develop their own DH projects. Piloting the course will help identify skills and support needed in DH teaching and learning. Our presentation will share the results of this pilot initiative and lessons learned. We will talk about course structure and materials, methods and techniques, as well as collaboration models and feedback received. While heavily focused on tools, the course brings in disciplines, concerns, issues, topics, and methods existing within the liberal arts.