Course Overview

HomeCourse Overview

Also see the E-Study Guide item, which is the official course overview for this course.

As quintessentially present-day phenomena, digital data and tools provide many surprising opportunities for studying the human past. It would be difficult to find a line of historical inquiry that would not be open to a digital approach, be it through visualizing historical processes, computer-driven modelling of “what-if” scenarios, or tools that require us to be very specific about actors, events, and their underlying dynamics. Digital media also allow us to communicate the results of our studies to others in exciting new ways: from sharing your thoughts on a text through the cloud, to interactive historytelling, and visualizations that play with historical perspectives. As you will see, digital history provides a space that can function both as a way to give shape to and advance our scholarly understanding of history as a public playground.

COURSE DETAILS

COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Use formal thinking and tools to benefit and structure your understanding and communication of history.
  • Understand how digital approaches can power a variety of historical explorations and be able to communicate their potential and pitfalls to peers.
  • Link digital approaches with your own perspective on the past.
  • Know where to find some of the inspiring media, projects, and thinkers in this field.
  • Plan and run a digital historical or heritage project using tools you will learn during the course.
  • Have a working knowledge of a variety of tools that enhance the kit of a digital historian as well as other humanity researchers.
  • Critically reflect on the use of digital platforms that let their users experience the past.
  • Communicate your explorations in a way that is accessible for a wider audience.

Course Load

Total course load 5 EC x 28 hours = 140 hours

  • Seminar: 12 x 2: 24 hours
  • Self-study & Reading: 36 hours
  • Assignments: 40 hours
  • Final project: 40 hours

GRADING (1-10; AVERAGE OF)

  • Attendance and Participation: 20 percent
  • Assignments: 40 percent
  • Final Project: 40 percent

Participation

Participation in class is part of your final grade. Participation is evaluated both on attendance and on the quality of input during the course. This will be evaluated through feedback on questions and peers, an active and inquisitive stance during class, the pop-up talks that are part of the in-class assignments.

Class attendance will be tracked using a good, old fashioned paper sign-up sheet.

In principle, you are expected to attend class. Presence will be checked and absence without good reason will negatively impact your Participation grade.

  • If you incidentally cannot make it to class for a good reason (medical or other wellbeing concerns of yourself or others are always a good reason), please inform me (my email address is y.c.ryan@hum.leidenuniv.nl. Please put your reason for mailing in the subject line, as follows: ExpPast absence on [insert date]. Provide a valid reason in the message text (no need to go into personal details that you don’t want to share).
  • For those of you who already know or realize during the course that they will not be able to join on campus for for more than three classes, please contact your study advisor about this as soon as possible. Explain them the reason(s) and ask them to get in touch with me.

Aside from participation being part of your grade, I really appreciate your input. If you have something to add or ask , please speak up: there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of lost opportunities for information exchange and learning. If you experience anxiety when asked to speak in public, please let me know in an e-mail

This field is full of exciting new ideas and developments and it is impossible to be aware of them all. So, if you can share information on an idea, article, project, or tool that is of you value to you, please do!

Plagiarism 

Plagiarism is a ‘mortal’ academic sin. If you have not done so already, please inform yourself on Leiden University’s views and regulations on plagiarism. This Leiden university library portal has several accessible web courses on how to quote and cite right and tips for bibliographic management. Note that plagiarism, copyright and other information sharing or copying issues are often extra complex when dealing with digital sources. If you are still in doubt whether (parts of) any work for this course may constitute plagiarism, you need to signal and verify this with me before you hand it in for grading.

Teamwork

With the exception of Assignment 1, Teamwork is allowed to a maximum team size of 3. If you choose to work together for an assignment or project, everyone will share the same grade.

Note that this will increase the scope of your project as you will have as many hours to spend on assignments as an individual project x number of members in the team.

All team members should have contributed a similar amount of hours to the project, with a variance allowed of 10%. The hour allocation should be clear from the project timetable.

A group project is a great way to work on something collaboratively and of a greater scope, but do not underestimate the challenges involved in a group project!

Due to how Brighstpace works, please hand in all team-work assignments individually as well.

Communication

Contact

If you have a message for me, please contact me via Email or Teams

Netiquette

For all online (course) communication, please follow the good old principles of netiquette.

Brightspace

All major announcements for this course will be placed on Brightspace.