HIST4700 INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL HISTORY

Prof. McManus

Course Description

The use of digital methods to either ask historical questions or display historical data is growly rapidly.
This course introduces students to the exciting world of digital history, including digital mapping,
visualization, digital curation, and 3-D modeling and video editing. These are skills that students will be
able to apply to a range of historical problems, and will also be useful in a variety of future careers.

Grade Descriptors

Grade A Outstanding performance on all learning outcomes.

Grade A- Generally outstanding performance on all (or almost all) learning outcomes.
Grade B Substantial performance on all learning outcomes, OR high performance on some learning
outcomes which compensates for less satisfactory performance on others, resulting in overall
substantial performance.
Grade C Satisfactory performance on the majority of learning outcomes, possibly with a few
weaknesses.
Grade D Barely satisfactory performance on a number of learning outcomes.
Grade F Unsatisfactory performance on a number of learning outcomes, OR failure to meet specified
assessment requirements.

Syllabus

*If class is in person, please bring your laptop/electronic device to every class*

1. (8/9) Introduction: What is Digital History?

Reading: Watch introductory video and read the various parts of “Concepts in Digital Humanities:
https://libguides.lib.cuhk.edu.hk/Intro-DH
Browse:
http://www.digital.ntu.edu.tw/

2. (15/9) What is data? Introduction to EXCEL

Sections 1.1, 1.2,. 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 4.1, 4.3 of Beginning Excel
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/beginningexcel/front-matter/introduction/

3. (22/9) Visualization with Tableau I [decide topic for final project]

Reading: Do Tableau tutorials: https://public.tableau.com/app/resources/learn Students might also want
to browse https://youtu.be/-KfpkyTrrtc

4. (29/9) Visualization with Tableau II [create sub-groups]

MEET IN DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP LAB
Reading: Become a Tableau Jedi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d22A4XVoUEs; browse:
https://gephi.org/users/tutorial-visualization/ .

5. (6/10) Text Mining with Voyant I

Reading: https://medium.com/dh-tools-for-beginners/voyant-tools-2-0-less-common-tools-for-text-
analysis-a922cfcd85cb ; OCR for Neo-Latin.
6. (13/10) Text Mining with Voyant II
Learn all major Voyant tools: https://voyant-tools.org/docs/#!/guide/tools

7. (20/10) Creating a Web Presence

Wordpress.org (not .com)
Reading https://wordpress.org/support/ “Basic usage & Customizing”

8. (27/10) Digital Mapping with QGIS I

Reading: explore the following resources: Google MyMaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/, Timeline
https://knightlab.northwestern.edu/ . Do QGIS Lessons 2.1-2.2
https://docs.qgis.org/3.10/en/docs/training_manual/index.html

9. (3/11) Digital Mapping with QGIS II

Reading: QGIS Lessons 2.3-2.4 https://docs.qgis.org/3.10/en/docs/training_manual/index.html ;

10. (10/11) 3-D Modelling I

Register for SketchUp Free (www.app.sketchup.com) and watch tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_bJPNnO3HQ ; study https://research.reading.ac.uk/virtualrome/

11. (17/11) 3-D Modelling II

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb5SpjKy44s ; Do free trial of Kubity Go
https://pro.kubity.com/

12. (24/11) Video Creation (Openshot)

Reading: Openshot tutorial: http://www.openshot.org/static/files/user-guide/introduction.html
Teaching Evaluation at start of class.

13. (1/12) Reflections & Final Project Troubleshooting. Online via Zoom.

Assessment

10% Attendance and Participation in Lecture

Students are expected to attend and contribute to lectures. Students are also expected to do the set reading
ahead of class and do any set homework exercises. Although students will become expert in only one or
two digital methods, they must learn the rudiments of all the methods covered.
N.B. Students will also be expected to attend at least three meetings of the digital humanities seminar
(advertised on the Faculty of Arts website), as well as office hours on at least one occasion.

10% Weekly Response Paper

10x 150-word response papers for weeks 2-12. These should answer the question: “How is this week’s
tool(s) useful for creating or disseminating historical insights?” Please answer with reference to the
specific skills you have learned from doing the tutorials. Post on Blackboard Discussion Board with name
and week number in title. Due by Thursday 9am each week (absolute deadline).

30% Discussion in tutorial (7.5% each tutorial)

In each of the tutorials, each of the subgroups will collectively present their ideas/progress (in the form of
a PowerPoint with relevant data/visualizations/etc.) and seek feedback from other students. Each tutorial
will be devoted to a different stage of project management: planning, build-up, implementation, closeout.

50% Final Group Project

Students will complete a coherent group project on one of four topics of their collective choice (Africa
and China from antiquity to the present; rare books about China in the CUHK Library, history of Macau,
pandemics in Asian history, western books in CUHK library [if in person]). Depending on numbers,
students will be divided into small groups, each responsible for a different element, e.g.
data/visualizations, maps, app, video, website (+overall coordination), programming component (if
someone particularly wants to learn this), etc. Students should communicate regularly and I suggest you
set up a Whatsapp group for this purpose. Each group will keep a project diary (also called learning log)
of which methods they learned, how many times/how long they communicated, collaborated, how they
organized their time/effort/etc. Grade will be based on both the collaboration/teamwork process (20%
based on learning log) and the final product (30% based on the project). Due date December 9, 5pm.

Readings
The Programming Historian <https://programminghistorian.org/en/>