Project Proposal
I want to create a template for an instructional/research tool for use in my undergraduate history classes. This idea comes from my already extensive use of digitized materials in my teaching and my research. I am calling my concept an M-DIR Module, meaning a “Multicourse, Digitized Instructional and Research Module.” (Pronounced M-Dear) The instructional component section of the online M-Dir Module would contain PowerPoints, a study guide, links to relevant readings, access to images and moving images, bibliographies, and practice quizzes for students, along with other relevant digitized materials on its topic. It would be used by students in lower level history classes.
The research component of the M-Dir Module would be oriented toward advanced students who did research projects on the topic. They too would work with the instructional section, but would also interact in the research section of the M-DIR with the primary documents, relevant online lectures, advanced bibliographies, historiographical information, interpretations, and tutorials that stressed both research methodologies and writing techniques, along with a blog or chatroom for the students detailing individual progress on their projects.
I propose to make an example module on the specific topic of women in Texas History. This module would be used in my Texas History class, HIST 284, during the spring of 2016. It would be employed in an analogous manner to the way printed class packets and outside reading were once employed, but it would be very different and expanded in scope because of the considerable capabilities afforded by digitization. With modifications, this and other such modules can be moved from course to course by the instructor once they have been created. It is for that reason that they have multi-course applications. For example, the women in Texas history can also be used with modifications in several other courses I teach including historical research methods and history 162. It is for that reason that I am conceptualizing this project as the first step in creating a template which can be customized to create a module on any number of topics.
