HIST4700SM Topic Studies in Public History:
Introduction to Digital History

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 some basic programming. 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/electron devise to every class*

1. 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

2. What is data? Introduction to EXCEL

Reading: 3B, http://dh101.humanities.ucla.edu/?page_id=93 (just read, do not do exercises);

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. Visualization with Tableau I

Reading: Do Tableau tutorial 1-13: https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/resources

4. Visualization with Tableau II (+ Palladio)

Reading:  Do Tableau tutorial 13-21: https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/resources ; explore Palladio https://hdlab.stanford.edu/palladio/about/ (Start > Sample Data)

5. Digital Mapping with QGIS I

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

6. Digital Mapping with QGIS II (+basic 3d modelling)

Reading: QGIS Lessons 2.3-2.4 https://docs.qgis.org/3.10/en/docs/training_manual/index.html ; Register for SketchUp Free (www.app.sketchup.com) and watch tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_bJPNnO3HQ     

7. Text Mining (voyant)

Do Text Analysis tutorial http://dh101.humanities.ucla.edu/?page_id=172 ; and https://medium.com/dh-tools-for-beginners/voyant-tools-2-0-less-common-tools-for-text-analysis-a922cfcd85cb.  These video tutorials might also be useful: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDCADF35691404F54

8. Digital Curation (wordpress, omeka and neatline)

Reading: Omeka, http://dh101.humanities.ucla.edu/?page_id=104 and examine https://neatline.org/about/ ; WordPress tutorial https://wordpress.com/learn/

9. Video Creation (Openshot)

Reading: Openshot tutorial: http://www.openshot.org/static/files/user-guide/introduction.html

10. Apps for History (MIT App Inventor)

Reading: do 3 out of 5 tutorials https://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ai2/beginner-videos

11. Programming for History I – Scratch & C

Reading: Watch weeks 0 & 1 videos www.cs50.harvard.edu 

12. Programming for History II – Python

Reading: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6kqrM2i6BPIpEF5yHPNkYhjHm-FYWh17 (lessons 1-10)

13. Final Project Troubleshooting

Assessment

20% 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. 

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; history of Shatin, 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).

Readings

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

UCLA Intro to Digital History <http://dh101.humanities.ucla.edu/>

請注意大學有關學術著作誠信的政策和規則，及適用於犯規事例的紀律指引和程序。詳情可瀏覽網址：http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/。

學生遞交作業時，必須連同已簽署的聲明一併提交，表示他們知道有關政策、規則、指引及程序。

• 如屬小組習作，則所有組員均須簽署聲明；所有組員（不論有否簽署聲明及不論有否直接或間接撰寫有問題的內容）均須負上集體責任及受到懲處。
• 如作業以電腦製作、內容以文字為主，並經由大學「維誠」系統 (VeriGuide) 提交者，學生將作業的電子檔案上載到系統後，便會獲得收據，收據上已列明有關聲明。

未有夾附簽署妥當的聲明的作業，老師將不予批閱。

學生只須提交作業的最終版本。

學生將作業或作業的一部份用於超過一個用途（例如：同時符合兩科的要求）而沒有作出聲明會被視為未有聲明重覆使用作業。學生重覆使用其著作的措辭或某一、二句句子很常見，並可以接受，惟重覆使用全部內容則構成問題。在任何情況下，須先獲得相關老師同意方可提交作業。