Course

Details

  • Instructor: Angus Mol,
  • a.a.a.mol@hum.leidenuniv.nl
  • Language: English
  • EC: 5 (level 300)
  • Part of the BA3 Digital Humanities Minor of the LUCDH (also as General Elective)
  • Semester 1
  • Open Office Hours: Thursday from 15:00-16:00 @Veth
    • Office: After entering the P.J. Veth building, take a left and up the stairs.
    • For the lab: Upon entering the Veth building from the Hortus side, take a right, head past the hallway and up the stairway to the first floor.

Objectives

At the end of this course, you will:

  • Be able to articulate how and why digital media impact culture and society.
  • Have explored the background, context, promises and pitfalls of a range of specific media and concepts in this field.
  • Know where to find some of the inspiring media and thinkers in this field.
  • Be able to discuss your views on digital media themes with peers as well as give and receive feedback.
  • Be able to use a number of website production tools, including WordPress CMS, HTML, and CSS.

Course Load

Total course load 5 EC x 28 hours = 140 hours:

  • Seminar 12.5 x 2 (25 hours)
  • Study of compulsory literature and self-study for tools (42 hours)
  • Presentation (10 hours)
  • Peer Feedback (10 hours)
  • Course project (54 hours)

Grading (1-10 Average of)

  • Discussion of literature: 15 percent
  • Class Participation & Peer Feedback: 15 percent
  • Presentation: 20 percent
  • Course project: 50 percent

Retakes

Retakes have their own very special section here.

The Fine Print

Attendance is required. If you know you will need to miss a class, please indicate this at least two weeks prior. If you know beforehand you will have to miss three or more classes, you cannot take this course. If you miss a class due to sickness or other unforeseen circumstances, notify me without delay.

Class participation is part of your final grade. Participation is evaluated both on attendance and the quality of feedback given to other students’ work. Aside from participation being part of your grade, I really appreciate your input. If you think you have something to ask, please speak up: there are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of lost opportunities for information exchange and learning. 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 value to you, please do!

If you need to speak to me, you are warmly encouraged to make use of the open office hours (Thursdays 15:00-16:00 at my office, Veth T0.12). If you need my direct feedback during a week when I cannot have open office hours or need to speak to me outside open office hours, please use Microsoft Teams to set an appointment, and I will do my best to set up a meeting.

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.

Do you have questions about using ChatGPT or other AI-driven tools to generate content? The details around this are currently hazy, but there is a chance that (over)reliance would be officially marked as academic fraud. We will discuss this during our first meeting. Also, check out this helpful page by the Leiden University Library.

Schedule

The course schedule is designed to make sure interaction in smaller groups is possible.

  • General lecture at Lipsius/003 at 17:15
  • Discussion session featuring your own and classmates’ digital content at Lipsius/0.01
    • You have preselected a timeslot for this; please do not switch your timeslot because we will have selected discussion pieces based on group composition.
    • 13:15 Digital Dynamos(101)
    • 15:15 Media Maestros (103)
    • 16:15 Virtual Visionaries (104)