Grant program: Teaching and Learning Development Grant (TLDG)

Grant recipient: Michelle Levy, Department of English

Project team: Colette Colligan, Department of English, and Brenna Duperron, Ashley Morford, Taylor Morphett, Mark Perry, and Lindsey Seatter, research assistants

Timeframe: May 2014 to November 2015

Funding: $5,000

Courses addressed:

• ENGL 427W – Topics in the Romantic Period
• London and the Lake District Field School

Final report: View Michelle Levy's final report (pdf)

Description: Most digital editions of literary and historical texts use TEI-XML (Text-Encoding Initiative & Extensible Markup Language) for marking up literary and historical texts. In attempting to teach TEI-XML in upper-division undergraduate and graduate courses, I have met several challenges.  The aim of this grant will be to research, design, pilot, and evaluate the use of a new tool (or prototype of a tool) that will allow students to learn this crucial skill, critical to research in textual scholarship and the emergent field of the digital humanities.  This tool will be used in a range of upper-division and graduate courses in English, as well as field school courses (to be launched in my London and the Lake District Field School, scheduled for Summer of 2017).

Questions addressed:

• What tools exist (or are in development) that could be used to teach students TEI-XML encoding and to allow students to build their own digital editions of literary works?
• How can we adapt existing tools/develop new tools to serve this teaching objective?
• How well does the tool work for the stated purpose?
• How can the tool be improved and shared with others?

Knowledge sharing: I will share the new tool with my upper-division, graduate, and Field School students, and with members of my department and of other faculties, if interest warrants. I will also share the tool with members of the DHSI (Digital Humanities Summer Institute) community and at the annual meeting (held every June at the University of Victoria).

Levy, M., Morford, A. & Seatter, L. (2015). Digital Projects in the Romantic Classroom: A Practical Guide to Student Use of WordPress. Romantic Circles Pedagogy Commons (Special Issue: Romanticism & Technology). Retrieved from http://www.rc.umd.edu/pedagogies/commons/technology/pedagogies.commons.2017.technology.levy.html