Category Archives: Social Sciences

Project: Oral History Wiki

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Overview: The course focuses on the experiences of Latino-Mexican, Central American, Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican – transnational migrants living in the United States.  The main applied assessment instrument in the course is the creation of an oral history project.  While the students really enjoy the project, the instructor has a personal interest in also making the knowledge available for a wider public.

The Educational Technology Group worked with the faculty member to convert the traditional paper submissions for the oral history projects into a technology rich online activity. Each student was provided with a private wiki within the learning management system to develop his or her stories. Once the stories were finalized the student sites were made available to the rest of the class for review and comment. The students also used the wiki to present their project experience to the class at the end of the term.

The student wikis will be exported from the learning management system and posted to a departmental resource site that will be made available to the public.

  • Course: LATS 44/ANT 33 – Crossing Over: Latin Migrant Roots and Transitions
  • Tools: Blackboard, Learning Objects Wiki tool, Adobe Acrobat, Movie Maker, Audacity
  • Assessment Method: Individual student Wikis graded with a comprehensive rubric
  • Faculty: Lourdes Gutierrez Najera
  • Instructional Designer: JoAnn Gonzalez-Major
  • Other Support Resources: Jones Media Center

Student Syllabus Rewrite & Workshop Wiki

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Course:  WGST007 – Gender and Genius

Overview: During the course students are required to complete two wiki assignments. The first assignment is intended as a “scaffolding” assignment and isn’t graded, the second assignment is a group-based activity completed towards the end of the term. The following provides an overview of the assignments.


  • Syllabus Wiki – Instructor provided students with a pdf of the course syllabus draft sprinkled with some slightly obscure vocabulary (eg “generative”) in the assignments.  As a group the students were required to transform the text into a format appropriate for the online environment: use appropriate images, motion, sound, hyperlinks, color and text, within a design that fosters generative processing. The class will used the wiki throughout the term – discussing areas of improvement, how as a class it should be evaluated (in terms of content, coherence, creativity, design and group process).

  • Workshop Wiki – Towards the end of the term students were divided into wikigroups based on research interests for individual final projects. Each group built a Workshop wiki that communicates the central questions and ideas of its members’ research projects in a way that fosters generative processing.

Tools: Blackboard, Learning Objects Wiki Tool, Word, Snagit

Faculty: Renee Bergland

Instructional Designer: JoAnn Gonzalez-Major

Teaching from Abroad using Voice-over in PowerPoint

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Instructor: Rich Kremer, History

Project: Quick Start Program

I propose to create voice-over PowerPoint lectures to supply two lectures while traveling abroad in Spring 2009. These presentations will be placed in Blackboard, with discussion board used for questions and feedback to ensure that students view the lectures when scheduled on the course syllabus. Other uses of the tool for teaching will be explored.

The project will include written feedback on process of creating the voice over lectures and utilizing this methodology for teaching. I propose to ask students in the Blackboard discussion Board (or survey tool) what they think about the voice-over lectures.

Using GIS and Spatial Analysis in the Curriculum

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Instructor: Jonathan Chipman, Departments of Geography and Earth Sciences

Project: The primary obstacles to wider adoption of geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial analysis within the curriculum include limited knowledge of and experience with this technology on the part of instructors; few good models or examples of the use of GIS in the curriculum, outside of geography courses; inherent complexity of the technology. This project is designed to address these obstacles and to help expand the use of spatial information in courses across the College. First, it will enable multiple faculty members to address specific educational goals through the development of course-specific GIS-based activities. Second, it will be broadly applicable, including courses in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Third, it will provide several innovative models to demonstrate the applicability of GIS and spatial analysis in different types of courses across campus. The courses for the coming year include: GEOG 1 and GEOG 59 (Fall 2008), EARS 63 (Spring 2009).

Communicating Politics: A Campaign Communication Class Simulation

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Instructor: Deborah Brooks, Government

Project: Many candidates and campaign consultants believe that politics can only be learned in the real world of applied political campaigning. Most professors of politics believe that politics can best be learned by studying politics in books. Both groups are about half right: politics — particularly political communication — can best be learned with a combination of both of those approaches. Across academic fields, studies have shown that learning is enhanced through a combination of traditional classroom learning and active learning through class simulations.

The requested project funding will be utilized for technology and technological support for the simulation component in a senior seminar in political communication offered through the Government Department at Dartmouth College. Specifically, Dartmouth Venture funding will allow for the acquisition of video technology that can allow for the production of television and radio advertisements, video newscasts, and media coverage for the simulated campaign. Moreover, the video equipment will be used for the taping of video segments of “advisors” (real candidates, journalists, etc.) that will be integrated throughout the course. The video equipment will also be utilized to capture footage that will be integrated into a short documentary of the simulation activities. This documentary can be used as a model for other professors or students engaged in these types of simulations in the future.