Program Overview

Workplace Learning: Rural Diary Archive (HIST*3480)

Course Details

The course code for Workplace Learning: Rural Diary Archive is HIST*3480, and it is offered in Section 02 during the Fall 2020 term. The course instructor is Catharine Wilson.

Course Format

This course will be taught online in an asynchronous format without specific days and times. Students will conduct independent work with scheduled meetings, which can be accessed through Courselink. Four scheduled meetings will take place remotely.

Course Synopsis

The Rural Diary Archive website features over 180 diarists and is a crowdsourcing site. Students will participate in experiential learning by transcribing diaries online and contributing to the development of content for the website. This includes selecting tweets for posting and contributing to a glossary of nineteenth-century terms. Through this volunteer work, students will make these historical documents more accessible to researchers. In connecting this work experience to their academic discipline, students will write a series of short critical reflections and a research paper analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of diaries as primary sources.

Learning Outcomes

By the successful completion of this course, students will have learned to:

1. Identify and critically assess diary writing and keeping practices
2. Read and understand 19th-century handwriting and vocabulary
3. Transcribe historical documents
4. Conduct research
5. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of diaries as sources
6. Communicate compelling history for use in a social media platform
7. Identify and explain daily life in 19th-century rural Ontario
8. Understand the value of public engagement
9. Reflect upon their own work in a critical manner

Methods of Evaluation and Weights

• Transcriptions: 30
• Weekly Critical Reflections: 15
• Contributions to the glossary and tweets: 20
• Final Essay/Document Analysis: 35

Texts and/or Resources Required

There is no required textbook for this course.

Project Timeline

• Week 1: Pre-arranged group meeting with Professor Wilson to view the diaries and establish instructions and training
• Week 3: Meeting to review transcription work
• Week 6: Meeting, first collection of weekly reflections is due, and transcription skills will be advanced to a more difficult diary
• Week 10: Meeting to discuss progress on the final essay
• Week 11: Complete sets of tweets and glossary items are due
• Week 12: Complete set of transcriptions is due
• Week 13: Final essay is due, and the second collection of weekly reflections is due

Departments and Schools

This course is associated with the following departments and schools:

• School of Theatre, English, and Creative Writing
• School of Fine Art and Music
• School of Languages and Literatures
• Department of History
• Department of Philosophy
• Interdisciplinary Programs

Centres, Institutes, and Labs

The university features various centres, institutes, and labs, including:

• Centre for Scottish Studies
• Grounded and Engaged Theory Lab (GET)
• Interdisciplinary Design Lab
• The International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation
• The Humanities Interdisciplinary Collaboration Lab (THINC)
• The School of Fine Art & Music Print Study Collection