Program Overview

Workplace Learning: Rural Diary Archive (HIST*3480)

Course Details

The course code for Workplace Learning: Rural Diary Archive is HIST*3480, section 02, and it was offered in the Winter 2019 term. The course instructor is Catharine Wilson.

Course Synopsis

This experiential learning opportunity involves transcribing diaries online through the Rural Diary Archive website, which showcases over 180 diarists and is a crowdsourcing site. Students will also contribute to the development of content for the website by selecting tweets for posting and contributing to a glossary of 19th-century terms. Through this volunteer work, students will make these hard-to-use but highly useful documents more accessible for researchers. The course connects this work experience to the academic discipline through a series of short critical reflections and a research paper analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of diaries as primary sources.

Course Format

The course format consists of independent work with scheduled meetings.

Learning Outcomes

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

• Critically understand diary writing and keeping practices
• Read and understand 19th-century handwriting and vocabulary
• Transcribe
• Research
• Communicate compelling history for use in a social media platform
• Identify and explain daily life in 19th-century rural Ontario
• Appreciate public engagement
• Critically reflect upon their own work
• Critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of diaries as sources

Methods of Evaluation and Weights

The methods of evaluation and their respective weights are:

• 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

The project timeline includes:

• Week 1: Pre-arranged group meeting with Professor Wilson to view the diaries, establish instructions, and start training
• Week 3: Meeting to review transcription work
• Week 5 or 6: Meeting for the first collection of weekly Reflections and advancement to a more difficult diary
• Week 10: Meeting to submit the second collection of weekly Reflections and discuss the final essay/document analysis
• Week 13: Document Analysis, Tweets, and glossary items due

Departments and Schools

The 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 is home to several 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