This week I began my third course as a hybrid DH course: American Lit II. Like the American Lit I class, this group of students is highly motivated and well versed in the basics of browsing and Moodle–some much further along than that.

The best constructive criticism I got from my Women Writers class in Fall Term was to link the weekly DH labs tightly with the content covered during the week, and so I have tried to maintain that ideal ever since. It hasn’t been easy, since many of the kinds of DH activities I’d like to try might not coincide with the focus of a given week’s literature offerings. But I really do think that for a DH-hybrid class, focusing on the tools or methodology in the absence of continuity with the rest of the week’s conversations does more harm than good. Coming up with useful DH assignments that both bring students new DH skills and insights into the field while also supporting the work of the week’s close readings and discussions has challenged my creative energies. For this reason I am grateful to the DH scholarly community, who have developed archives that are easy to adapt for the community college classroom.

Again this term I’ll post any adaptations and innovations that I think other faculty and students would find useful.