CB in the Classroom: Q&A with Kate Thornhill, University of Oregon

As part of our CollectionBuilder in the Classroom Q&A series, Public Scholarship Librarian Kate Thornhill shares how she incorporated CollectionBuilder into her Humanities Research Data Management course at the University of Oregon.

Kate Thornhill

Kate Thornhill holds the position of Public Scholarship Librarian and Associate Librarian at the University of Oregon since 2018, where she specializes in the development and implementation of digital humanities research and classroom projects and holds a track record in community and civic outreach. ... Learn More

1. Please describe the course you taught in which you incorporated CollectionBuilder.

I designed and taught an undergraduate course at the University of Oregon titled “Humanities Research Data Management.” The class is required for students enrolled in the School of Computer and Data Science’s cultural analytics track and Digital Humanities minors. It provides students with theoretical and practical experience in collecting, processing, archiving, and publishing humanities data (images, video, sound, text, maps, etc.) gathered from galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs).

With the goal of building thematic digital collections as researchers, students learn digital methodologies focusing on the technical, legal, ethical, and social aspects of working with humanities research data throughout its curation lifecycle. This includes hands-on experience finding, assessing, organizing, and reformatting data; creating and remediating descriptive metadata; evaluating and determining copyright and licensing; writing a data management plan using the standards set by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and sharing thematic research digital collections using GitHub and the open-source platform CollectionBuilder.

If you are interested in seeing what the Humanities Research Data Management course entails, check it out on Canvas Commons and student research collections on GitHub.

2. Why did you decide to integrate CollectionBuilder into the course?

It just made sense given that I need students to focus on process over product when it comes to learning research digital collections data curation techniques. I’ve used Omeka and Wordpress a lot for teaching LIS grad students and faculty and students at UO, and most of the time I was teaching people less about using professional standards for data documentation, sharing, and preservation and more about how to click around an interface or deal with plugins that came with paid subscriptions.

For me, CollectionBuilder added so much value because students get foundational skills in working with open-source software, working with spreadsheets, and practicing metadata and file format troubleshooting and publishing. Also, the overall maintenance and sustainability of the app is a bonus because I don’t need to worry as much about security vulnerabilities or updating the infrastructure because CollectionBuilder is a web static platform.

3. What were some of the benefits and/or successes of incorporating CB in the classroom?

I saw my students feel more confident using technology that they deemed intimidating. My course integrates at least six to eight different types of technologies across a 10-week term, so their concerns were real, especially for students who felt like they weren’t proficient at learning technologies “the right way.”

Seeing my student faces transform from showing anxiety, nervousness, apprehension toward excitement, confidence, and fearlessness made us all proud of our work together. The students seeing their work openly available and published online drove this home. CollectionBuilder definitely leant itself to being part of this achievement. In fact, many of my students have gone on to tell me their classroom experience has led them to jobs or gotten interviews connected to project management and data management.

4. What were some of the challenges you faced while incorporating CB in the classroom? How did you navigate these challenges?

A big challenge actually had nothing to do with CollectionBuilder. My university runs on a 10-week term system. This time frame pushed me to think strategically regarding my digital pedagogy. How I scaffolded building up to installing and publishing digital collections with the platform stopped there from being major bottlenecks.

However, students definitely still struggled with making sure their data was standardized for CollectionBuilder uploading. But, having a metadata application profile template and modifying it to their resource description needs while retaining CollectionBuilder’s functional ingest requirements is what created a lightbulb realization moment for the students.

5. What advice do you have for other instructors wanting to integrate CB into their curriculum?

Build a digital collection with CollectionBuilder yourself before you have students make it in your classroom, and make sure you have a variety of resource types. Also provide your students with a metadata application profile so they become more aware about the descriptive, functional, and interoperable requirements for working with metadata and object files.

Want to share how you incorporated CB in the Classroom? We welcome you to contribute! Please reach out to collectionbuilder.team@gmail.com to participate in a Q&A.