Assessing Faculty-Student Collaboration on Humanities Computing Projects

Assessing Faculty-Student Collaboration on Humanities
Computing Projects

S.
Mark
Lewis
Academic Computing/German Regis College
mark.lewis@regiscollege.edu

1999

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA

ACH/ALLC 1999

editor

encoder

Sara
A.
Schmidt

There seems to be no immediate solution to the ever-growing tech support crisis
on college campuses. Most students "burn out" in this role faster than in most
other work study jobs. Yet a handful of student lab consultants have been asking
for more rewarding challenges on the job than those of fixing printer problems
and software incompatibilities. Intellectual curiosity is often a factor.
Especially in the humanities, it has become important for these students to find
meaningful links between campus technology tools and their studies. Together,
faculty and computer center directors often hold the key to helping students
take on a more active role in project development.
This poster presentation focuses on student practitioners of humanities
computing, their involvement in faculty-sponsored computing projects, and the
creation of mechanisms for assessing their experiences. An assessment survey has
been used which takes into account a variety of factors, including project
goals, work conditions, time, guidance, and value of contribution. The four
diverse case types of faculty-student collaboration featured in my poster
session will no doubt look familiar to many faculty. By sharing these early
models with faculty at several conferences, I hope to encourage broader
participation in my study. The goal of the study is to promote continued
generation and funding of humanities computing projects based on the
increasingly important role of the student in this area.