introduction
Working on this project taught me a lot in terms of teaching, researching, and designing content for the web. I learned so much for my own future teaching and about my ethics as a researcher. Additionally, I have never made a digital resource to this scale before, so creating this space was definitely a challenge.
Building an Assignment for a Graduate-Level Seminar
When Dr. Robbins asked me to help her design and implement the feminist history assignment for her Fall 2021 WGST 50103 course, I was excited but also anxious. As a third-year Ph.D. student, I of course had not gotten to teach graduate-level courses yet, though I had by then been teaching at the undergraduate level. Additionally, because the timing of the project aligned with TCU’s annual Indigenous People’s Day Symposium, the assignment was supposed to connect to the topic of the symposium, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, to encourage students to support the university’s programming.
As an alumna of the course, I knew what was expected from students for this assignment in general terms (such as an inquiry-based and interdisciplinary approach), so I took the outcomes, as I do for undergraduate assignments, and worked backwards from what students were supposed to learn about feminist historiography from the unit. In terms of practical considerations, Dr. Robbins suggested having the students work in groups because the class was large for an inquiry seminar, with 13 graduate students and 3 undergraduates.. Additionally, students ranged from advanced undergraduates to masters students to doctoral students. It was therefore important to design the project with the knowledge in mind that these students were all at different points in their academic careers.
Likewise, one of the elements of graduate and advanced undergraduate education and associated assignments for such learners is a dual emphasis on content and professionalization. So, I also wanted to think of ways students could develop professional skills.
I knew very little about MMIW before beginning this project; my knowledge came from a few cases here and there that I had seen on social media and mentions on various true crime podcasts. Thus, my initial proposal for the project emerged from what I had heard on true crime podcasts; the media, including podcasts, are oversaturated with narratives of white (often young and conventionally attractive) women, creating a false narrative of what victimhood looks like. I thought having groups of students spotlighting individual MMIW cases by conducting a history of the present would be a great way to meet the DEI-related goals of the assignment and engage with the topic. Obviously, this beginning conception of the assignment morphed quite a bit as I continued to think through how students could respectfully approach the topic of MMIW.
As an alumna of the course, I knew what was expected from students for this assignment in general terms (such as an inquiry-based and interdisciplinary approach), so I took the outcomes, as I do for undergraduate assignments, and worked backwards from what students were supposed to learn about feminist historiography from the unit. In terms of practical considerations, Dr. Robbins suggested having the students work in groups because the class was large for an inquiry seminar, with 13 graduate students and 3 undergraduates.. Additionally, students ranged from advanced undergraduates to masters students to doctoral students. It was therefore important to design the project with the knowledge in mind that these students were all at different points in their academic careers.
Likewise, one of the elements of graduate and advanced undergraduate education and associated assignments for such learners is a dual emphasis on content and professionalization. So, I also wanted to think of ways students could develop professional skills.
I knew very little about MMIW before beginning this project; my knowledge came from a few cases here and there that I had seen on social media and mentions on various true crime podcasts. Thus, my initial proposal for the project emerged from what I had heard on true crime podcasts; the media, including podcasts, are oversaturated with narratives of white (often young and conventionally attractive) women, creating a false narrative of what victimhood looks like. I thought having groups of students spotlighting individual MMIW cases by conducting a history of the present would be a great way to meet the DEI-related goals of the assignment and engage with the topic. Obviously, this beginning conception of the assignment morphed quite a bit as I continued to think through how students could respectfully approach the topic of MMIW.
Focusing on Learning Rather Than Expertise
A huge concern coming into this project was making sure that students approached the topic respectfully. During our brainstorming of my initial proposal for the project, we decided to shift away from the idea of spotlighting individual cases because it put students in the position of reporting on something with an expertise they did not have. We did not want students to act as if they were experts on this topic. So, we decided we wanted the project to focus on their learning and to center Indigenous voices. Accordingly, we invited students to focus on exploring how narratives about MMIW are constructed via cultural artifacts authored by or involving Indigenous people.
Students would choose a text or set of texts and reflect on what they learned. We kept the podcast element with the goal being to help other learners by pointing them towards specific resources and explaining how those resources had helped class members learn. We aimed to ensure that students were approaching the topic humbly and not through a lens of false expertise. We wanted students to center Native people already doing this work and not speak over them. By workshopping the original idea with each other and seeking feedback at various stages, we were able to come up with the final version of the project.
Students would choose a text or set of texts and reflect on what they learned. We kept the podcast element with the goal being to help other learners by pointing them towards specific resources and explaining how those resources had helped class members learn. We aimed to ensure that students were approaching the topic humbly and not through a lens of false expertise. We wanted students to center Native people already doing this work and not speak over them. By workshopping the original idea with each other and seeking feedback at various stages, we were able to come up with the final version of the project.
Overcoming technological challenges
There were multiple layers of technological challenges to this project that I had to work through. The first layer was coming up with a way students could create a podcast without feeling overburdened during the COVD-19 pandemic. After several discussions, meeting with other professors, and meeting with TCU’s Center for Digital Expression, I provided students with four possible options for making their podcasts, ranging from least technically challenging to most technically challenging so that class members of all skill levels could complete the project fairly easily, at least in terms of the technological burden, or decide if they wanted to challenge themselves by learning a new technology. Students were also free to come up with their own option in terms of recording and editing their podcast. We wanted the majority of the intellectual work to happen at the content level, which is why we did not want to challenge students with learning a new technology.
The second layer of technological challenge was actually building the digital resource and portfolio itself. I have made online portfolios in the past and had made a site using Weebly, but I do not consider myself an expert by any means. Experimenting with layout and design elements taught me a lot about how an amateur like myself could make something that is both functional and pleasing to the eye.
Finding creative commons images was another hurdle that involved several meetings and conversations with TCU’s marketing department to help me source images I could use. There was also the hurdle of figuring out how to embed all the documents associated with the assignment and the projects themselves onto the website. This project had no funding, so I could not pay to easily embed audio or video directly into the site. So, I had to get creative by uploading the projects onto YouTube as unlisted videos and then embedding those YouTube videos onto the site. Additionally, because programs to embed documents like Flipsnack or Yumpu have a small number of free embeds before charging fees, I faced one constraint in simply determining how to get all the documents I needed mounted onto the site. Turns out, Weebly has a free option to embed documents through Scribd. Simple. Creative solutions are occasionally required with a project like this, but I learned the hard way that sometimes the answer really is as easy as a few clicks of the mouse.
The second layer of technological challenge was actually building the digital resource and portfolio itself. I have made online portfolios in the past and had made a site using Weebly, but I do not consider myself an expert by any means. Experimenting with layout and design elements taught me a lot about how an amateur like myself could make something that is both functional and pleasing to the eye.
Finding creative commons images was another hurdle that involved several meetings and conversations with TCU’s marketing department to help me source images I could use. There was also the hurdle of figuring out how to embed all the documents associated with the assignment and the projects themselves onto the website. This project had no funding, so I could not pay to easily embed audio or video directly into the site. So, I had to get creative by uploading the projects onto YouTube as unlisted videos and then embedding those YouTube videos onto the site. Additionally, because programs to embed documents like Flipsnack or Yumpu have a small number of free embeds before charging fees, I faced one constraint in simply determining how to get all the documents I needed mounted onto the site. Turns out, Weebly has a free option to embed documents through Scribd. Simple. Creative solutions are occasionally required with a project like this, but I learned the hard way that sometimes the answer really is as easy as a few clicks of the mouse.
conclusion
Overall, this project was a huge learning experience for me in multiple areas of my professional life. I am very thankful for the opportunity to create a project such as this. I hope to carry what I have learned here both into my future teaching and other potential public humanities endeavors.