The pandemic and social upheavals of the last two years have had an impact on many aspects of our lives and have challenged us to be more compassionate and understanding people. This semester my objective as a faculty member is to provide a high quality course for all of you that will allow us to ease back into in person learning. The course has been redesigned with flexible modules, the use of technology and multiple channels of communication in mind, since they represent some of the ways that information and media are changing in our world today.
Our collective well-being this semester is very important. You are encouraged to keep an open channel of communication with the instructor about any issues that arise that make your completion of academic work difficult. There will be virtual office hours open to all on demand.
Openness: One of the characteristics of the digital humanities is its open, public quality. Most of the work in this course you will be doing in a website you design yourself. It is an excellent opportunity to work on skills in web publishing and web writing. In past semesters, I have had students create a WordPress using NYU Hosting. In the remote F21 semester we will be using Google Sites as a replacement. If you have taken a course with me in the past and would like to continue with your NYU Hosting account, this will be possible. If you have another preferred method of web publishing (GitHub pages, or other blogs), let me know and we will see if it matches the coursework.
It is a new and interesting experience for students to work in the open, since it asks us to think about audience more than if we were only writing a paper for a single person to read. We will begin with a Site that is open to NYU and then later open it up to the world. At the end of the semester once all is graded, you can keep or delete your work.
There will be no specific rule about the number of courses you can miss, but it will be difficult to do well if you do not attend most of the course. This will especially be the case of the second half of the semester when we switch to project-based learning.
Assignment due dates are given with flexibility. If you do not get me work by the deadline, it will not be possible for me to give you timely feedback.
If you are falling behind or are encountering any personal issues that impede your course performance, please inform me in writing. Staying in communication is the key. Please note that sensitive personal issues or discussions of grades should be addressed in email or on Zoom.
Do not come to course if you are not feeling well.
If you encounter any technical problems in the semester, inform me in writing in a direct message in Chat. Do not use chat to discuss health or mental health issues.
Ask questions if you are not able to understand something or if you are encountering difficulties.
Integrity: Academic integrity and honesty are central components of a student’s education. Ethical conduct maintained in an academic context will be taken eventually into a student’s professional career. Academic honesty is essential to a community of teachers and learners. Anything less than total commitment to honesty undermines the efforts of the entire academic community.
Since we will be making adequate use of the web, we will be learning new ways to cite the work of others that are appropriate for web-based writing. I encourage you to make full use of those forms of citation to make your writing richer, but also to cite the source of whatever you reuse, as well as the open licenses which accompany many materials.
NYU Abu Dhabi expects its students to adhere to the highest possible standards of scholarship and academic conduct. Students should be aware that engaging in behaviors that violate the standards of academic integrity will be subject to review and may face the imposition of penalties in accordance with the procedures set out in the NYUAD policy.