DSC 2023 Year in Review

Training, tools, & support to help the UVic community pursue their passions & tell their research stories in engaging ways

We had a busy 2023 in the Digital Scholarship Commons, as we continue to help students, faculty, and staff learn to tell stories about their research in ways beyond text to further their public scholarship and knowledge mobilization efforts. 

“I found the [SurveyMonkey workshop] to be so informative. I learned a lot in a short amount of time and will be using the tools I learned in my current role. I enjoyed the format very much, and Audrey Tung [the instructor] was great. She was available to assist if we had any questions, or ran into issues along the way.” – Graduate student (Human & Social Development)

The number of digital fluency/literacy workshop participants was up 9% over 2022, and we taught a total of 6,462 individuals in 2023. For the first time, Generative AI for Educators was our most popular workshop, followed by our other consistently in-demand workshops, Data Analysis with Excel, Video Editing, Infographics, and Websites with WordPress. DSC workshops align with the British Columbia Post-Secondary Digital Literacy Framework.

The DSC workshop curriculum web pages were accessed 51,532 times over the year, which is up significantly from 19,095 in 2022. The global reach of the DSC continues to broaden with learners from all over the world using the DSC’s Creative Commons (CC-BY) licensed curriculum. The top countries accessing DSC workshops are Canada (56%), the United States (17%), India (3%), the Philippines (3%), the United Kingdom (2%), Germany (2%), China (2%), as well as 114 more countries (15%).

The DSC collaborated with professors in 24 departments to integrate DSC workshops into their course syllabuses. Professors in Education, Anthropology, Law, Public Administration, History, and English were our most frequent collaborators. 

A large and growing percentage of DSC drop-in workshop participants prefer Zoom workshops over face-to-face workshops, so we adapted our teaching modalities to meet this demand. 

Workshops held in for-credit classes at the invitation of professors accounted for approximately 90% of our face-to-face instruction in classrooms across campus, while the remaining 10% were conducted via Zoom.

“Dani Johnson was very clear, organized and personable – altogether a most effective teacher. I liked the combination of theory and practice; I loved that the materials are available online and I can go back any time and refresh my knowledge; I loved that I could leave the workshop before the end and do the hands-on activity at my own pace” – UVic Staff (VPAC)

Select Collaborations with Faculty & Community Organizations

Librarians Reveal Library Resources at UVSS SEXPO: On Valentine’s Day 2023, Gender Studies librarian David Boudinot and History librarian Tina Bebbington were invited to host a table at the second annual UVSS SEXPO, a two-day, student-led event on sex positivity, sex education, and consent education. Around 1,000 students attend this event that connects students with library resources and services.

The Digital Scholarship Commons donated 3D-printed clitoris models for the display and also collaborated with Pride Collective on airbrush tattoo design stencils cut out on the DSC laser cutter with art made by artists on campus

The library display included an assortment of books, journal articles, and databases with a sexual health and sexuality theme along with library swag, custom Valentine heart pronoun buttons, anatomy colouring sheets, and candy.

This collaboration led to doing another laser-cut airbrush stencil project with advocacy groups later in the year.

Collaboration with Book Arts Space: Artist and Master Printer Jake Maddison created a digital design that we engraved and cut out on our laser cutter. The design was brought downstairs to the Book Arts Space where it got mounted onto a block, inked, and put through a press to make prints for the space’s first open house. Those who attended the event got to cut out the prints and make them into holiday ornaments. Future collaborations with the Book Arts Space are in progress; we hope to lasercut and print multilingual “types” and “scripts” for the existing type collection in order to showcase non-Western histories of printing technologies.

Indigenizing DSC Workshop Curriculum: The DSC is continuing the process of Indigenizing its information fluency workshops. This ongoing process so far has included incorporating more holistic, experiential learning and place-based learning into an expanding list of workshops.

We have also created a handful of new workshop activities which incorporate positive Indigenous themes and subjects so that Indigenous learners can see themselves in the curriculum. For example, the new Indigenous Learning Design infographic activity, the SENĆOŦEN language-themed sketchnote activity for language learning, and our Interactive storytelling with Twine workshop.

“UVic is lucky to have Rich!  He is an amazing instructor and his communication and instruction skills are impressive.  And he is incredibly intelligent and broad in his skill set.” – Faculty member (Human & Social Development)

New & Upgraded Workshops for 2023

• Academic Posters with Canva (NEW): Canva is a powerful tool that can help researchers create attractive and compelling research posters to summarize information or research data into concise and visually appealing academic posters.
• Image Editing with Photopea (NEW): Photopea is an Adobe Photoshop-compatible, user-friendly, and free web-based tool that helps people edit their photos and graphics; it allows them to easily transition to the more expensive, but widely used, Photoshop application in the future.
• Survey creation in SurveyMonkey (UPDATED): In response to workshop participant requests, we developed additional activities for our SurveyMonkey workshop to help researchers get up to speed quickly creating surveys using a UVic-approved tool. SurveyMonkey is a web-based survey creation tool that allows users to create powerful surveys, quickly deliver them online to participants, and then rapidly visualize results.
• Design for Laser Cutting (UPDATED): We developed additional activities for our introduction to Laser Cutting workshop to help interested members of the UVic community acquire the skills they need to make simple laser cutter projects. Laser cutters use computer-controlled high-powered lasers to engrave or cut wood, metal, paper (and more) with high precision.
• Data Visualization & Narrative Maps (UPDATED): Two activities in this workshop were updated. The first was StoryLine JS which is an open-source tool that enables anyone to build an annotated, interactive line chart. The second is Juxtapose JS which helps storytellers compare two pieces of similar media, including photos, and GIFs. It’s ideal for highlighting then/now stories that explain slow changes over time or before/after dramatic events.
• RStudio Data Analysis Introduction (UPDATED): A significant amount of work was done to update all the workshop activities to make them more cohesive, and to provide learners with auxiliary materials that are particularly helpful to self-paced workshop participants. 
• Coding with HTML & CSS (UPDATED): The code editor that was recommended for the workshop was retired at the end of 2023, so the workshop activities were all updated to reflect the use of the free Sublime Text program.

“Thank you! I appreciated Matt’s patience and flexibility in using the time in a way that supported student needs, rather than sticking to a rigid PowerPoint presentation in the Advanced Zotero workshop.”  – Graduate student (Education)

Digital Badges & Informal Credentialing

The DSC informal credentialing pilot project continued in 2023; a total of 392 badges were issued for the successful completion of digital fluency workshops. Students had to explicitly opt-in to receive a badge, at which point the workshop instructor reviewed the work to make sure it met the requirements for earning a badge. 

By far our most popular badge is for our Data Analysis with Excel workshop, which seems to be a skill in high demand by many co-op employers. The 3D Design & Print, Infographics, Design and Layout with Canva, and Qualitative Data Analysis & Coding with Taguette workshop badges are the four next most popular informal credentials the DSC offers. These badges communicate to employers extracurricular skills in which learners have demonstrated training and competency.

“The QGIS workshop was very well organized, and at a great pace. So awesome that Daniel was there to help us out. Very well done!”  – Community member

Graduate Student Experts & Young Canada Works Interns

In September we welcomed Cameron Chevrier, who is our Young Canada works intern. Cameron is a recent graduate of the University of Ottawa, who graduated with an Honours Bachelor in International Development & Globalization, and a minor in Women’s Studies (Summa Cum Laude). Cameron has also worked as a TA in UVic’s Sociology Department and is a mentor for the Gender Generations Project Society. Cameron also has a strong technical background in 3D printing, basic electronics, and a wide range of data analysis software. 

Audrey Tung is our new Qualitative Analysis GA. Audrey is working on her PhD in Geography. For her MA, she critically examined responses to household food insecurity using a combination of qualitative methods. Audrey is also working as a Research Associate, for the Solutions to Homelessness and Health in Older Women (SHHOW) project. Her PhD research focuses on older women who have experienced intimate partner violence and homelessness or housing insecurity. Some of her other research interests include: homelessness; housing insecurity; food insecurity; arts-based research; ethics of care.

Chloë Farr is our new Computer Programming & Electronics GA. Chloe is a linguistics graduate student focusing on computer and mobile-assisted language learning and is currently writing her thesis which addresses large language models’ place in additional language learning. Some of her other research interests include Human-technology interactions and technology-mediated communication; Humane technology; and Indigenous language revitalization.

Brittany Johnson is our new Curriculum GA. Brittany just started working on her MEd degree, and you may recognize her from the two summer YCW positions that she worked in the DSC while she was an undergraduate student. Brittany will be helping us update some of our workshops, add additional activities to some of our newer workshops, and lead some of the workshops that she has helped develop.

Farewells

In March, we bid farewell to Victoria Hartman who was our wonderful Young Canada Works (YCW) intern. She is a UVic Biomedical Engineering graduate.  Victoria is now a Research Associate at Precision NanoSystems Inc. in Vancouver, BC, and we wish her all the best as she works on extremely interesting projects.

In March our Electronics GA, Kim Shortreed, completed his doctoral studies at UVic. In April Kim successfully defended his dissertation, which included a beautiful interactive art installation called Untitled ṮEṮÁĆES map, which is currently on display on the main floor of the library. This beautiful piece of art “is the result of an artistic collaboration between TEMOSEṈ Charles ‘Chazz’ Elliott (Lekwungen/W̱SÁNEĆ), Jesse Campbell (Métis) and Kim Shortreed to prototype a motion-activated art installation that speaks aloud toponyms, or place names, in SENĆOŦEN and English.” The haptic wrap-around map uses electronics to enable interactivity. You can see a 360 tour of the Untitled ṮEṮÁĆES map from when it was on display at the Legacy Art Gallery. If anyone is interested in learning how to create 360 tours please check out the DSC Introduction to Virtual Reality & 360 Tours workshop.

Sharon Diaz was our Qualitative Analysis Graduate Assistant, who completed her Ph.D. in Geography and does human geography and community-based research in urban areas in the Global South. Sharon is now a sessional instructor at the University of the Fraser Valley, and we wish her all the best as she enters the next phase of her career!

In December we bid farewell to Arjun Banik, who was our Quantitative Analysis GA. We wish Arjun all the best as he works on completing his PhD here at UVic.

Alex Dechev finished his summer Young Canada Works internship with us assisting with our Laser Cutter and 3D printers. He started the final year of his Mechanical Engineering degree in September, and we wish him all the best.

“Just a big thanks you to Jessica for her Zotero workshop. She has been super helpful.”  – Graduate student (Human & Social Development)

References

Association of Canadian Archivists – PeepShow & Tell: Sex in Archives – Blog Post #3 – Dr. Mary Hague-Yearl and the Osler Library. (n.d.). Retrieved February 9, 2024, from https://archivists.ca/Blog/12708126

Munro, K. (2023, April). Boudinot and Bebbington Reveal Library Resources at UVSS SEXPO | Research & Scholarship.  https://oac.uvic.ca/ars/2023/04/24/sexpo/  

Shortreed, K. (2023, September). Untitled ṮEṮÁĆES | University of Victoria Legacy Art Galleries. https://legacy.uvic.ca/gallery/blog/untitled-tetaces/

Shortreed, K. (n.d.). Kim Shortreed. Retrieved 13 February 2024, from https://kimshortreed.github.io/