The Library is pleased to announce that the following projects have been selected for support in the Course Enrichment Grants program. These grants provide support to faculty interested in enhancing students’ abilities to seek, evaluate, manage, and use information and data in scholarly contexts, as well as create media-rich class assignments. Faculty recipients work with teams of library staff to revise their syllabi and plan for in-class instructional support.
Ira Bashkow (Anthropology, College of Arts & Sciences)
In this innovative approach for improving research competency in a large class of 180+ students, this introductory anthropology course, “The Concept of Culture,” involves students interviewing a family elder, documenting their stories, and then exploring how the elder’s life was shaped by broader historical and cultural contexts. With many students unaware of effective research techniques, this course will scaffold their research process by constructing generalizable “research pathways,” which will help students engage with personally relevant scholarly writing using library resources. Thus, the project will develop simplified aids to navigating library resources, while giving the research process a personal motivation by connecting it to an experience of deepening the student’s understanding of their own heritage and family history.
Team:
- Erin Pappas, Librarian for the Humanities
- Keith Weimer, Librarian for History and Religious Studies
- Chris Ruotolo, Director, Research in the Arts and Humanities
- Jean Cooper, Principal Cataloger (and genealogy expert)
- Bethany Mickel, Instructional Design and OER Librarian
Matthew Chin (Women, Gender and Sexuality; College of Arts & Sciences)
This new course focuses on conducting historical research grounded in decolonial, anti-racist, feminist, and queer perspectives, designed to meet UVA’s writing requirement. Throughout the semester, students acquire skills including crafting research questions, locating pertinent sources, applying appropriate theoretical frameworks, and presenting findings to various audiences. Assignments progressively build upon each other, allowing room for continuous improvement via constructive feedback. Upon completion, students master valuable research and communication skills, while promoting awareness of social justice issues among academic and general communities. Professor Chin will use this opportunity to sharpen his skills in curriculum design, assignment creation, and providing targeted guidance to improving students’ writing skills.
Team:
- Cecelia Parks, Undergraduate Student Success Librarian
- Erin Pappas, Librarian for the Humanities
- Jacob Hopkins, Instruction Librarian/Archivist
- Grace Hale, Instruction Librarian, Special Collections
- Bethany Mickel, Instructional Design and OER Librarian
Stephan De Wekker (Environmental Sciences, College of Arts & Sciences)
This course will integrate generative artificial intelligence tools into the environmental sciences department’s “Mountain Meteorology” course to assist students in understanding complex meteorological concepts and analyzing data sets. Using AI tools has the power to make learning more efficient, interactive, and equitable. It will also help Professor De Wekker dedicate more class time to discussing case studies, research, and group activities instead of focusing solely on foundational explanations. Through “peer reviews” of each other’s interactions with AI tools, students will gain greater competency in leveraging this new technology to enhance their learning.
Team:
- Erich Purpur, Science and Engineering Research Librarian
- Doug Chestnut, Lead User Experience Web Developer
- Maggie Nunley, Science and Engineering Research Librarian
- Bethany Mickel, Instructional Design and OER Librarian
Ying Gao (East Asian Language, Literature, and Culture; College of Arts & Sciences)
In the CHIN 1060 and CHIN2060 courses tailored for heritage Chinese language learners, a community-based project called “Windows of Shanghai” is being expanded into a long-term initiative in collaboration with the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library. Students will create useful community resources, including bilingual tutorial videos, book directories, and story sessions. This project aims to improve students’ research skills and language proficiency, develop cultural understanding, and promote a sense of community responsibility. By nurturing stronger ties between the University and the local community, this initiative can continue to positively influence future classes, fostering a lasting relationship with local libraries and families.
Team:
- Wei Wang, Librarian for East Asian Studies
- Josh Thorud, Multimedia Teaching and Learning Librarian
- Ashley Hosbach-Wallman, Education and Social Science Librarian
- Bethany Mickel, Instructional Design and OER Librarian
Adrienne Ghaly (English, College of Arts & Sciences)
In fall 2024, “ENGL 2599: Literatures of the Nonhuman” will focus on deep integration of generative artificial intelligence into the core elements of literary analysis. Following encouraging feedback from previous experiments, we plan to develop effective multimodal assignments using AI to help students develop strong close reading skills, produce literary critical analyses, and engage meaningfully in cultural critique. While the course’s content focuses on literary intersections of the human and the nonhuman, the impact of exploring AI for literary analysis would be widespread and positive, from providing students legitimate and scholarly approaches to the technology, to creating working models for faculty to adopt in their own classes in ways that further the shared outcomes of English literature courses.
Team:
- Sherri Brown, Librarian for English
- Josh Thorud, Multimedia Teaching and Learning Librarian
- Erin Pappas, Librarian for the Humanities
- Shane Lin, Senior Developer, Scholars’ Lab
- Bethany Mickel, Instructional Design and OER Librarian
Diana Morris (Applied Mathematics, School of Engineering)
This course in applied mathematics will introduce a new module focused on the use of UVA Library services and collections for finding and assessing data sets. Students will practice locating reliable datasets, describe their origins and limitations, and evaluate their quality and suitability for certain techniques. Addressing broader needs in statistics education, this knowledge will be foundational to successful research in many fields and has the potential to influence instruction in other data-based courses.
Team:
- Maggie Nunley, Science and Engineering Research Librarian
- Erich Purpur, Science and Engineering Research Librarian
- Jenn Huck, Associate Director, Research Data Services & Social, Natural, and Engineering Science
- Bethany Mickel, Instructional Design and OER Librarian
Lisa Shutt (African American and African Studies, College of Arts & Sciences)
This upper-level undergraduate seminar will focus on the historic River View Farm in Albemarle County, formerly owned by the Carr/Greer family for over a century. The course aims to enhance students’ research skills, especially when working with primary sources from UVA’s Special Collections Library and other repositories. Professor Shutt also hopes to create an open educational resource where students’ research papers contribute chapters to a comprehensive source on River View Farm and the Carr/Greer family. By partnering with the Ivy Creek Foundation, this course will promote undergraduate education in the service of community outreach and the preservation of local Black histories.
Team:
- Bethany Mickel, Instructional Design and OER Librarian
- Keith Weimer, Librarian for History and Religious Studies
- Kristal Sergent, Associate Librarian for African American and African Studies
- Jacob Hopkins, Instructional Librarian and Archivist
- Grace Hale, Reference Librarian, Special Collections