“How Did They Build That?” Presentation Assignment

For this assignment you will choose a DH project from the list of DH projects and explain “How did they build that?” in a five minute verbal presentation.

Your presentation should answer the following questions:

1. What were the goals of this project? How did these goals connect to one or more humanities fields or the larger idea of “the humane?”
2. What sources did this project use to achieve its goals? What underlying data or artifacts was the project built on? How did the project access these sources? Why were these sources the right sources, given the project’s goals?
3. How were the sources processed to achieve the project’s goals? What tools and techniques were used to make the sources machine readable and prepare them for presentation? Consider digitization (if necessary), metadata creation, and analysis. Why do you think the project chose to process the sources in this way?
4. How did the project present its processed sources and any conclusions the authors took from them to readers? Did they build a map, a network graph, something else? What tools and techniques did they need to create this presentation? Why did they choose to present their project in this way?

Your presentation should include a visual aid. You should submit your visual aid via D2L 24 hours before your assigned presentation time.

Your presentation will be evaluated based on the following rubric:

	Excellent	Good	Satisfactory	Unacceptable
Spoken Delivery	Presentation is clear, steady, and engaging.	The presentation is clear and steady.	The presentation seems rushed or unclear.	The presentation is very hard to follow, seems unpracticed or made up on the spot.
Project Details	The presentation gives a good, detailed explanation of the projects goals and outcomes. Specific tools and methods and the specific contribution these tools and methods made to the projects goals are explained.	The project lists specific goals of the project and the tools and methods used, though the link between goals and these tools and methods may not be fully explained.	The presentation gives a general sense of the goals of the project and the tools and methods used, but specific details are lacking.	No real sense of the goals, tools, or methods of the project is communicated.
Class Concepts	The presentation makes some insightful observations about how the project makes a contribution to humanities disciplines and/or does something “humane” (using Timothy Burke’s definition)	The presentation is able to make some correct connections between this project and humanities disciplines, even if this connection is quite broad.	The presentation shows some awareness of our class discussion of “the humanities” but can’t really link it to the project in a concrete way.	The presentation shows no awareness of class discussion of “the humanities.”
Visual Aid	The visual aid is clear, unique, and pleasant to look at. It assists the presentation in highlighting key points.	The visual aid is clear and helps the presentation highlight key points.	The visual aid attempts to help the presentation highlight key points, but accidentally confuses them.	The visual aid is absent or extremely confusing.