The MLA Task Force on Evaluating Digital Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion (2006)

The MLA Task Force on Evaluating Digital Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion (2006)

Digital Scholarship is becoming pervasive in the humanities and must be recognized as a legitimate scholarly endeavor to which appropriate standards, practices, and modes of evaluation are already being applied. The rapid expansion of digital technology has been fundamentally transforming the production and distribution of humanities scholarship, generating not only new forms of publication and dissemination…but also significant new modes of scholarship… (43)

Digital Scholarship is becoming pervasive in the humanities and must be recognized as a legitimate scholarly endeavor to which appropriate standards, practices, and modes of evaluation are already being applied. The rapid expansion of digital technology has been fundamentally transforming the production and distribution of humanities scholarship, generating not only new forms of publication and dissemination…but also significant new modes of scholarship… (43)

The MLA Task Force on Evaluating Digital Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion (2006)

The MLA Task Force on Evaluating Digital Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion (2006)

…[F]rom 35% to over 50% of department chairs report that they have had no experience evaluating scholarly work produced in these new forms by candidates for tenure and promotion; departments in Carnegie Doctorate-granting institutions consistently reported the highest percentages of inexperience….65.7% of departments in Carnegie Doctorate-granting institutions report that they have no experience, as compared with 38.4% of departments in Carnegie master’s and 47.4% of departments in Carnegie Baccalaureate institutions. Overall, 52.1 % of respondents report having no experience with evaluating monographs in digital form. (44-45)

…[F]rom 35% to over 50% of department chairs report that they have had no experience evaluating scholarly work produced in these new forms by candidates for tenure and promotion; departments in Carnegie Doctorate-granting institutions consistently reported the highest percentages of inexperience….65.7% of departments in Carnegie Doctorate-granting institutions report that they have no experience, as compared with 38.4% of departments in Carnegie master’s and 47.4% of departments in Carnegie Baccalaureate institutions. Overall, 52.1 % of respondents report having no experience with evaluating monographs in digital form. (44-45)

The MLA Task Force on Evaluating Digital Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion (2006)

The MLA Task Force on Evaluating Digital Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion (2006)

More positively, higher percentages of departments across the institutional board regard work in digital formats as “important” rather than “not important” in evaluation for tenure and promotion…. Refereed articles published in electronic forms are regarded as “important for earning tenure and promotion in 38.9% of departments…28.1 1% of respondents indicate that monographs in electronic form count as “important” in their processes of evaluation… (46)

More positively, higher percentages of departments across the institutional board regard work in digital formats as “important” rather than “not important” in evaluation for tenure and promotion…. Refereed articles published in electronic forms are regarded as “important for earning tenure and promotion in 38.9% of departments…28.1 1% of respondents indicate that monographs in electronic form count as “important” in their processes of evaluation… (46)

What’s the Point of New Media?!

Evaluating Transitional Scholarship

Dr. Cheryl E. Ball, Illinois State University

Expectations of print scholarshipExpectations of

print scholarship

• What does it look like?• Who is the audience?• How is it written? (formal/informal, jargon,

etc.)?• What formatting conventions are assumed? • What do you expect to get out of it?

• What does it look like?• Who is the audience?• How is it written? (formal/informal, jargon,

etc.)?• What formatting conventions are assumed? • What do you expect to get out of it?

Expectations of print scholarshipExpectations of

print scholarship

Can you think of an example of “traditional” scholarship that breaks from tradition but is still considered successful?

How does it break from tradition?

Can you think of an example of “traditional” scholarship that breaks from tradition but is still considered successful?

How does it break from tradition?

Continuum of digital scholarshipContinuum of digital scholarship

Braun (2006)print online digital

media

print-based print-like webtext new mediaWarner (2007)

Braun (2006)print online digital

media

print-based print-like webtext new mediaWarner (2007)

webtexts vs. print scholarship (Warner, 2007)

webtexts vs. print scholarship (Warner, 2007)

• Webtexts follow print conventions regarding content

• Webtexts diverge from print conventions regarding form

• Webtexts have added value through web affordances

• Webtexts follow print conventions regarding content

• Webtexts diverge from print conventions regarding form

• Webtexts have added value through web affordances

Webtext examplesWebtext examples

Zoeteway’s “Disrupting the Computer Lab(oratory)” (2004)

Webtext examplesWebtext examples

Wysocki’s “bookling monument” (2002)

Warner’s webtext heuristic(handout)

Warner’s webtext heuristic(handout)

• Content: Considers whether the content of the text meets traditional standards of scholarship.

• Web-based allowances: Considers whether the text incorporates the allowances of the medium to enhance the rhetorical effect of the argument as well as to justify its construction within the online environment.

• Emerging conventions: Considers whether the text follows emerging conventions of web-based writing in order to accommodate the new reading experience.

• Content: Considers whether the content of the text meets traditional standards of scholarship.

• Web-based allowances: Considers whether the text incorporates the allowances of the medium to enhance the rhetorical effect of the argument as well as to justify its construction within the online environment.

• Emerging conventions: Considers whether the text follows emerging conventions of web-based writing in order to accommodate the new reading experience.

implications of study (Warner, 2007)

implications of study (Warner, 2007)

“The ability to engage with the content of a text depends on the accessibility of the form.”

“Readers often do not value what they do not understand.”

(p. 145)

“The ability to engage with the content of a text depends on the accessibility of the form.”

“Readers often do not value what they do not understand.”

(p. 145)

New media examplesNew media examples

Wysocki’s “bookling monument” (2002)

Trends toward new media scholarship

Trends toward new media scholarship

“As trends in online scholarship move toward new media studies, scholars will need to develop revised assessment strategies; the current assessment tool does not account for texts that make meaning in non-textual ways” (Warner, p. 148).

“As trends in online scholarship move toward new media studies, scholars will need to develop revised assessment strategies; the current assessment tool does not account for texts that make meaning in non-textual ways” (Warner, p. 148).

Types of webtexts (Kalmbach, 2006)

Types of webtexts (Kalmbach, 2006)

• Linear• Exploratory• Looping• Sequential• Matrix• Menu• Multi-windowed•Timelime

• Linear• Exploratory• Looping• Sequential• Matrix• Menu• Multi-windowed•Timelime

New media exampleNew media example

Words are the ultimate abstraction!: Toward using Scott McCloud to teach visual rhetoric.

by Robert Watkins

Words are the ultimate abstraction!: Toward using Scott McCloud to teach visual rhetoric.

by Robert Watkins

New media scholarship?New media scholarship?

What does NOT seem scholarly about this text?

What does NOT seem scholarly about this text?

An example of new media scholarshipAn example of new media scholarship

Words are the ultimate abstraction!Words are the ultimate abstraction!QuickTime™ and a

decompressorare needed to see this picture.

What do you think?What do you think?• What lenses or traditions or

genres did you use to evaluate “ultimate abstraction”?

• What was unexpected?• How did you reconcile “gaps”

in meaning-making? (Or were they irreconcilable?)

• What lenses or traditions or genres did you use to evaluate “ultimate abstraction”?

• What was unexpected?• How did you reconcile “gaps”

in meaning-making? (Or were they irreconcilable?)

What do you think?What do you think?Scholarly personaDocumentationNot replication (form/content)Self-reflexiveMusic- punkProduction weaknessesLayering of multimediaTiming of textual elements/paceNo/less control over pacingAssertion vs. argument?/propagandaReader relationship to textImmersionNot dialectical/book review?

Scholarly personaDocumentationNot replication (form/content)Self-reflexiveMusic- punkProduction weaknessesLayering of multimediaTiming of textual elements/paceNo/less control over pacingAssertion vs. argument?/propagandaReader relationship to textImmersionNot dialectical/book review?

Assessing new media scholarship

Assessing new media scholarship

• Content• Web-based allowances• Emerging conventions

• Content• Web-based allowances• Emerging conventions

Warner’s heuristic:

Assessing contentAssessing content

• introduction• documentatio

n• lit review• methodology• formal tone

• introduction• documentatio

n• lit review• methodology• formal tone

Assessing added value(web-based allowances)

Assessing added value(web-based allowances)

• discrete nodes• multilinear

navigation• apropos links• form enacts

content• apropos

multimedia

• discrete nodes• multilinear

navigation• apropos links• form enacts

content• apropos

multimedia

Assessing emerging conventions

Assessing emerging conventions

• navigation instructions

• sitemap• effective linking• design

rationale• multimedia

enhancements

• navigation instructions

• sitemap• effective linking• design

rationale• multimedia

enhancements

QuickTime™ and aH.264 decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Shifting conventions in new media scholarship?Shifting conventions in new media scholarship?

• space/time• memory• chapters/segments • design methodology • linearity/transcript of

voiceover• voice, pitch, tone• authority/credibility• ethos of print/digital bridge

• space/time• memory• chapters/segments • design methodology • linearity/transcript of

voiceover• voice, pitch, tone• authority/credibility• ethos of print/digital bridge

Questions?Questions?

Thank You.

Dr. Cheryl Ballcball@ilstu.edu

Thank You.

Dr. Cheryl Ballcball@ilstu.edu