From May 21-15, members of DP&S and Research Services worked with seven faculty from across Bucknell to devise course assignments integrating digital technologies. The institute is intended to help faculty identify and create two to three specific modules or assignments for a course that integrate established teaching methods with emerging digital methodologies and tools in order to meet learning outcomes, increase student engagement, and further students’ digital literacy skills. The institute is aligned with the University’s digital scholarship initiative, whereby teaching and research are enhanced, extended, or reconsidered through application of technology.

The Institute opened with a discussion of learning objectives and reasons for using digital tools. The conversation then moved to topics such as digital literacy, assignment scaffolding, copyright and fair use, and Open Educational Resources (OERs). DP&S staff introduced faculty to the range of digital tools available to them, and then the participants were divided into groups based on the technologies they were interested in using. These technologies included WordPress, Comic Life, Adobe Spark, Piktochart, Voyant, LIWC2015, and multiple iOs applications.

Below is a list of participating faculty and the assignments they devised.

• Elizabeth Capaldi
  Associate Professor of Biology and Animal Behavior
  Students will use Piktochart to illustrate scientific concepts. Also, she further developed a video assignment on the behavior of social insects
• Lara Dick
  Assistant Professor of Mathematics
  Students will explore and evaluate iPad apps designed for elementary school mathematics and compare those apps to physical objects that demonstrate mathematical concepts.
• Ramona Fruja
  Assistant Professor of Education
  Students will create digital stories related to identity using Adobe Spark.
• Brantley Gasaway
  Associate Professor of Religious Studies
  Students will use Adobe Spark to create short films about important events in religious history.
• Obed Lira
  Assistant Professor of Spanish
  Students will utilize Voyant and LIWC2015 to perform sentiment analysis of Spanish texts.
• Le Paliulis
  Associate Professor of Biology
  Using Comic Life, students will illustrate the history of key discoveries in genetics. With Comic Life, AnimationDesk, and various infographic apps, students will overcome misconceptions of scientific concepts.
• Brian Smith
  Assistant Professor of Chemistry
  Students will be introduced to and then develop models in the computational chemistry software packages, Gaussian and Gaussview, based on a series of scaffolded assignments.