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Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder Professor of History Phoebe Young won a Spring 2014 ASSETT Development Award to obtain student training support for digital exhibition software.ÌýÌýYoung integratedÌýÌýdigital exhibition software into her course, History 4546: Popular Culture in Modern America.ÌýÌýYoung's students created online exhibits of pop culture themes.Ìý TheyÌýuploaded images and sound clips andÌýrecorded the items' source information.Ìý The source information, such as the date of creation and who owns rights to it, is searchable through Omeka.Ìý Then, students selected artifacts and collaborated with one another to create exhibits about particular pop culture themes.Ìý Students wrote captions about the pieces that they selected.Ìý Each exhibit consists of several web pages that explain how a collection of artifacts exemplifies their chosen pop culture themes.Ìý The exhibits areÌýlike illustrated, digital,Ìýresearch papers, except they're written so that the visitor can approach the artifacts in any order.

Young'sÌýstudentsÌýlearned toÌýdigitize objects--upload photos and sound clips--and write source information and captions about them.Ìý Students collected artifacts into a digital exhibit--like an online webpage.Ìý Young used the ASSETT Development Award to hire an undergraduate History Major as a Technology Learning Assistant to serve as a peer trainer for students.ÌýÌýYoung said, "[The ASSETT Development Award] paidÌýfor student labor to help fellow students do peer-to-peer teaching around technology."Ìý TheÌýstudent assistantÌýcreated a Sandbox on the class's Omeka site with How Tos to support students technically.

Young taught her students about what metadata is and why archiving a large amount of information into a searchable database is important to scholars of history.Ìý She asked Norlin Library to speak to her students about public domain rights to information.Ìý Young said that students' creating a public exhibit, "demonstratedÌýthe valueÌýof students of being able to create work that will have a public audience."Ìý She said that in creating an online exhibition,Ìý"[Students] make theirÌýwork a public object, andÌýit gives them aÌýsense of agency."

YoungÌýcontrasted creating something online with writing a traditional term paper.ÌýÌý"The senseÌýof permanence of students' work was incredibly valuable."ÌýÌýSheÌýalso said that an online exhibition is something that students can take with them after the course is over and share with friends and family.Ìý

Young said that in creating an online exhibition: "StudentsÌýmay see more value of what they do.Ìý Students may take more ownershipÌýin theÌýproject itself when it'sÌýsomething that belongs to them."ÌýÌýEven further, Young sees a bigger picture for History students' creations of digital exhibits.Ìý She says, "ForÌýtheÌýHumanities, it enhances the work for people outsideÌýof the UniversityÌýto see what your students are doing.Ìý Students can say, 'This is what I've done.Ìý This is what I've produced.Ìý This is what I've learned.'"ÌýÌýSeeÌýYoung's students' exhibits here:Ìý.

Young also said thatÌýonce she received theÌýASSETT Development Award provided a first step to further matching grants fromÌýthe History Department to support the project.Ìý The History Department's grant provided a one day OmekaÌýtraining session.Ìý The one-day training session wasÌýled by a national expert on Omeka.Ìý Faculty, staff, and students from across the universityÌýattended.

Omeka is an open source software that was developed by theÌý.Ìý Young says that she thinks that, because of the metadata searchable softwareÌýthat Omeka software provides, it would be most appropriate for a larger digitization project.Ìý ASSETT is hosting Omeka through the end of 2015, and Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Libraries and other Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ departments are welcome to investigate.

This past spring, Young joined the ASSETT teamÌýas its Interim Director.Ìý She continues to teach History at Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ.