Building a digital presence can take many forms. Carleton offers students, faculty, and staff different tools to create a digital presence reflective of their creative work and research. Whether this digital presence is a web site that showcases an individual’s accomplishments for an eportfolio, a community effort for a particular class that publishes insights relevant to a larger audience, or a particular research resource that highlights aspects of our library collections, the starting point for any of these endeavors can be Carleton’s Domain of One’s Own space.
How does one get a Domain of One’s Own space?
In order to get started, Carleton community members can go to https://sites.carleton.edu/interest-form/ and request a site. The form will ask a few general questions, such as the purpose of the site, and what platforms will be used. The answers will guide Academic Technology in fulfilling the request effectively.
As you’re submitting your request, think about what the URL should look like to be meaningful for the target audience. URLs tend to be formatted by site topic and department, so an example site made for Academic Technology might have a URL of “example.at.sites.carleton.edu”. If the site isn’t affiliated with an academic department, it can still have a place to live under another section like people, ocs or studentworks. You don’t need to have this nailed down when you submit the form, but the domain will be needed before the site can finish being set up.
When you request and receive a site, you are agreeing to certain rules. Carleton’s Code of Conduct applies to the content you create (or allow others to create on your site), as well as ITS’ Acceptable Use of Technology policies. You are also bound to a specific agreement having to do with the site, its users, and its data, in the same way that you are bound by Carleton’s other codes of conduct. You can read the agreement in its current form here.
What are the options?
Carleton offers three main platforms: WordPress, Omeka, and Scalar.
WordPress is a blogging and website building platform used widely across the internet.
Omeka is often used to manage digital content similar to online collections and exhibits found in museums.
Scalar offers non-linear digital self-publishing options, like a book that relies heavily on linked connections within the text to create different pathways through the material.
At Carleton, WordPress has been widely used for personal websites, trip or project blogs, and writing or creative e-portfolios, while Omeka has been used for student research projects and primary source collections. Scalar is a newer technology, and the library has been making use of it to make rare or delicate materials available online to the Carleton community.
Some examples
Anita Chikkatur (Educational Studies) and Emily Oliver (Academic Civic Engagement and Scholarship) are using WordPress for their project Participatory Action Research (PAR), a trilingual site collecting resources on participatory action research in English, Spanish and Somali. Their site gives an introduction to the principles of PAR, a discussion of Carleton’s collaboration with Faribault on this project, information about other organizations and projects, and resources about PAR projects. You can see their site and find out more about their work here.
Witness to the Revolution is a WordPress-based site showcasing an ongoing project headed by Austin Mason (Digital Humanities) and Serena Zabin (History). The project is a video game based on historical research, which illuminates the experiences of historical figures living through the Boston Massacre; the site delineates the development process through student blog posts reflecting on their research and game design experiences. To find out more about the project, you can visit the site here.
Susannah Ottaway (History) uses Omeka for a course site called HIST. 139 – Early Modern Europe. Through Omeka, students created museum-esque exhibits on a variety of topics, juxtaposing primary sources with their own research and scholarship. You can explore the different exhibits, as well as the artifacts used, available at the site here.
Rebecca Bramlett (Gould Libraries) has been using Scalar to make items from the library’s Special Collections more accessible for students, especially remotely. The site introduces Special Collections and how to use its resources; it also hosts digitized materials that have been annotated with Scalar’s built-in annotation functions. Check out Rebecca’s work through the site here.
Anything Else I Should Know?
While Academic Technology sets these sites up through our hosting platform and can offer some technical support if you are having issues with the software, we do not design or customize the sites beyond the Carleton custom templates that have been set up. Depending on the nature, scope, and life of the project, it may make sense to request that the Digital Humanities Associates help you get your site configured initially, or maybe even hire a student worker to maintain it.