The Virtual Education Project: An Instructor's Guide & Lesson Plan

THE VIRTUAL EDUCATION PROJECT—AN INSTRUCTOR’S GUIDE AND LESSON PLANDiscover distant cultures and transform the experience of learning. Explore history where it was made.

Introduction: The Virtual Education Project (VEP) brings the places where history and culture were made to a worldwide audience through an open-access database of virtual tours related to the study of the humanities. Just as students can learn about a particular place, person, time, or movement by visiting the tours others have created, they can absorb, generate, and contribute their own knowledge and expertise to others by creating and sharing their own tours of local sites. Whether created by anindividual, a pair of individuals, or an entire group, the immersive research and writing process involved in creating a virtual tour can function as a small or large assignment in classes related to history, literature, philosophy, cultural and material studies, fine art, performance studies, and others.

Project Components: To maintain consistency, each virtual tour submitted tothe Virtual Education Project must contain the following three components: 1) An introduction of 1000-1500 words, with an accompanying Works Cited page, that provides contextual information about the site, its inhabitants (if applicable), its history, and an explanation of the site’s cultural importance and educational value; 2) A series of high-resolution images that provide viewers with a comprehensive tour of the physical site and therooms/items therein; 3) A series of captions that accompany each image, andthat explain for the viewer what, exactly, the image contains.

If you would like to introduce the VEP as a possible project in your course, we have assembled an

assignment packet that you can either use directly, or as a guideline to create your own version of theassignment. If you do find creative ways of implementing the VEP into your classroom, we would love

to hear how your students are going about the process of creating interesting, educational, andculturally-significant virtual tours. You can contact the editors at

[email protected] or via one of our social media sites.

Creating a Virtual Tour

I. Getting Started: Before assigning this project to students, instructors should either have the students independently research local sites of significance for possible tours, or suggest sites they know meet the educational aim and scope of the Virtual Education Project. If students are interested in contributing a virtual tour of an Underground Railroad site, there is already a list of related sites available on our website.

A. If students are to find and choose their own sites for the project, we suggest incorporating a Research Proposal into the assignment. This will not only ensure that students are thinking critically about the subject matter they will be responsible for, but that the student’s proposed project meets both the instructor’s standards, as well as the VEP’s. Additionally, the ability to write a research proposal is a valuable skill that willserve students, not only in helping to arrange and anticipate the work necessary for a larger project such as this, but in their future classes or occupations as well.

a. The components included in the VEP Research Proposal Content Guide (included below in handout form) are as follows, with detailed explanations for each component:

i. Name/Title of Proposed Siteii. Statement of Purpose

iii. Background iv. Significancev. Methodologyvi. Anticipated Problems

vii. Bibliography

b. We also suggest making it clear to students that they should not begin work on their respective projects until they have received formal, written approval from their instructor regarding their research proposals.

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VEP Research Proposal Content Guide

I. Name of Proposed Site: Provide the name of the site you plan to study and document; if it is a home with a name, such as Booker T. Washington’s home, The Oaks, include that information as well.

II. Statement of Purpose: Explain the significance of your chosen site by including relevant information about its history, its inhabitants (if applicable), and its historic and/or cultural importance. You can also usethis space to explain why, exactly, you believe the site will be of interest to others.

III. Background: Explain your interest in, and any previous experience withthis site/research subject. Describe any previous research you have conducted on this or related topics, any classes you have taken on this or related topics, and/or any reading you have done related to the field. If you have had any personal experiences that prompted you to want to researchthe site further, describe that here.

IV. Significance: Explain, in depth, why the site is of cultural significance, and how you think a virtual tour of the site will benefit others in their respective studies and research. What do you hope to learn from it? How or what will you contribute to the field of knowledge that exists on this topic? What new perspective will you bring?

V. Methodology: Describe the kind of research you will need to carry out this project to completion (e.g. site tours, library research, internet research, interviews, etc.). Explain how you will conduct your research in as much detail as possible. If you plan on consulting with other people as research sources (such as a museum curator, historian, statistician, ethnographer, or research librarian), explain what role they will serve andhow you hope they will enhance your project. Discuss the kinds of sources you will consult and the methods you will use to extract and process the

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information you gather in as much detail as possible. Once the project is underway, you may find you need to adapt your methodology or adopt more effective research methods.

VI. Problems: Describe any problems you expect to encounter and how you hope to solve them. For example, is the site available to the public? If so, do you have to schedule an appointment? What transportation issues, if any, do you anticipate? Additionally, cite any problems you think you may encounter during the research process. For example, the texts you need might be unavailable, necessitating travel to other libraries or use of inter-library loan services; the time frame for the project may limit the amount of research or the quality or specificity of research you are able to do; or, people you had hoped to interview might be unavailable or unwilling to participate. Try to anticipate every major problem and make a contingency plan so that the project stays on track.

VII. Bibliography: Make a list of texts you plan to consult. You may modifythis list as you conduct your research. Once you have finished the written content for the project, all the texts that made it into your final versionof the project will compile your Works Cited list.

Creating a Virtual Tour

II. The Site Visit: Prior to visiting the project site, students should do the following:

1) Verify that the site is open to visitors before showing up on-site.

2) Verify that visitors are allowed to take pictures.

3) If there are tour guides available, students should tell them about their projects, and ask if they can enlist the expertise ofthe guides and any other people that work on site.

4) Students should ask if audio recording is allowed; it is especially helpful in that:

They can later use the audio as a primary source when writing the captions that accompany the images

They record what the student inevitably misses while taking pictures or waiting for other visitors to clear out

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of a picture

o It is actually ideal to have one person (a student partner, teacher, chaperone, parent, or friend) follow the guide with a recording device (there are free recording apps available for smart phones) if one student is concentrating on taking pictures. It is very easy to fall behind the group when documenting a site tour, so students should have a plan in place to deal with this issue before visiting.

5) Students should make sure to conduct themselves in a professional manner while on site, so as not to disturb the staff or other visitors, or break the rules of the establishment.

VEP Site Tour Checklist for Students

Prior to the visits to the project site, students should do the following:

Verify that the site is open to visitors before showing up on-site

Verify that visitors are allowed to take pictures

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Talk with tour guides, if available, and tell them about your projects, and ask if they can enlist the expertise of the guides and any other people that work on site

Ask if audio recording is allowed (there are free recording appsavailable for smart phones):

You can later use the audio as a primary source when writing the captions that accompany the images

The recorder will catch anything you miss while taking pictures or waiting for other visitors to clear out of a picture

If this is an independent project, the student should secure someone (a student partner, teacher, chaperone, parent, or friend) to follow the guidewith a recording device (if allowed). It is very easy to fall behind the group when documenting a site tour, so students should have a plan in placeto deal with this issue before visiting.

During the visits to the project site, students should do the following:

Secure a device that takes high-resolution photos before visiting the site; although some phones do take good images, it’s best not to rely on the quality and usability of a phone

Although at times it will be impossible to avoid people in a shot, students should try to take images that capture the largerscope of a room as well as its contents (material culture scholars, for example, would be interested to see the wallpaper and articles that furnish each room—especially if they are original to the site, which the guide will usually mention).

Follow the rules of the establishment and conduct themselves in a professional manner, so as not to disturb the staff or other visitors

Creating a Virtual Tour

III. Images—Compiling the Virtual Tour: Students will likely find it usefulto organize the images that will compile the visual component of the tour

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before attempting to write the essay, and particularly before writing the captions. Students may wish to organize their final/choice images in the order they were taken, especially if they followed a tour guide through thesite, but there is no rule about how contributors organize their tours. There should, however, be a clear order that makes logical sense to those viewing the virtual tour. Once the images are carefully arranged, students should look to the image content for possible areas/items to research for their contextual essay, their captions, or both. Once the students have conducted a good amount of research from a variety of sources, they will find it much easier to write substantial captions to accompany their photos.

IV. Writing Content—The Essay: The essays preceding each virtual tour should provide readers/viewers with contextual information about the project site, including, but not limited to the following: the history of the structure, the style of construction, information regarding the people who lived there, and specifics regarding the site’s historical and culturalimportance. For examples regarding possible structure for essays, instructors can direct students to various essays from the website, Documenting the American South. Although many of the essays on this website are regarding individuals and/or specific texts, such as this example on Booker T. Washington, the compact form and integration of research sources are ideal for illustrating the types of scholarly essays necessary to frame the information contained in the visual portion of the virtual tours. Once students have an idea of the expectations for the essay, they can focus their research and writing on the specifics of their respective project sites.

Writing Content—The Captions: There should be a caption for each picture, or one caption for multiple perspectives of one space. For example, if a student has three images of an upstairs bedroom and not enough content to rationalize writing three separate captions, then one caption for all threeimages is acceptable; however, that single caption should then contain a substantial amount of information regarding the room and its contents.

V. Suggested/Supplemental Readings: The following is a list of readings (bytopic/focus) that students might find beneficial, either in preparation for, or interspersed throughout the duration of their projects.

Historical Preservation

Preserving Different Pasts: The American National Monuments, by Hal Rothman (1989) America's National Monuments: the Politics of Preservation , by Hal Rothman (1989)

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Domesticating History: The Political Origins of America's House Museums, by Patricia West (1999)

Interpreting Historic House Museums, ed. Jessica Foy Donnelly (2002)

Analyzing Physical Spaces The Poetics of Space, by Gaston Bachelard (1964) Urban Geography in America, 1950-2000: Paradigms and Personalities, eds. Brian J.L

Berry & James Wheeler (2005)

Monuments & Commemoration Commemoration in America: Essays on Monuments, Memorialization, and Memory,

eds. David Gobel & Daves Rossell (2013) Etched In Stone: Enduring Words From Our Nation's Monuments by Ryan Coonerty

(2007)

Architecture Lee Friedlander: Sticks & Stones: Architecture in America, by James Enyeart, with

photos by Lee Friedlander (2004) A Field Guide to American Houses, by Virginia Savage McAlester & Lee

McAlester (1984) What Style Is It?: A Guide to American Architecture, by John C. Poppeliers & S.

Allen Chambers (2003)

Material Culture Material Culture: A Research Guide, ed. Kenneth L Ames (1985) Objects and Others: Essays on Museums and Material Culture, ed. George W. Stocking

Jr. (1988) History from Things: Essays on Material Culture, by Stephen Lubar (1995) American Artifacts: Essays in Material Culture, eds. Jules David Prown & Kenneth

Haltman (2000) The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth,

by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (2002) Handbook of Material Culture, ed. Chris Tilley (2006) What Objects Mean: An Introduction to Material Culture, by Arthur Asa Berger

(2009)

Non-Traditional Art & Public Shrines Community Mural Art in South Africa, by Sabine Marschall (2002)

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Trespass: A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art, by Carlo McCormick, Marc & SaraSchiller, & Ethel Seno (2010)

Street World: Urban Art and Culture from Five Continents, by Roger Gastman, Caleb Neelon, & Anthony Smyrski (2007)

“Spontaneous Shrines, Memmorialization, and the Public Ritualesque” by Jack Santino (2004)

V. Assessment: Although the VEP recognizes that individual Instructors havetheir own particular methods for assessment, sample rubrics are often helpful in determining what aspects of an assignment need to be specifically addressed within the overall grading process. Instructors should feel free to use the rubrics below, and alter the contents and pointsystem as they see fit. Also, if an instructor settles on a rubric that works particularly well for assessing student virtual-tour projects, we would love to hear about it!

VEP Rubric: Option 1 Excellent Good Fair Poor

(10-8 pts) (7-5 pts) (4-2 pts) (1-0 pts)

Quality of Research & Sources

Quality of Written Essay

Quality & Organization of Images

Quality of Caption Writing & ContentOverall Quality of the Project & Student Effort

VEP Rubric: Option 2 (TBD)

VEP Rubric: Option 3 (TBD)

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VI. Submission to the Virtual Education Project: The VEP is currently overhauling its website and its functionality. Over the next few months, anew interface will be available that will allow students to submit their virtual tours directly to the website by creating a unique user name and password that will then allow them to submit the files related to their projects. In the meantime, instructors should determine how they want students to verify the submission of their projects to the VEP. Currently,the VEP is accepting submissions via email to [email protected]; therefore, instructors may find it easiest to have students “CC” (carbon copy) their instructors on their email submissions to the VEP editors. Once the database allows for submissions directly to the website, instructors might ask students to submit a screenshot of their submissions as proof of the assignment’s completion.

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