Digital Humanities in Practice: From Research Questions to Results
Table of Contents
Course Overview
In this course, you’ll work on building parts of a search engine, one tailor-made to the needs of academic research. Along the way, you'll learn the fundamentals of text analysis: a set of techniques for manipulating the written word that stand at the core of the digital humanities.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Understand which digital methods are most suitable to meaningfully analyze large databases of text
- Identify the resources needed to complete complex digital projects and learn about their possible limitations
- Download existing datasets and create new ones by scraping websites and using APIs
- Enrich metadata and tag text to optimize the results of your analysis
- Analyze thousands of books with digital methods such as topic modeling, vector models, and concept search
- Test your knowledge by writing and editing code in Python, and use these skills to explore new methods of search
Course Sections
Digital Humanities in Practice has seven modules, which are released at once when the course is launched.
- Module 1: From Texts to Data – Computational Methods in the Humanities
- Module 2: Getting Data
- Module 3: Processing Text and Metadata
- Module 4: Introductory Text Analysis
- Module 5: Advanced Text Analysis
- Module 6: Concept Search and The Ends of Digital Projects
- Module 7: Course Wrap-Up
Prerequisites
HarvardX: DH101 - Introduction to Digital Humanities
Grading & Certification
This course has two types of assignments: practice and homework. Different students may see different versions of certain questions, or see them in different locations.
- Practice questions are worth 70% of the final grade: Typically multiple choice or short answer, these questions help to check your understanding of the course content.
- Exercise questions are worth 30% of the final grade: These questions will ask you to apply what you've learned in the course.
You will be able to see the answers to all questions after the due date has passed, after you have used up your attempts, or when you get the answer correct.
Passing the course, and certification
The passing grade for this course is 60% (using the weights above).
If you register for a Verified Certificate, and your score is 60% or above, you will receive a certificate in electronic form. They are not mailed to you. Instead, you can generate them on your Progress page. The final day to sign up for a verified certificate is the course completion date.
Guidelines For Collaboration
We encourage class participants to collaborate on assignments! But be sure you learn how to do the assignments yourself, and please do not post solutions to discussion forums until after the due date. Staff will proactively remove solutions posted before due dates.
- It is OK to discuss or work jointly to develop a general approach to an assignment.
- It is OK to get a hint from peers or course staff if you get stuck on an assignment.
- You should work out the details of assignments yourself.
- It is not OK to copy someone else's solution.
- It is not OK to take someone else's formula and plug in your own numbers to get the answer.
- It is not OK to post answers to a problem.
- It is not OK to look at a full step-by-step solution for the purpose of submitting an answer.
Discussion Forums
We encourage you to use the course Discussion Forum! It has many uses, and we'll prompt you to participate throughout the course.
Some good uses of the Discussion Forum:
- Asking questions about course content and assignments.
- Collaborating appropriately on assignments.
- Contacting course staff.
- Starting discussions related to course content.
- Commenting on course content, including giving the instructors feedback, disagreeing with us, or suggesting improvements.
Our discussion forum guidelines
- Be polite and encouraging.
- Work together and work independently.
- Post hints rather than answers. If you're not sure where to draw the line, follow the collaboration guidelines.
- You can and should discuss questions, consider possibilities, and ask for hints.
- You should not request or give out answers, even answers that you know are wrong.
- Use your vote. If you agree with what someone says, don't write a post. Just click the plus button!
- Tag your posts. If there is an issue that absolutely needs staff attention, put the word [STAFF] in brackets in your subject line. Course staff will be in the forums every day, but it may take up to two days to get a response sometimes, especially around holidays.
Honor code statement
HarvardX requires individuals who enroll in its courses on edX to abide by the terms of the edX honor code. HarvardX will take appropriate corrective action in response to violations of the edX honor code, which may include dismissal from the HarvardX course; revocation of any certificates received for the HarvardX course; or other remedies as circumstances warrant. No refunds will be issued in the case of corrective action for such violations. Enrollees who are taking HarvardX courses as part of another program will also be governed by the academic policies of those programs.
Nondiscrimination/anti-harassment statement
Harvard University and HarvardX are committed to maintaining a safe and healthy educational and work environment in which no member of the community is excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, or subjected to discrimination or harassment in our program. All members of the HarvardX community are expected to abide by Harvard policies on nondiscrimination, including sexual harassment, and the edX Terms of Service. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact harvardx@harvard.edu and/or report your experience through the edX contact form.
Research Statement
HarvardX pursues the science of learning. By registering as an online learner in an HX course, you will also participate in research about learning. Read our research statement to learn more.