“Web-based communications skills are becoming increasingly
important for graduate students, especially in the humanities,”
Sheridan-Rabideau said. “This course will not only help students
acquire the digital literacy necessary to survive in the knowledge
economy, it will also help them make their newly acquired literacy
skills visible to future employers inside and outside academics.”
Enrollment is open to all students pursuing master’s or
doctoral degrees in the humanities, and no previous computer skills
are required, Sheridan-Rabideau noted. Due to limited computer
lab space, class size is limited to 25.
“ ‘Reaching Other Audiences’ will provide both
technical training in Web design and a forum to examine issues
raised by the movement from a print-based literacy to a screen-based
literacy,” Sheridan-Rabideau said, adding that guest speakers
will discuss career opportunities with the students. As a final
project, students will create a personal home page, a project-centered
and information-rich Web site, or a Web-based professional portfolio
that presents their accomplishments to an audience outside the
university.
Participants will have the option to strengthen their new computer
skills by enrolling in a Rutgers CASE (Citizenship and Service
Education Program) follow-up course during the summer. “They
will choose a community-based organization and design and build
a Web site to meet that organization’s needs,” Sheridan-Rabideau
said. Rutgers will provide funds for student stipends.
Additionally, students can compete for two fellowships to a summer
institute at Michigan Technological University on incorporating
technology into teaching.
The Woodrow Wilson Innovation Awards are part of a larger foundation
effort, “Humanities at Work,” that was launched in 1998
to broaden career opportunities for students with doctorates in
humanities by encouraging meaningful change in doctoral training.
The foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated
to excellence in education through the identification of critical
needs and the development of effective national programs to address
them.
Anyone interested in the course or its progress is invited to visit
the webpage for the class, located at http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~mpsr.
As the semester progresses, the site will contain portfolios of
the students' work.
