There are many ways you can use Domain of One’s Own (DoOO) or UMW Blogs to teach on the open web. You can read our guide on the difference between DoOO and UMW Blogs if you are not familiar with these platforms.
Below are examples of ways you can approach using these platform in your class. Many of these options can go a long way towards addressing the Digital Intensive SLOs for classes seeking a DI designation.
Course Site
Canvas works well as an internal, private hub for your course content, and for many courses that is all that’s necessary. But utilizing platforms like DoOO and UMW Blogs alongside Canvas opens up a host of possibilities, such as:
- Offering you more control over the way your course is digitally organized.
- Allowing students access to the work and ideas of previous courses.
- Letting a broader community of people learn from your course.
- Giving prospective students a preview of what your course is about.
Some examples of course sites:
- Mara Scanlon’s Literature of the Great War course
- Chris Foss’ Dis/Lit course
- Cartland Berge’s DGST 101 course
Writing in Public
Most writing that happens in class is done for the professor or perhaps for peers. Writing in a more public forum like DoOO or UMW Blogs can:
- Give students a different audience to think about.
- Give students practice in writing in scholarly ways on the web.
- Give students more ownership of their writing.
- Get students thinking about contributing to knowledge and conversations on the open web.
Some examples of course that have used writing in public:
- Jason Davidson’s Security and Conflict class
- Jackie Gallagher’s Hazards class
- Leanna Giancarlo’s Physical Chemistry class
Portfolio Projects
Portfolios can be an excellent way to assess what students have learned over the semester (or over their time in a program). Creating portfolio projects on DoOO or UMW Blogs can:
- Help students think about and frame their learning in a different way.
- Be a final product for students to point to for internships and jobs.
- Allow for more creative expression and allow for easier inclusion of varied media.
Some examples of portfolio projects:
- Theatre Department senior capstone
- History & American Studies Department, History Methods course
- Communications & Digital Studies, Applied Digital Studies course
Public Research and Scholarship
These kinds of projects are often the central focus of a course. They attempt to think about what it means to contribute scholarly work on the open web. These kinds of projects can:
- Lead to the creation of scholarly resources that are accessible on the open web.
- Be a form of meaningful community engagement.
- Connect students to the work of public scholarship within the discipline.
Some example of public research and scholarship:
- Kashef Majid’s Zero Food Waste
- Melina Patterson’s Geographies of Children
- Jeff McClurken’s Adventures in Digital History
Interested in Using DoOO or UMW Blogs in your class?
If you are interested in using Domain of One’s Own or UMW Blogs in your class, Digital Learning Support would love to partner with you to plan your site and get you up and running. You can book an appointment or sending us a message on the contact us page.
You do not need to be tech support for your students using these platforms in your course. The Digital Knowledge Center provides peer support to students using digital tools in their class projects, and this includes Domain of One’s Own and UMW Blogs. You can direct students to the DKC for help troubleshooting issues and learning these tools.
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