The Digital Learning and Development Environment

FAIN: HD-50464-08

Wayne State University (Detroit, MI 48201-1347)
Nardina Nameth Mein (Project Director: April 2008 to April 2010)

The development of a prototype learning tool to incorporate digital humanities collections housed in a university's digital repository, beginning with two collections housed in the Wayne State University Library System.

The Office for Teaching and Learning (OTL) of the Wayne State University Library System (WSULS) seeks to develop the prototype for an innovative approach to digital learning using image repositories. The project will integrate easy-to-use technical tools with instructional design principles and resources for teaching and learning, utilizing two of the Digital Image Collections created by the WSULS in collaboration with partner museums and archives (Virtual Motor City and Digital Dress). The web-based workspace of the "Digital Learning and Development Sandbox" that we will create represents the next step in instructional design for using digital collections. It will enable faculty and students to export images then reimport them into multi-modal "learning objects, supported by a comprehensive research and learning system. The final product will promote wider use of the Collections while also providing a generic model for working with digital repositories using open source technology.