‘Introduction to Digital Humanities’ is an online course that teaches students critical data literacy skills through their engagement with primary source archives and text and data mining tools.

Highly flexible, it allows educators to integrate the complete course into their teaching, or select one or more modules or activities for use in their curriculum, saving time whilst ensuring a high-quality classroom experience for their learners.

Perfect for students new to working with primary sources and digital humanities, the course includes stretch activities which can push students keen to challenge themselves or for those who have prior exposure to digital humanities methods.

What does the course include?

Built around Gale Primary Sources and Gale Digital Scholar Lab, the course includes six modules that increase students’ understanding of digital archives, text and data mining primary sources, and how to create and publish digital humanities projects.

  1. Using Digital Archives
  2. Mining Text and Data
  3. Building Content Sets
  4. Cleaning Data
  5. Analyzing Data
  6. Creating and Publishing Projects

Each module includes assignable reading, discussion questions, hands-on activities, and ideas for extended activities. Instructor guides help educators navigate the materials.

You do not need access to any specific Gale Primary Sources archive to be able to use these course materials.

Download examples

 

 Activity Sheet

 

Instructor Notes
 

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Why use these course materials?

  • I lack the time to develop resources

    The resources included in the course are ready-to-go – available immediately from a one-click download.
  • Students in my class have very different skill levels

    ‘Introduction to Digital Humanities’ has in-built accommodations for learners with different skill levels. Extension activities support students keen to challenge themselves with more advanced activities.
  • I need to demonstrate the quality and efficacy of my course

    These course materials were developed by experts with extensive knowledge of DH pedagogy. The highly knowledgeable DH team at Gale (a leader in digital humanities resources) consulted with educators currently delivering DH courses, as well as drawing on Gale’s extensive knowledge of education and instruction design.

    Course content and structure are aligned with the Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy developed by ACRL and SAA. Course goals and learning objectives are aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy and are designed to foster growth across six cognitive domains (remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating).
  • I don’t have much experience teaching DH

    As well as the student activities, ‘Introduction to Digital Humanities’ provides lesson plans for instructors to help guide course delivery. Consequently, these materials are a great way for non-DH specialists and traditional humanities scholars to incorporate digital humanities into their classroom.
  • I can't find many DH teaching resources

    ‘Introduction to Humanities’ offers an extensive collection of materials and resources, from assignable reading and discussion questions to hands-on activities and ideas for extended activities – all in one easily accessible online location.
  • I don't have additional budget

    There is currently no additional charge for Lab customers to access the course content – it is available in the Learning Center.

Where do I find these materials?

‘Introduction to Digital Humanities’ is available in the Gale Digital Scholar Lab Learning Center.

Instructors can use the “Get Link” functionality to embed direct links to course materials into their learning management systems.

 

Your feedback

The course is currently in beta, and we'd love to hear from instructors interested in offering feedback! Your views could feed directly into the development of future curriculum materials and impact the experience of future users. Please contact [email protected] with any feedback.

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Learning Frameworks

Course content and structure are aligned with the Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy developed by ACRL and SAA. Course goals and learning objectives are aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Sarah Ketchley

Expert written

Dr Sarah Ketchley is an Egyptologist and art history scholar at the University of Washington. She has taught  numerous introductory and graduate-level classes in digital humanities.

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Instructor input

The course was developed with the input and guidance of practising instructors, and aligns with real teaching practices.



"Many professors beginning this type of work lack formal training in these techniques. Having knowledgeable individuals develop vetted digital humanities curriculum outlines is invaluable, because it ensures that instructors have reliable, well-structured resources to effectively teach and integrate methods into their courses." 

―Megan VanGorder, Assistant Professor of History, Governors State University
 

Blog Post

A blog post by leading course developer, Dr Sarah Ketchley, which provides further useful information about the new 'Introduction to Digital Humanities' course.

 

Press Release

Read the Press Release announcing this exciting new course, published April 1, 2025.


 

Times Higher Ed Campus Article

Dr Sarah Ketchley writes for Times Higher Ed Campus about what makes 'digital humanities’ different from ‘traditional humanities’, and how it could make your classroom more collaborative and creative.

"The Activity Sheets are a great starting point for customizing hands-on engagement by students."

―Coordinator of Undergraduate Research and Information Literacy, Higher Education institution

Materials and Assistance

Complete the form below if you'd like to receive a printed pack of sample materials (student activities and instructor notes) to examine at your leisure, free expert advice on how to incorporate DH into your curriculum - or have any other questions!

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Please note the resources are ordinarily available digitally through Gale Digital Scholar Lab Learning Center.

We can only send sample materials to individuals employed in a higher education establishment.


The course "meets the need for flexibility and the ability to adapt teaching materials based on student needs."

―Coordinator of Undergraduate Research and Information Literacy, Higher Education institution