I see the influx of first-generation students to University campuses as one of the most exciting and urgent pedagogical challenges I’ve faced in recent years. According to the National center for Education Statistics, around 40% of students currently enrolled inhigher education are the first generation of their family to attend college.The resources that first-generation students bring to college are often undervalued by academic programs in the United States, conversely, the economic andcultural norms of middle- and upper-class students make it easier for them to succeed. Confronting the uncertainties of a precarious job market along with the social challenges highlighted by the recent focus on campus sexual assault and the systemic racism brought to light by the Black Lives Matter movement, we must ask how much a traditional British Literature course canspeak to their concerns. Too many times, I have seen Latinx, Japanese, and Indian students struggle through 1,000 pages of British Victorian prose by Charles Dickens only to fail to see themselves in any of his characters.
Contemporary students are passionate about social change, and they enthusiastically undertake difficult assignments and wrestle with complex ideas if they understand their relevance. On the other hand, they also have no patience for professors who don’t listen to them and don’t careabout their lives. When I decided to completely overhaul my DTC 375 and DTC 101courses during the Fall of 2016, I took lessons from Senior Exit Surveys Iconducted as “Assessment Coordinator” for the DTC program. Many students wantedmore hands-on experiences and less reading. My resulting DTC 375 course on “Media Histories” included readings, but I decided that — unlike my literature courses— DTC courses should not be primarily focused on the act of reading text. Ialso redesigned the syllabus using recommendations from Anne-Marie Womack’s website The Accessible Syllabus, which urges professors to use images to compliment the written communication ofcourse objectives; and to establish a rhetoric of inclusion, cooperation, andinvitation over a style of paternalistic commands or contractual detail. Theresult was one of the most successful courses I’ve ever taught during my careeras a teacher in higher education.
| Semester | Course | Enrollments | Instructor Score | Course Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2017 | ENGL 372: 19thC Lit of Am & British Empire | 32 | 4.7 | 4.5 |
| Fall 2016 | DTC 101: Intro to DTC | 26 | 4.7 | 4.4 |
| DTC 375: Lang, Text, & Tech | 26 | 4.7 | 3.9 | |
| Spring 2016 | ENGL 560: Theories, Methods, and Practice in DH | 6 | 4.4 | 4.2 |
| Fall 2015 | ENGL 494: Adv Topics in Lit | 18 | 1.7 | 2.4 |
| Spring 2015 | DTC 356: Electronic Research & Rhetoric of Info | 21 | 4.5 | 3.8 |
| ENGL 522: Steampunk | 7 | 4.5 | 4.3 | |
| Fall 2014 | DTC 356: Electronic Research & Rhetoric of Info | 30 | 4.0 | 3.5 |
| Summer 2014 | DTC 355: Multimedia Authoring | 8 | 3.5 | 3.8 |
| Spring 2014 | ENGL 521: 19thC Media Studies | 5 | 4.8 | 4.8 |
| Fall 2013 | ENGL 487: Romanticism | 9 | 4.1 | 3.8 |
| DTC 375: Language, Text, & Tech | 31 | 4.3 | 3.7 | |
| Summer 2013 | ENGL 355: Multimedia Authoring | 5 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| Spring 2013 | DTC 375: Language, Text, & Tech | 34 | 3.3 | 3.1 |
| ENGL 487: Romanticism | 16 | 3.0 | 2.7 | |
| Fall 2012 | ENGL/HNRS 298: Honors English | 19 | 3.3 | 3.5 |
| ENGL/DTC 336: British Novel to 1900 | 19 | 4.2 | 3.9 |