Humanities Computing 1

An Foras Feasa currently offer Humanities Computing 1 (CS260) as an undergraduate module which is available to Arts and Computer Science students and falls under the Department of Computer Science. Students will gain a familiarity and understanding of technology for the humanities. Another objective is to examine how computing tools and techniques may be integrated into humanities and what the effects of this integration might be. Students will learn how to use technology to inform new humanities research as well as how it may be used to support existing research patterns; possibilities created by the application of technology to humanities research can be explored and exploited. They will also learn how to apply a wide variety of computing and software engineering techniques in four distinct areas: text processing, image processing, software engineering and digital humanities. Finally, Students will learn how to assess whether computing can be usefully applied in particular circumstances, and what results may be expected.

Module Content

• Fundamentals of the Digital Humanities: humanities research, electronic communications and publishing, text analysis, numerical and graphical analysis and presentation.
• Introduction to web-based databases.
• Analysing text: electronic tools to analyse written and transcribed text. What can be learned about a text from using simple analytical techniques?
• Using graphical analysis to find and understand patterns in data. Creating and using graphs and charts to summarise, visualise and analyse data.
• The nature of images and how to convert them to digital form: from manuscript, through image capture and XML, to online database.
• Digital images; commonly used operations and techniques for image enhancement.
• Digitisation and the creation of online digital resources.
• Introduction to TEI (Text Encoding Initiative), XML (Extensible Markup Language) and associated tools.

Module Details

Module Name: Humanities Computing 1

Module Code: CS260

Level: 1

Semester: 1

Credit Weighting: 5 Credits (ETCS)

Pre-requisite(s): None

Co-requisite(s): None

Responsible Department: Computer Science

Assessment: Total Marks: 100%. Two-hour written examination at the end of Semester 1, not less than 50%. Continuous Assessment up to 50%

Teaching Methods: 24 Lecture hours, 24 Laboratory hours, 32 Tutorial and Independent Study hours. Lectures, Tutorials and Laboratories will be delivered by An Foras Feasa staff.

Penalties: Penalties will be at the discretion of the lecturer and will be announced prior to the commencement of the module.

Pass Standard: 40%. A standard of at least 30% must be attained in continuous assessment. Otherwise the student may be deemed to have failed the module by extreme weakness.

Autumn Supplemental Examination: Two-hour written examination. Continuous Assessment marks are carried forward to the Autumn.