Richard Andrews Institute of Education University of London

1. Digital Literacies: the dissertation and the future of research in arts, humanities and social science communities Richard Andrews Institute of Education University of London

2. Contents • Interdisciplinarity, multimodality, digital literacies, communities of learning • The digital thesis or dissertation • University regulations and guidance • Transitions from the thesis to the book • The future of academic research • Rhetorical choices • Summary and conclusion

3. Digital literacies • Digital + literacy/ies = a relationship of reciprocal co-evolution • Framing is a key critical/creative act • Composition is a better term than ‘writing’ • It is also useful in ‘reading’ • Literacies refers to more than the functional ability to read and write, but is informed by power relations, modes, contexts

4. Building learning communities • “Learning is an effect of community” (Rogoff 1991) • “Learning is an effect of communities…” • Given the digital dimension to communities, and the wider notion of academic literacy suggested by ‘literacies’… • “Learning is an effect of communities and the interface and transitions between them”

5. Border crossing • Borders of arts, humanities and social sciences • The teaching of Arabic grammar in Riyadh • The history of manga, and its potential as an educational tool • E-learning theory • Software design for the teaching of argumentation in Korean high schools • Intercultural education in Greek primary schools • Exploration of sound and image in the work of pupils at a school in north London

6. The digital dissertation or thesis • Increasingly, students are wishing to cross the borders beyond the conventional dissertation • universities conventionally require two bound copies plus a digital version • students are still submitting printed versions with a CDRom as an appendix • how to accommodate film, sound, art installations etc. in a thesis or dissertation? • this movement is about ‘bringing the appendix into the main body of the text’

7. Arts, humanities and social sciences • Research practice in the arts has been going on for several decades: research for, in and about the arts • Middlesex University’s 50/50 model • Leeds Metropolitan’s 100% model • Raising the question: can you submit a dissertation entirely without words? And, crucially, how in an argument or ‘thesis’ made with or without words?

8. The case of the library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign In 2010, this university library – and the university generally – stopped receiving hard copies of thesis submissions Candidates are required only to submit a digital copy of their work Examiners are expected to read it digitally, or print out (if they can and wish to) Successful theses are lodged in the library Reading of recent doctoral theses has increased ten-fold per annum since this innovation, largely by other doctoral students

9. A start… The new IOE regulation: If appropriate to the field of study, and subject to approval by the Head of Department at the start of the programme, a candidate may submit, in lieu of a thesis, a portfolio of original artistic or technological workundertaken during his/her period of registration. The work may take the form of, for example, objects, images, films, performances, musical compositions, webpages or software, but must be documented or recorded in the portfolio by means appropriate for the purposes of examination and eventual deposit in the Institute of Education library. The portfolio must include written commentary on each item of artistic or technological workand either an extended analysis of one item or a dissertation on a related theme. The written commentaries and extended analysis or dissertation must together be no more than 40,000 words.

10. An update • IOE now making the e-copy of the thesis the main submission, with print copy as the backup • Making the digital version available enables the metadata to be ‘harvested’ by search engines worldwide, e.g. via DART-Europe, in association with UCL (European research libraries e-thesis portal) See www.dart-europe.eu • Cf. EThOS, The British Library’s online e-thesis service. Users over 100 times more likely to access theses via this portal than conventionally

12. Selected chapters • ‘Researching the conditions of provisionality: reflecting on the PhD in the digital and multimodal era’ • ‘Practice-as-research in music performance’ • ‘Reframing the performing arts’ • ‘Animating the archive’ • ‘The research catalogue: a model for dissertations and theses’

13. Examples which have made a smooth transition from dissertation to real world publication • The emergence of study manga in Japan • thesis was already in book form • Little on methodology • Highly illustrated • Inductive rather than deductive • Chronological/narrative drive and structure • An exploration of narrative and argumentative structures in the writing of 11/12 year olds • moved into an edited collection • Narrative and Argument (1991) • Digital Art Resource for Education: www.iniva.org/dare

16. …and why some dissertations have not • Emphasis on methodology rather than theory • Negative results • Topic • The teaching of the past tense in English in Hong Kong • African-Caribbean supplementary schooling in London; Turkish supplementary schooling in London and Melbourne • A study of the teaching of English at an international school in Tokyo • A question of audience (and thus a question of rhetoric)

17. Anna-MarjattaMilsom • Picturing Voices, Writing Thickness: a multimodal approach to translating the Afro-Cuban tales of Lydia Cabrera (2008) • See chapter in Sage Handbook of Digital Dissertations and Theses: ‘Translating Lydia Cabrera: a case study in digital (re)presentation’ (Milsom 2012)

18. The future of academic publishing • Niche academic printed and/or print-to-order books • Rebirth of Rhetoric: essays in language, culture and education (1992/2012) • Re-framing Literacy (2011) • A Theory of Contemporary Rhetoric (2013) • The Sage Handbook of E-learning Research (2007/2015) • The purchasers: libraries • Format: book and e-book; chapters from books

19. IOE library • Encompasses e-journals, e-books, digital archives and digitised course readings • Plus research data and institutional records • Online catalogue, with ambitions for a ‘discovery layer’ to give access to all of this • Digital materials not only enable worldwide access, but also enable better access by users with disabilities and/or learning differences

20. Changes in the HE environment

21. How are student habits changing? • Still routinely use textbooks – mainly for revision, and understanding difficult topics; multiple use • Using Online Resources and open access for: assignments & essays; dissertations; testing knowledge & exam practice • More awareness of learner-type – visual, audio, kinaesthetic, spatial, verbal… • Availability of digital resources increasingly influencing purchasing decisions (or not) • Number of devices owned by students is multiplying and peer recommendation is getting stronger; use of e-books on the rise faster than that of conventional books

22. Archives

24. Example: the early letters of Ted Hughes • Recent collection of letters from Hughes to his English teacher in Mexborough • Does it become material for a film, an academic book on Hughes and education, and/or a new book of selected letters? • Or a CDRom or website, like the work of Rebecca Sinker or Anna MarjattaMilsom? • Richard Lanham, The Electronic Word: democracy, technology and the arts and ‘the Middlesex question’

25. Rhetorical choices • Choices as to genre and format, in an age of multimodality and digitisation, are rhetorical choices as well as marketing choices: • what is my material? • what is my audience? • what are the best ways to shape the material in order to maximize the quality of communication? • which mode(s) and media are best suited to the act of communication?

26. Other initiatives … • eBooks • Interactive eBooks • Video/Audio • More Mobile Content • Tie-ins

27. In summary 1 • For academics in the arts, social sciences and/or humanities, the book remains totemic… • it’s a number of articles/chapters put together • it’s potentially double-counted in the REF, if it’s research-based • its tangibility is mesmeric; it also reinforces the notion of the lonely scholar in a book-filled room • many academics and ‘ordinary’ readers prefer the book as a medium • …though the article remains core to citation etc.

28. In summary 2 • If you are an emergent writer at undergraduate, masters or doctoral level, do you want to publish via the book, or: • online, and possibly with open access • in a range of modes and media • according to the rhetorical nature of the work and its audience • If you wish to communicate to a wide audience, you may no longer be choosing the book…

30. In summary 3 • As a publisher, if you were starting from scratch, you would set up a digital publishing operation: • books, chapters, articles would be printed on demand • the ‘unit of knowledge’ would be the article – or possibly shorter? • currently the big issue facing publishers is open access, led by the sciences. Do we want to follow?

31. References Andrews, R. and Haythornthwaite, C. (2007/2014) Handbook of E-learning Research London: Sage Andrews. R. (2011) Re-framing Literacy New York: Routledge Andrews, R., Borg, E., Boyd Davis, S., Domingo, M. and England, J. (2012) Handbook of Digital Dissertations and Theses, London: Sage Andrews, R. (2014) A Theory of Contemporary Rhetoric, New York: Routledge Haythornthwaite, C. and Andrews, R. (2011) E-learning Theory and Practice, London: Sage Hughes, T. (1999) new edition, Birthday Letters, London: Faber Kress, G. (2010) Multimodality: a social semiotic approach to contemporary communication, London: Routledge Lanham, R. (1994) The Electronic Word: democracy, technology and the arts Chicago: Chicago University Press Milsom, A-M. (2012) ‘Translating Lydia Cabrera: a case study in digital (re)presentation’ in Andrews et al. (2012), 276-97 Reid. C. (ed.) (2009) Letters of Ted Hughes, London: Faber Rogoff, B. (1991) Apprenticeship in Thinking, New York: Oxford University Press

32. Acknowledgements • Marianne Lagrange, Publisher (Education) Sage, London • Julia Sammaritano, Senior Editorial Assistant, Routledge, New York • Andrew McDonald, Head of Newsam Library and Archive Services, Institute of Education • David Strickland, unpublished letters of Ted Hughes • Research students: Kang-bi Ellis, Hamad al-Majed, ReyhanLuttman, Rebecca Sinker, Anna MarjattaMilsom, ChingChing Lai, Lionel McCalman, Tetsuko Watanabe, Katherine Crook