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2020/2021

Master's Degree Dissertation

Code: 44257 ECTS Credits: 12
Degree Type Year Semester
4317127 Digital Humanities and Heritage OB 0 2
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Juan Antonio Barceló Álvarez
Email:
JuanAntonio.Barcelo@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)

Other comments on languages

MA Dissertation will be presented in Spanish, Catalan or English. Other languages require permission from the teaching committee.

Prerequisites

The student must have passed all the previous modules before the presentation of the master's thesis. You must also have completed and passed curricular internships.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The MA Dissertation is a compulsory activity for all Master's students at the Faculty, and it involves the preparation of an original research monograph directed by a tutor. The student has to proof that he/she has achieved the fundamental competences of the Master where this work is registered. To do this, students will present a theoretical or practical work, or a complete digital project (finished digital object, development of a humanistic application or utility), which may be based on curricular professional practices, proposed by the Master's teaching staff and related to research activities, or as a suggestion of the student him/herself, and validated by the teaching commission. In this work, students must apply different 2D and 3D digitization technologies, computer data management and processing (texts, sounds, images, video), digital editing, human-computer interaction or use, create or manipulate extended realities ( virtual, augmented, mixed). It should be taken into account, not only the computer technology to be used and the specific historical, humanistic, artistic or cultural theme, but also aspects such as the specific type of public to which the project is addressed, the requirements of the legislation that protects the heritage elements to use, the teaching methodologies and learning strategies, as well as the real possibilities of practical implementation.

Competences

  • Act in a creative and original way with solidarity and spirit of scientific collaboration.
  • Analyse and extract relevant scientific information from documents and historical, artistic and literary digitized materials.
  • Critically analyse a particular scientific problem based on specific documentation.
  • Design and plan impact and cultural innovation projects which use the possibilities offered by information and computer technologies.
  • Design extended reality systems for use in social and humanistic studies and cultural projects.
  • Ensure value and quality, self-discipline, rigour and responsibility in scientific work and dissemination.
  • Evaluate the possibilities offered by technology in the production of new forms of cultural, social and humanistic creation and co-creation.
  • Incorporate the use of computer technology in the communication and transmission of culture to specialist and non-specialist audiences and evaluate the results.
  • Knowledge and understanding that provide a basis or opportunity for originality in developing and / or applying ideas, often in a research context.
  • Manage cultural projects that use information and computer technologies in any area.
  • Recognise and use the appropriate computer tools for the acquisition, digitization, indexing and processing of documents and historical, artistic and literary materials.
  • Recognise and value the social consequences of the work carried out, taking into account the diversity of human communities in questions of gender, identity and multiculturality.
  • Students can communicate their conclusions and the knowledge and rationale underpinning these to specialist and non-specialist audiences clearly and unambiguously.
  • That students are able to integrate knowledge and handle complexity and formulate judgments based on information that was incomplete or limited, include reflecting on social and ethical responsibilities linked to the application of their knowledge and judgments.
  • That the students can apply their knowledge and their ability to solve problems in new or unfamiliar environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their field of study.
  • Work in interdisciplinary teams.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Apply criteria of scientific rigour in the production of academic and professional work.
  2. Apply ethical aspects in the analysis of cultural needs for a broad range of audiences.
  3. Be competent in the use of techniques which allow for the inclusion of digitized texts and sound in a digital cultural project.
  4. Demonstrate efficiency in the extraction of social and cultural information from humanistic documents using computer simulation technologies.
  5. Demonstrate efficiency in the extraction of social and cultural information from humanistic documents using computer vision technology.
  6. Demonstrate efficiency in the extraction of social and cultural information from humanistic documents using data management technology.
  7. Demonstrate efficiency in the extraction of social and cultural information from humanistic documents using musical analysis technologies.
  8. Demonstrate efficiency in the extraction of social and cultural information from humanistic documents using speech analysis technologies.
  9. Demonstrate efficiency in the extraction of social and cultural information from humanistic documents using text analysis technologies.
  10. Design the basic element of an information system using the ontologies and conceptual models of reference in humanities and digital heritage.
  11. Design user experiences based on the use of interactive person-computer technologies.
  12. Evaluate and justify the use of 3D scanner in the area of digital heritage.
  13. Evaluate the objective impact of digital projects in different situations and institutional settings.
  14. Evaluate the possibilities offered by co-creation strategies and innovation platforms for the creation and management of digital projects.
  15. Evaluate the real possibilities of reaching the public through cultural action.
  16. Experiment with knowledge obtained about focuses based on artificial intelligence.
  17. Experiment with knowledge obtained about multimedia technology.
  18. Experiment with knowledge obtained about person-computer interaction technologies.
  19. Form part of multidisciplinary working teams in which academic reflections and procedures are central.
  20. Highlight ethical aspects in cultural projects and respect for different opinions and way of being and doing things.
  21. Include proposals and reflections of work carried out linked to the perspectives of: gender, universal accessibility, multiculturality and intergenerationality.
  22. Include virtual reconstruction of archaeological objects, historical monuments and other heritage elements in a cultural project.
  23. Incorporate cultural and humanistic documentation, computer digitization methods and image analysis.
  24. Justify the results obtained by computer tools for co-creation using case studies.
  25. Knowledge and understanding that provide a basis or opportunity for originality in developing and / or applying ideas, often in a research context.
  26. Make innovations incorporating creativity and originality in humanistic and cultural studies with a clear commitment to quality.
  27. Make use of computer tools that allow co-design of computer games and participation of the user community for these designs.
  28. Make use of computer tools that allow collaboration in communication.
  29. Make use of computer tools that allow collaboration in learning.
  30. Make use of computer tools that promote co-creation of computer simulations.
  31. Make use of different digital formats for text and sound.
  32. Make use of digital management tools.
  33. Make use of e-learning tools to implement different learning procedures.
  34. Make use of image acquisition devices.
  35. Make use of interaction methodologies based on the paradigm of tangible interaction .
  36. Make use of interaction technologies based on the paradigm of corporal interaction.
  37. Make use of interaction technologies based on the paradigms of artificial, virtual, augmented and mixed reality.
  38. Make use of interactive methodologies based on information consultation such as web applications.
  39. Make use of languages for data consultation based on the current standards in humanities and digital heritage.
  40. Propose innovative and competitive ideas based on knowledge acquired in fields which are not directly related a priori .
  41. Resolve practical problems related to data analysis and processing.
  42. Solve practical problems related to document digitization.
  43. Solve practical problems related to e-learning technologies.
  44. Solve practical problems related to person-computer interaction.
  45. Solve practical problems related to the use of digitized texts and sound in digital cultural projects.
  46. Solve practical problems related to the virtual reconstruction of archaeological objects, historical monuments and other heritage elements.
  47. Students can communicate their conclusions and the knowledge and rationale underpinning these to specialist and non-specialist audiences clearly and unambiguously.
  48. Summarise advanced knowledge existing in the field.
  49. Test the system of extended reality that you have designed.
  50. That students are able to integrate knowledge and handle complexity and formulate judgments based on information that was incomplete or limited, include reflecting on social and ethical responsibilities linked to the application of their knowledge and judgments.
  51. That the students can apply their knowledge and their ability to solve problems in new or unfamiliar environments within broader (or multidisciplinary) contexts related to their field of study.

Content

Contents and tutoring of the work: Students will have the possibility to choose one of the topics that have been studied in the different teaching modules of the Master in Digital Humanities and Digital Heritage. In principle, all the teaching staff of the Master will be involved in the subject. Students will be able to choose their tutor from among all available lecturers who accept supervision of the work, depending on the substantive line or specialty. The coordinator of the MA Dissertations will guarantee each enrolled student their corresponding tutoring. When the subject requires it and the degree coordination suggests it, co-tutoring strategies will be implemented. In these cases, an external specialist will be appointed and a tutor from the Master will do advisory work. Any change in the subject or the assigned tutor will have to be authorized, within the established limits, by the coordination of the degree and the Master's Teaching Commission.

Typologies of works to present: It is assumed that most of the works of the Master of Digital Heritage and Digital Humanities will have a marked practical and technical nature, but more theoretical works of reflective nature on aspects of the application of technology to humanities and cultural studies will also be allowed:

  • Work on the application of technology to the humanities, linked to carrying out Professional Practices in a specific institution or research group, and for which they must have been expressly authorized by said group. These are works in which a real problem should be solved with a computer application.
  • Works involving the creation of the prototype of a future innovative digital project. These are works designed by the students themselves to solve concrete or abstract problems.
  • Theoretical works. Critical reflection works that consider how technology affects culture and the humanities from various points of view.
  • Didactic design work. It is about designing or making educational proposals in a heritage context using information and communication technologies.

Practical details of the work to present: Written work, both printed and in digital format, with a minimum length of 40 pages and a maximum of 75 (3000 characters without space per page) and must include the bibliography cited and used. Documentary appendices may be added. The technological application will be included in the event that such work has been carried out. The work may be presented in Spanish, Catalan or English. Upon acceptance by the coordination of the degree and / or the teaching commission, other languages may be approved for the written presentation. In all cases, a summary of 800 words will be included in the language used by the writing of the paper and in English.

Methodology

Regulations and calendar: At the beginning of the course there will be a general meeting with all the students and a representation of the teaching staff in which the general regulations for topic selection, preparation, tutoring and progress will be presented, as well as the evaluable aspects of the TFM.

 End of December: deadline for the delivery of the TFM file, provided by the coordination of the degree, and which must state:

  • Provisional title of the project
  • Project tutor
  • Institution or Research Group to which the work is intended to be linked (in case it is related to Professional Practices
  • Summary of 300 words of the topic covered
  • Brief provisional index
  • Bibliography required
  • Identification of possible problems that such work may pose (permits, bibliography location, computer equipment, access to materials, copyright, need for additional funding, etc.)

 The aforementioned file must have the original signature of the Project tutor and will be delivered to the coordination of the degree.

 February: Preparation of a first progress report that could consist of the delivery of a chapter or the general outline of the work to be carried out. Said report will be sent to the coordination of the degree, duly signed by the tutor and will be added to the student's file. The coordination of the degree must be informed in that same report if the presentation of the work will be made in the call for the month of July or in September.

May: Second progress report that includes the work done to date and the problems found that may affect its presentation. It is also convenient that said report considers the computer needs required by the oral presentation of a digital project that may require specific equipment. Said report will be sent to the coordination of the degree, duly signed by the tutor and will be added to the student's file. In the event that the initially planned deadlines are not met, the delivery of the work and oral presentation in the month of September may be requested.

 Mid-June: deadline for submission of final work for oral presentation during the last week of June. The coordination of the degree will communicate the procedure for the delivery of works for inclusion in the DDD repository of the UAB library and the specific date on which the oral presentation will take place.

First week of September: deadline for submission of final work for oral presentation in the September session. The coordination of the degree will communicate the procedure for submitting papers for inclusion in the DDD repository of the UAB library and the specific date on which the oral presentation will take place.

 Procedure for publishing the TFM of a student In accordance with point III of the document Open Access Institutional Policy of the Autonomous University of Barcelona http://ddd.uab.cat/record/89641, all the TFM evaluated must be Upload to the DDD repository following the procedure below:

  1. The students have to deliver to the coordinator of the TFM (or who delegates: department or institute) the written essay or digital project on the date authorized for it. Any digital project must be duly documented, in the sense that is required by the technology, language or software used.
  2. An additional copy of the work in electronic format (in PDF format and with the minimum number of files).
  3. A file in .txt, .asc, .csv or .dat format with the metadata (datathat identifies the document and for which it will later be possible to search):
    1. Author
    2. Title
    3. Year of production
    4. Tutor
    5. Type of work: Theoretical / Practical
    6. Master’s name
    7. Center / Department / Institute
    8. Keywords: a minimum of 3 keywords, in the same language in which the paper is written, as well as the Catalan/Spanish/English translation of the keywords, if the original is in another language.
    9. Explanatory summary of the content in the same language in which it is written. Suggested extension, 800 words
    10. The English translation of this summary, if the original of the work is in another language. Translation of the abstract into Spanish / English, if the work has been done in another language. Maximum length 800 words.
    11. The authorization document signed by the author and the director of the work (in the absence of the latter could also be the coordinator of the subject).

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
General presentation, subjects, lines of research and application 2 0.08 1, 2, 12, 13, 8, 9, 7, 6, 4, 5, 20, 10, 11, 3, 18, 16, 17, 33, 32, 30, 27, 29, 28, 31, 34, 39, 36, 35, 37, 38, 21, 22, 23, 26, 19, 24, 49, 40, 50, 51, 47, 41, 45, 42, 44, 46, 43, 48, 25, 14, 15
Type: Supervised      
Tutoring and supervision 20 0.8 1, 2, 12, 13, 8, 9, 7, 6, 4, 5, 20, 10, 11, 3, 18, 16, 17, 33, 32, 30, 27, 29, 28, 31, 34, 39, 36, 35, 37, 38, 21, 22, 23, 26, 19, 24, 49, 40, 50, 51, 47, 41, 45, 42, 44, 46, 43, 48, 25, 14, 15
Type: Autonomous      
Study, research and writing of MA Dissertation 278 11.12 1, 2, 12, 13, 8, 9, 7, 6, 4, 5, 20, 10, 11, 3, 18, 16, 17, 33, 32, 30, 27, 29, 28, 31, 34, 39, 36, 35, 37, 38, 21, 22, 23, 26, 19, 24, 49, 40, 50, 51, 47, 41, 45, 42, 44, 46, 43, 48, 25, 14, 15

Assessment

Reports of the progress in the elaboration of the work, to be presented by the students in each of the tutoring meetings, and sent to the coordination of the degree duly signed and evaluated by the tutor, who must add the comments that he / she deems pertinent. The correct presentation of all these reports will constitute 10% of the final grade.

Written work. The tutor will direct to the coordination of the degree a reasoned report and a proposed score that will constitute 40% of the final grade.

Oral presentation of the work before a commission of three doctors composed by the tutor, a lecturer of the Master and a Doctor / specialist in the subject (preferably external), for 15 minutes. After the 15 minute presentation the students will respond to the comments of the comission, if necessary. The commission will assess both the presentation and the content, for which they will have to have the work one week before the presentation, as well as the tutor's assessment report and the monitoring process report. The score awarded by the commission will constitute 50% of the final grade. 

Evaluable aspects:

Written work:

  1. Organized structure of work. If the work is of a practical nature, suitability of a technical solution to the problem.
  2. Suitability and completeness of the bibliography: selection and critical analysis of the specific bibliography of the chosen topic.
  3. Clarity and suitability of the approach of the theoretical framework and the state of the question
  4. Clarity in the analysis and presentation of the problem and suitability of the strategy used to solve it.
  5. Capability of scientific reasoning through experimental planning, hypothesis planning and its possible testing
  6. Capability  of justifying the choice of technological solution by various criteria (eg social, economic, educational). Feasibility of the practical implementation of the project.
  7. Innovation and creativity in the selection of theproblem and / or in its technical resolution.
  8. Formal presentation requirements, both in terms of spelling and syntax as bibliographic citations, notes and index.
  9. Balance in the attention to both the humanistic and technological excellence of the proposal

Oral presentation:

  1. Oral expression.
  2. Precision in the presentation and content of the work, fitted to at a maximum 30 minutes of presentation.
  3. Proper use of audiovisual media.
  4. Coherence and structure in the oral presentation.
  5. Quality and suitability of the answers to the comments of the evaluation commission.

The student will receive the grade of Not evaluated as long as he has not submitted the work on the date set for this purpose and following the procedure approved by the teaching committee and communicated at the beginning of the course. In addition, you must have submitted more than 50% of the progress reports required by the tutor.
In the event that the student commits any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation in the grade of an assessment act, this assessment act will be graded with 0, regardless of the disciplinary process that may be instructed. In the event of several irregularities in the evaluation acts of the same subject, the final grade for this subject will be 0.
In the event that the delivery and defense of the work cannot be done in person, its format will be adapted (maintaining its weighting) to the possibilities offered by the UAB’s virtual tools. Teachers will ensure that the student can access it or offer alternative means, which are within their reach.

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
MA Dissertation 100% 0 0 1, 2, 12, 13, 8, 9, 7, 6, 4, 5, 20, 10, 11, 3, 18, 16, 17, 33, 32, 30, 27, 29, 28, 31, 34, 39, 36, 35, 37, 38, 21, 22, 23, 26, 19, 24, 49, 40, 50, 51, 47, 41, 45, 42, 44, 46, 43, 48, 25, 14, 15

Bibliography

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Bauer, J., & Pollock, C. (2020). Thinking Backwards, Walking Ahead: Guiding Humanities Researchers through Digital Project Life Cycles.

Casarin, M. (2016). Escritura de tesis: dificultades, desafíos y propuestas. Revista Pucara, (27), 179-188.

Crompton, C., Lane, R. J., & Siemens, R. (Eds.). (2016). Doing digital humanities: Practice, training, research. Taylor & Francis.

del Carmen Parrino, M. (2017). Falcón, M. La escritura científica. El arte de escribir una tesis. Buenos Aires: Dunken. Revista Latinoamericana de Políticas y Administración de la Educación, (6), 114-115.

Eco, Umberto.  1986, Cómo se hace una tesis. Barcelona, Editorial Gedisa

Galina, I. (2012). Retos para la elaboración de recursos digitales en humanidades. El profesional de la información, 21(2), 185-189.

Goddard, L., & Seeman, D. (2019). Building digital humanities projects that last. Doing More Digital Humanities: Open Approaches to Creation, Growth, and Development.

León González, J. L., Socorro Castro, A. R., Fernández Morera, M. E., & Velasco Gómez, M. D. C. (2020). La tutoría de tesis en los procesos académicos de pregrado y postgrado de la actualidad. Conrado, 16(72), 103-108.

Ortiz-Ocaña, A. (2018). La configuración de la tesis doctoral. Su estructura, redacción, defensa y publicación. Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios Educativos, 14(2), 102-131.

Pitti, D. V. (2004). Designing sustainable projects and publications. A Companion to Digital Humanities, ed. Susan Schreibman, Ray Siemens, and John Unsworth (Malden, Oxford: Blackwell, 2004), 471-87.

Ramírez García, R. G., Pérez Colunga, B. Y., Soto Bernabé, A. K., Mendoza Tovar, M., Coiffier López, F. Y., Gleason Guevara, K. J., & Flores Zuñiga, J. A. (2017). Desarmando el rompecabezas en torno a la experiencia de elaboración de una tesis de maestría. Perfiles educativos, 39(155), 68-86.

Ridge, M. (2020). A practical guide to designing and running successful projects. Routledge International Handbook of Research Methods in Digital Humanities, 5.

Schmidt, C., Praeg, C. P., & Günther, J. (2018, June). Designing Digital Workplace Environments. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Innovation (ICE/ITMC) (pp. 1-9). IEEE.

Warwick, C., Terras, M., & Nyhan, J. (Eds.). (2012). Digital humanities in practice. Facet Publishing.