2022-2023 DMDS Workshops | Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship

Explore the vibrant world of Digital Scholarship with the DMDS Workshop Series. Register for the entire suite of 2022-2023 Do More with Digital Scholarship workshops today.

Workshop recordings are available on this webpage.

What is Digital Scholarship?

Hybrid Panel | September 20, 2022
Presenters: Maddie Brockbank (PhD Candidate, Social Work), Danica Evering (Research Data Management Specialist), Vivek Jadon (Data Specialist), Shaila Jamal (PhD Candidate, School of Earth, Environment, and Society), and Jess Rauchberg (PhD Candidate, Communication and Media Arts). Moderated by Jay Brodeur and Andrea Zeffiro (Co-Directors of the Sherman Centre).

Have you ever wanted to learn more about Digital Scholarship? This vast and constantly evolving field includes data analysis and visualization, Digital Humanities, and beyond. At this panel, attendees will learn about the many possibilities for those working in Digital Scholarship.

*Presented in collaboration with DASH and RDM.

Watch a recording of the workshop.

Network Visualizations with Gephi

Virtual Workshop | September 28, 2022
Instructor: Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian)

Learn to graph data and visualize networks at this workshop on Gephi. Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian) will teach participants how graph data can help express relationships between entities and visualize networks for Humanities scholars. The group will use a visualization tool intended for social network analysis to map and identify relationships within a dataset scraped from Twitter.

*Presented in collaboration with DASH.

Watch a recording of the workshop.

Best Practices for Managing Data in Your Research

Hybrid Workshop | October 26, 2022
Instructors: Danica Evering and Isaac Pratt (Research Data Management Specialists)

In this introductory workshop, learn about research data management best practices and how investing a small amount of time in organizing your data now can save you a lot of time and prevent future headaches. We will go over best practices for data planning, storage, organization, preservation, and sharing.

*Presented in collaboration with RDM.

Watch a recording of the workshop.

Open Everything! A Panel on the Whats, Hows, and Ifs of Open Scholarship

Virtual Workshop | October 27, 2022
Instructors: Jay Brodeur (Head of Digital Scholarship Services and Administrative Director of the Sherman Centre) and Jeff Demaine (Bibliometrics and Research Impact Librarian)

The shift towards ‘openness’ has been undeniable and accelerating within the academic landscape over the past decade. From open-source software, to open data, methods, and identifiers, to open access publishing and educational resources, more and more of the scholarly ecosystem can be discovered, reused, remixed, and connected in novel ways. Join us for this panel discussion, where we explain and connect the components of open scholarship while reflecting on the gaps, limitations, and disclaimers of an ‘open everything.’

Watch a recording of the workshop.

Visualizing Texts with Voyant Tools

Virtual Workshop | November 2, 2022
Instructor: Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian)

Voyant Tools is a web-based text reading and analysis environment. Essentially it is a toolkit that aims to make text analysis accessible. In this workshop you will learn to use the web-based application Voyant Tools to analyze and visualize the text content of documents.

*Presented in collaboration with DASH.

Watch a recording of the workshop.

Podcasting Boot Camp

In-Person Workshop | November 3, 2022
Instructors: Veronica Litt (Digital Scholarship Coordinator) and Elaine Westenhoefer (Digital Media Specialist)

Podcasts can take academic research out of the ivory tower and into the public. Learn the basics of podcasting at this all-day workshop.

This intensive day-long boot camp is for academics and researchers who are interested in creating a podcast about their work. We’ll discuss how to plan a show, best practices for recording crisp, professional audio, and give participants hands-on experience with editing on Audacity, a free and open source audio editing software. We’ll also discuss how to brand your show, go through the basics of hosting and distribution, then discuss how to promote your podcast and build an audience.

Access an online version of the workshop material.

From “Infoglut” to Connected Notes: Obsidian and Digital Note-Taking in Academia

Virtual Workshop | November 9, 2022
Instructor: Andy Roddick (Associate Professor of Anthropology)

Researchers have long grappled with effective ways to approach note-taking. Students and researchers have an evern harder time today, a period that some consider the “golden age” of information, but others have frame as a time of “info-glut.” We have more things to read and evaluate than ever before, but we also have a growing number of digital tools to navigate this material.

In this talk, Professor Andy Roddick (Anthropology, McMaster University) will discuss some ways to approach note-taking in this context, and the value of one particularly useful digital tool. Obsidian (https://obsidian.md) is a free multi-platform program that allows plain-text notes sitting in folders on your computer to become far more powerful. Dr. Roddick will explore the value of Obsidian for connecting notes in the classroom, in a literature review, and in long-term research.

Watch a recording of the workshop.

Best Practices for Managing Data in Your Research

Hybrid Workshop | January 18, 2023
Instructors: Danica Evering and Isaac Pratt (Research Data Management Specialists)

*Presented in collaboration with RDM.

Sound Data

Virtual Workshop | January 26, 2023
Instructor: Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian)

This workshop will cover both the theory and practice of data sonification. This includes going over the brief history of sonification, what sonification can do, the different types of sonification, which types of data work best in sound and an example of tools such as TwoTone and Tone.js

*Presented in collaboration with DASH.

How to Lie with Data

Virtual Roundtable | January 31, 2023

Presenters: Vass Bednar (Executive Director of the Public Policy in Digital Society Program), Dr. Cal Biruk (Associate Professor of Anthropology), Jeffrey Demaine (Bibliometrics and Research Impact Librarian), Saman Goudarzi (Cartographic Resources Librarian), Christine Homuth (Spatial Information Specialist), and Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian), with an introductory address by the Sherman Centre’s Co-Directors Dr. Jay Brodeur and Dr. Andrea Zeffiro.

Data may seem objective or neutral, but that’s not always the case. At this roundtable, learn about how data can be manipulated, skewed, or collected so poorly that any findings are extremely suspect. This session aims to build critical literacy and build attendees’ understanding of data collection, statistics, visualizations including infographics, charts, graphs, and maps, and the Data Justice movement.

*Presented in collaboration with DASH.

Computational Approaches to Text Preparation and Analysis

Virtual Workshop | February 16, 2023
Instructors: Jay Brodeur (Administrative Director of the Sherman Centre) and Devon Mordell (Educational Developer, The Macpherson Institute)

Are you interested in textual analysis but unsure about where to start? Join us for an interactive “no experience required” introduction to the fundamental concepts, processes, and methodological approaches for preparing and analyzing text using computational approaches. Following a general introduction to the topic, participants will be guided through prepared exercises that demonstrate how different software packages (OpenRefine, Python) can be used to prepare for and perform textual analysis.

*Presented in collaboration with DASH.

ChitChatGPT

In-Person Confab | April 12, 2023
Presented in collaboration with Dr. Alpha Abebe (Assistant Professor, CSMA), Dr. Sara Bannerman (Associate Professor, CSMA), and Ian Steinberg (PhD Candidate in CNMCS)

Curious about ChatGPT? Are you feeling overwhelmed by its implications or excited by its possibilities? Perhaps you’re confused about what it means for the University community, or maybe you’re experiencing a mix of emotions? You’re not alone! ChitChatGPT is an event for McMaster students, faculty, and staff to engage in a semi-structured, open discussion on the many facets of ChatGPT. Our goal is to start the conversation we need to create a framework for understanding ChatGPT and what it means for Mac.

We’ll discuss setting up future or regular sessions, where you’ll have the chance to connect with other members of the university community who want to talk about AI.

Please note that this session is ineligible for the certificate program.

3D Modelling and Printing

In-Person Workshop | May 19, 2023
Instructors: John Fink (Digital Scholarship Librarian) and Brittany Sostar (Thode Makerspace Coordinator)

This is a day-long workshop that will explore 3d modelling and printing. We’ll take a physical object from the real world, use a series of sophisticated software to render it into a 3d model, and then learn how to print that model on a 3d printer.

Teaching with Digital Tools and Approaches: A Sherman Centre Roundtable

Virtual Panel | May 24, 2023
Presenters: Jay Brodeur, Danica Evering, Veronica Litt, Subhanya Sivajothy

From podcasts and video games to coding and data visualizations, digital tools are on the rise in the university classroom—and for good reason. When integrated well, these approaches can facilitate student-centered learning, critical literacy skills, interdisciplinary inquiry, collaboration, and more. Learn how you can integrate digital tools and approaches into your curriculum at this relaxed roundtable conversation with members of the Sherman Centre team.

This session features four short presentations:

Jay Brodeur (Associate Director of Digital Scholarship Services) will show attendees how Jupyter Notebooks (a web platform for interactive code development and data analysis) can develop digital literacy.

Danica Evering (Research Data Management Specialist) will discuss how teachers can prepare graduate students for the increasingly prominent field of Research Data Management.

Veronica Litt (Digital Scholarship Coordinator) will provide a blueprint for teachers who want to integrate creative digital assignments, such as podcasts and DIY video games, into undergraduate courses.

Subhanya Sivajothy (Data Analysis and Visualization Librarian) will focus on how the exciting field of data visualization fosters student-centred learning and critical data literacy skills.

Join the conversation on May 24!

The Infinite Game: ChatGPT, Procedural Generation, and Large Learning Models

Virtual Lecture and Demonstration | May 25, 2023
Presented by John Fink (Digital Scholarship Librarian)

This webinar by John Fink (Digital Scholarship Librarian) explores the history of procedural generation in text and games, from the I-Ching to ChatGPT and beyond. The talk will emphasize current state of the art Large Language Models like ChatGPT, including a demonstration on how to run one on a modest computer and get near-ChatGPT quality output.