Supporting Teaching with Primary Sources at the University of Miami

Abstract

From Spring 2019 until Summer 2020, researchers at the University of Miami (UM) conducted an IRB-approved study on the practices of 15 humanities and social sciences instructors who teach with primary sources. Sponsored by UM Libraries, this local study joins a suite of 25 parallel studies across the United States and United Kingdom, coordinated by Ithaka S+R, a nonprofit research and consulting organization that will publish a capstone report in fall 2020. This study and its broader discourse will help UM understand how to effectively support the needs of instructors who teach with primary sources. The study reports how instructors employ primary sources to enhance pedagogy, which physical and digital collections they access regularly, and how they describe the benefits of this engagement for student learning. Many commented on their positive collaborations in co-teaching with colleagues at Special Collections, Cuban Heritage Collection, and the Lowe Art Museum. Others viewed access as a challenge due to difficulty in scheduling and the limited hours or resources of these distinctive collections. One main discovery of this study is how instructors are integrating technology with primary sources. On a basic level, there are those who use digital primary sources, but others are employing ArcGIS, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), photogrammetry, and 3-D printing. Identifying these and other discoveries, benefits, and challenges enabled the researchers to develop recommendations to improve teaching with primary sources at the University of Miami.