Post-mortem
“Collecting the Past: Remembrances of the AU History Department” Post-mortem
The concept of the website that I worked on with Priya was a collection site. I originally had the idea of making a collection site for American University, with the idea of collecting something like oral histories through a digital medium. I completed my web review, examining sites that both schools and individual departments had constructed to collect histories. Based upon this review, some of my ideas of what sort of site I wanted changed. Rather than collecting true oral histories, the website that we created collects written histories/memories, and rather than collecting memories from the entire school, we narrowed the focus to just the American University History Department. The website so far has a collection of six memories, from four current students, one graduate, and one faculty member. I am happy with what I have, but there are definitely things that I would change if I had a chance to redo the project.
We found, through our research, that there is little written history about the department. The only existing documents are course catalogues, department brochures, and overall history of the University. Our hope, once we realized the lack of historical resources about the department, was that submissions to our site would provide some sort of historical record for future students who may want more information about the department. Therefore, this site is completely different from how I would have approached a term paper. Rather than starting out with information and documents from which we could make an argument, we were attempting to create a way to collect the information and documents from which a future term paper could be written. The use of digital media made this attempt much more efficient, in that the digital survey, located online, makes it quick and easy for people to fill it out and submit it. It is equally easy, then, for me to access responses and post them for viewing on the site itself.
I attended two Dreamweaver workshops, as well as the tutorial in class. I had played with Adobe Photoshop a few times in the past, and the tutorial on this program in class was a great help. Despite all of this time listening to all of the information everyone had to give me, though, I have found that Dreamweaver and Photoshop are some of those programs that I needed to play with and figure out on my own. Through the tried and true method of trial and error, I figured out how to make and use templates, to manipulate photographs, and how to use the dreaded tables to design and construct the site. I obviously would probably like our site much better if it was not the first site I ever constructed. If I had more experience, in web design, I would probably like the look and feel of my site better. The only thing that I know right now, while I am still an amateur, is that I would change the method of posting survey responses. I would like to know how to put the survey directly on the site, rather than copying and pasting the responses into a table, as I do it now.
At this point, only six people completed surveys for our website. This is nowhere near the number of surveys that I had hoped we would have, over a week after we sent out an email asking people to do them for us. I have wondered what the problem is, whether it is apathy, fear of technology for some people, or the survey itself. This is particularly disappointing because part of the decision to narrow our site to focus only on the department was based on the idea that people would have more of a stake in the department, making them more likely to respond. Of those who have responded, the memories and personal histories that they submitted were wonderful. As great as these are, though, the information they provide may not be beneficial in the creation of an official department history. On the other hand, their value lies in their use as personal memories and histories. These are interesting and fun to read now, and will prove to be so in the future. I do think, however, that I would want to change the questions on the survey, perhaps to encourage more detail in the responses. A change in questions would also help in the type of responses we would receive. I am not sure, though, how I would change the survey. My concern is that I do not want to guide the respondents too much. I learned through work in ethnographies that an interviewer should not lead the interviewee through the questions, in order to protect the integrity of the responses. Since I cannot ask follow-up questions to the responses, as I would be able to in a live interview, I would have to walk a fine line in my online survey, between leading and getting enough usable information.
With infinite time and resources, I would gain more experience in web design and refine the site to make it appear more professional. I would also try using different survey questions that will get respondents to provide more detail than some have, including dates or years of the memories if the respondent remembers them. An increase in experience in designing sites and surveys would have the biggest impact of all on the site. I know there are many other parts of the design and construction of the site and survey that I could improve, but that I am missing because of the lack of experience. Despite the possible improvements, the site has worked so far. I have posted six responses from site visitors, with interesting memories, that will be great for the department to have in the future. Overall, this site does what we intended, though it could be improved with some changes, more time, and experience. My hope is that someone in the department will pick up this site and continue the project with whatever improvements are necessary, to help further our goal of collecting the history of our department.