The Electronic Term Paper in the French Literature Class
Susan Spillman
Introduction
The traditional term paper has long been assigned by instructors in upper-level literature classes in order to promote guided research by students, who as a result of carrying out their studies read and analyze much more material than it is possible to cover during class hours. Through assigning a long project, the instructor demands a depth of mastery which is rarely possible in the limited time available for class.
The incorporation of multimedia technology into the teaching of literature has great implications for the study of literature and the other disciplines of the humanities. Because such technology can give access to more extensive and varied sources in a shorter period of research, students can gain far more knowledge of the historical and cultural significance of literary works in the time traditionally allotted for teaching survey courses. At the same time, multimedia resources facilitate delivery of more information without increasing faculty size. Rather than fostering the traditional separation of disciplines, multimedia courseware provides for integration of art, architecture, music, history, and literature. Because cultural monuments and documents are presented together, students learn how each discipline informs the others and how the social milieu that gave rise to literary works also produced other arts that reflected or contradicted the mores of the era. As the advantages of educational technology become more readily available to teachers of literature, presentation slides and interactive software for classroom and individual student use make possible a more integrated study. The instructor can now take into consideration the multimedia resources which are available to students, and can reshape the traditional term paper into a multimedia project enhanced with sound, images, and varying presentations of text without sacrificing depth or rigor in research.
Description of the Project
Xavier University of Louisiana has committed both faculty development resources and technical support to the integration of instructional technology into classes in all departments. In keeping with the mandate to increase the use of the computer in humanities classes, the author began the preparation of instructional materials for both elementary language and upper-level literature classes. After having written a long HyperCard tutorial on the Chanson de Roland for student use in the French medieval literature survey class, the author decided to investigate whether or not such a program designed for individual work outside of class could also be useful in a direct classroom presentation. When the students were assigned to read sections of the Roland in modern French verse, they were directed to the computer laboratory adjacent to the Department of Languages, where the program was installed on enough machines to serve the needs of all six students in the class. The class met in the laboratory once per week during the time that the Roland was being studied, and the instructor showed part of the stack and directed discussion of the passages already studied. In addition, the students were required to go to the laboratory and work individually. At the end of the semester, the class members were asked to write short evaluations of the course, including comments upon the electronic presentation. All agreed that they preferred the multimedia program to the traditional textbook. Their reactions were indicative of how beneficial such technology can be if properly applied to literary study; scanned photographs made it possible for students who had never seen Romanesque architecture, or even heard of it, to observe the style and gain awareness of basic design techniques. Since Gregorian chants were used to highlight the passages documenting the beginning of the battle (Te Deum laudamus), the death of Olivier (Requiem aeternam), and the suffering and death of Roland with the subsequent passing of his soul to paradise (Libera me and In Paradisum), students whose previous experiences with plainsong were gained in listening to the rock group Enigma heard the music in association with events which would have occasioned its use. Buttons directing students to the chant texts in Latin and French and explanations of the liturgical year and the basic types and roles of chant enabled users to learn about early religious music without needing to perform extensive musicological research. Although Xavier University of Louisiana is a Catholic university, only one of the six students in the class had ever heard a Gregorian chant, and that was in a music appreciation class. As the possibility of enhancing the study of literature with the addition of information concerning the other arts and the history of the period became apparent, and as the economy of time made possible by using instructional technology became evident, the author began to seek more ways to incorporate multimedia into her literature classes. She was especially concerned with requiring students to develop their own projects, incorporating available technological resources in addition to traditional research.
In order to facilitate the transition between instructor-developed software and student projects, the author used a departmental course, Special Topics in French, to direct four students in selected research and multimedia techniques. One member of the class, Ms. April Gilbert, chose for her subject Une si longue lettre by Mariama Bâ, one of the first African women to gain prominence as an author. In assembling her project, Ms. Gilbert used pictures captured from the Internet, an interview with Prof. Amadou Koné divided into video clips, and music to complete the presentation of her research. Her work was divided into three sections: (a.) biographical information concerning Mme. Bâ followed by a survey of critical study concerning Une si longue lettre ; (b.) the interview with Prof. Koné, divided into a series of alternating slides with question texts and voice-over audio, each followed by a video clip in which the scholar gave his response to the question; and (c.) her own analysis of Mme. Bâ's work and her significance as a voice for African women in the 1970's.
Ms. Gilbert acquired basic knowledge of PowerPoint, used Disc-to-Disk 1.5 for audio capture, and developed a series of interview questions as the basis for her video section. She used several search engines for her Internet research, including Lycos, Yahoo, and the Web Crawler in order to locate resources concerning Senegal as well as critical information concerning Mme. Bâ. By including Internet sites in her study, she was able to enhance her written work with photographs, maps, and other graphics captured directly from the electronic resources.
The other three students collaborated with the instructor in the development of a project on the troubadours and trouvères , presented at the Thirtieth Annual Western Michigan Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, Michigan in May, 1996. In this project, the instructor developed and assembled the architecture of the stack, and the students bore the responsibility of research, writing, and editing of the text which was incorporated in scrolling fields on the cards. Since the work was interactive, the group utilized HyperCard 2.2 as the basic program and worked primarily with HyperGasp 2.3 for the addition of scanned images, music, and color. Music captured with Disc-to-Disk 1.5 completed the project.
Students were permitted to do a part of their work on the instructor's office computer, a Macintosh Performa 6115CD. Ms. Gilbert obtained most of her visuals from the Internet, with some scanning assistance from the instructor. The visuals for the troubadour project were scanned in the faculty workroom; because there was no scanner available for student use at the time, the instructor made a considerable commitment of time for scanning the images selected by the class members.
Observations
The author kept a record of her observations concerning the works in progress throughout the semester in order to document not only the changes in procedures which became necessary as the students worked, but also the advantages and limitations of the electronic term paper itself. The increased demands for commitment of the instructor's time became evident during the first week as students who had no formal training in art history, architecture, or music began to request assistance with assembling the bibliography and discography. This highlighted a fundamental weakness encountered by teachers of literature throughout the country; students who write term papers often underestimate the time and thoroughness necessary to prepare sufficient documentation before beginning to write. Producing multimedia work incorporating visual and audio documentation without sacrificing any of the historical and critical reading required demands a much greater commitment of time in both preparation and production. Since access to equipment was limited during the beginning of the semester, a problem alleviated by the opening of the multimedia student computer laboratory adjacent to the Department of Languages, the class members often resorted to working on the computer in the instructor's office.
The instructor's observations and experience verified that students who are motivated and capable of writing good traditional term papers will do excellent work in multimedia projects. Ms. Gilbert worked independently except for some initial training in PowerPoint and produced an excellent electronic term paper. The troubadour project demonstrated that students who are weak in research skills or lacking in motivation will do no better work in multimedia than they would have done in traditional formats. At the end of the semester, only one of the three received a satisfactory grade. She developed some competencies in HyperCard, and her basic research was excellent. The other two students wrote poorly, showed no interest in learning even minimal multimedia techniques, and resisted the instructor's attempts to motivate them.
The electronic term paper requires a considerable time commitment from the instructor, who must conduct individual meetings with students in order to teach them the technology, work sessions for assembling the project, and direction in research. Electronic resources must be available to students, as is the case in large universities where students are accustomed to using multimedia facilities and resources. In small colleges where students do not own large computers with sufficient memory to do work incorporating audio and video clips, or who may have little or no access to electronic work rooms and technical assistance, multimedia projects may be limited to simple PowerPoint or HyperCard embellished with ClipArt or simple scanned images which do not require large amounts of memory. Because of time demands placed upon the instructor, the electronic term paper would not be practical in large classes unless students have a laboratory assistant who is willing to help them with the technology.
Students must submit their research ideas very early in the semester, and the instructor must be sure students have a clarity of vision as to what can be done. In addition to the time needed to carry out adequate research for development of the content, the audio and the graphics must be assembled. If interviews or other videos are to be included, the scripts must be prepared and sufficient time allotted for the filming and digitizing. Both students and instructor need to understand what the purpose of the project is; a literature class is not a studio art class. Students' abilities may be limited, some may be technophobic, and access to scanners and other equipment minimal. The instructor must be willing to do the scanning herself if students are not allowed in the workroom; some techniques, such as grabbing images from the Internet, are not difficult but help must be available unless the student already knows how it is done. In electronic term papers, substance and appearance are closely interwoven; all students do not have the same aesthetic perceptions or artistic abilities. If instructor is not very clear about expectations, grades can become debatable. One student who received an F in for her non-participation in the troubadour project thought that it was "not fair," since she did not have any coursework in computer science. It must be stated that she found most requirements "not fair" during her tenure at the university.
Multimedia projects are expensive. Either the students or the instructor must purchase the audio CD's, and technical assistance is necessary if videos are to be made or digitized. The Department of Mass Communications furnished some technical assistance; however, because of the heavy demand for equipment use in their facilities, we were not able to rely upon student assistance in order to produce the videos. Ms. Gilbert was able to request funding from the department only because of a commitment by Xavier University of Louisiana to the incorporation of multimedia in all classes. She was able to draw upon the resources of Tulane University in order to interview Professor Amadou Koné; in areas where there are no research universities close by, students will have to travel long distances in order to carry out interviews with scholars in their fields of interest.
In addition to the above considerations, instructors who decide to require electronic term papers will encounter some resistance from colleagues whose teaching styles are more traditional. The most common criticism of the African and medieval literature projects carried out at Xavier was that they were mere substitutions of "bells and whistles" for substantive research. Instructors who dismiss as frivolous the understanding of the cultural role of Gregorian chant in medieval society or the expressive value of modern African music as a conveyer of both individual and communal concerns will not recognize the value of including audio in research projects. However, no students ever voiced such objections. Although at the beginning they resisted the increased time commitment necessary for the preparation of their projects, after becoming involved in the work, the motivated students found the experience to be more satisfactory than the preparation of a traditional term paper.
Both instructor and students must be familiar with the copyright laws governing classroom copying. These are summarized in the "Agreement on Guidelines for Classroom Copying In Not-For-Profit Educational Institutions With Respect To Books and Periodicals" (Questions and Answers on Copyright for the Campus Community, The National Association of College Stores, Inc. and the Association of American Publishers. Oberlin, Ohio, 1989. Appendix A, pp. 16-17):
MULTIPLE COPIES FOR CLASSROOM USE:
Multiple copies (not to exceed in any event more than one copy per pupil in a course) may be made by or for the teacher giving the course for classroom use or discussion, provided that:
A. The copying meets the tests of brevity and spontaneity as defined below; and,
B. Meets the cumulative effect test as defined below; and,
C. Each copy includes a notice of copyright.
DEFINITIONS:
Brevity:
i. Poetry: (a) A complete poem if less than 250 words and if printed on not more than two pages or (b) from a longer poem, an excerpt of not more than 250 words.
ii. Prose: (a) Either a complete article, story or essay of less than 2,500 words, or (b) and excerpt from any prose work of not more than 1,000 words or 10% of the work, whichever is less, but in any event a minimum of 500 words.
iii. Illustration: One chart, graph, diagram, drawing, cartoon or picture per book or per periodical issue.
Spontaneity:
i. The copying is at the instance and inspiration of the individual teacher; and
ii. The inspiration and decision to use the work and the moment of its use for maximum teaching effectiveness are so close in time that it would be unreasonable to expect a timely reply to a request for permission.
Cumulative Effect:
I. The copying of the material is for only one course in the school in which copies are made.
ii. Not more than one short poem, article, story, essay or two excerpts may be copied from the same author, nor more than three from the same collective work or periodical volume during one class term.
iii. There shall not be more than nine instances of such multiple copying for one course during one class term.
Because the author purchased audio CD's and books containing all the material ted for the projects under discussion, she assumed that she would be protected by the fair use doctrine. It was only after she was denied permission to put the Roland and troubadour projects on the file server that she reviewed the guidelines and realized that there were some violations regarding visuals and length of quoted materials. Should such violations occur when a project is prepared, both instructor and students must be scrupulous in refusing to make copies or to place the programs on a server in order to make sure that no possibility of multiple duplications can be implied.
Conclusion
Maing a significant transition from one pedagogical approach to another is usually difficult and demanding of more time and effort than initially anticipated. Departures from ordinary course requirements imposed upon class members cause some resistance from motivated students and often result in a refusal to make more than the usual effort from others. Instructors find that even with careful planning the work load is significantly increased and the benefits derived from such an increase are not readily apparent.
In spite of the difficulties encountered in its implementation, the electronic term paper has considerable merit. Whether done as an individual project or as the result of a team effort, the multimedia project gives both students and instructor the opportunity to develop a breadth of information which is not possible when research is limited to the printed word. Students who do such work gain experience in courseware development which can be used in their classrooms when they enter the teaching profession. Because of present demands for increasing expertise in computer applications, those who learn how to prepare a basic PowerPoint or HyperCard presentation will be capable of developing such projects in whatever career fields they select.
The acquisition of basic knowledge in art, music, and social history which results from the preparation of an electronic term paper helps students to form a more comprehensive awareness of the period under study. As more and more universities make the transition from a focus upon teaching to an emphasis upon learning, and the instructor becomes more and more a facilitator of student learning, the development of student-constructed multimedia projects under the guidance of the faculty member helps to shift the instructional paradigm and reconstruct the traditional classroom relationship to require more proactive learning.