Courses not in the official Digital Studies catalog can still be approved for the upcoming semester by the Digital Studies Advisory board. Generally, approval is based on whether a substantial part (30% or more) of the course content and/or assessments engages with a digital tool, technique, or critique in a manner described in the learning goals below:

1. Provide students with hands-on experiences using digital tools and techniques available at JMU to answer questions in the humanities and social sciences.
2. Prepare students to become more thoughtful, critical, and reflective users of digital tools, technologies, and spaces by understanding that all technologies are complex, socially situated, and political tools through which humans make meaning.
3. Foster a community of faculty, staff, and students who are engaged in interdisciplinary work in the digital space.
4. Evaluate the mediation and possible loss that occurs when analog materials, such as physical artifacts, text, images, maps, and film, are translated into a digital ecosystem.

As a rule, Digital Studies courses require some critical reflection on the digital tool, technique, or content. Therefore, courses that a purely "skill-based" or courses that simply serve content in a digital format such as streaming media do not necessarily fall under this rubric.

To request approval for a course, please contact the digital studies coordinator and submit a course overview and, if possible, a sample assignment.

Depending on demand, the Digital Studies coordinator runs a week-long course development workshop in May. During this workshop, faculty who want to modify a current course or create a new one, will work with colleagues to put together a reworked syllabus with:

• Course overview
• Learning goal(s)
• Content/assignment sequence for the digital studies module

Occassionally, there are funds available for a small stipend in recognition of the extra work.