Methodology of Project
The process for this project began with participating in a series of online training sessions through the Collaborative For Digital Engagement at the Five Colleges (CODEX) Summer Institute. This conference allowed our team to come together for the first time and explore our different ideas for the project. The team consists of a Professor, an instructional technologist, a librarian and two students. We were then able to discuss a variety of goals for the project and helped us decide to separate it into two distinct parts; the creation of the digital testimonial narrative record and the resulting implementation of the project into a curriculum for the existing course: Culture of the Arab World.
In order to gain as much insight into Jackie's life and family history, we decided to structure the interviews into four core sections: immigration and family history, language and Arab heritage, culturally significant food and holidays, and finally, religion and politics. Breaking the content down in this way was essential to maintaining an open conversation-style interview with Jackie. The focused sections allowed Jackie the opportunity to think back and pinpoint specific experiences and events prior to the interview itself. It also meant that Eric and I were able to research and segment our ideas accord to the four different themes.
An important component of creating this free-flowing narrative was to structure the interviews themselves as conversations rather than formal examinations of Jackie’s life. This meant that Eric and I focused on creating questions that asserted the desired topic, yet also allowed Jackie the ability to share her experiences in a comfortable environment, one which she wanted to expand within. This was a difficult step as we were attempting to guide Jackie to the specific areas relevant to the research without overly prompting her and subsequently placing our own narrative or opinions within the research. We prioritised this within the interview process, as we particularly wanted to avoid a stilted interview that followed a typical question and answer structure.
The interviews themselves took place via the online video calling platform Zoom. Given the global context of the COVID-19 pandemic and Jackie’s location in Chicago (as compared to Eric and mine in Ohio) this method allowed the three of us to set a specific time and date for the meeting and then each log onto the platform accordingly. This was hyper-efficient and set a good standard of practice, focusing each of us on the conversation and not allowing for elongated time for small talk. The zoom process also meant that we could record the sessions easily, having the format set to speaker view and so pinpointing Jackie on camera as she spoke. Once we had completed the discussion, the file downloaded to both Eric and my folder, allowing us convenient access to later edit the videos.