Prototypes as Objects of Study

Curatorial note from Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities: For many disciplines, the object of study does not yet exist—it is a possible future. In this assignment, students are asked to design a set of research tools consisting of a prototype, pilot study, experimental design, and quasi-experimental design (which mines existing data for factors that would have been controlled had the researcher set up the original study). The different approaches can be compared in terms of the resources required and the kind of knowledge that can be gained. For use in a course, it may be helpful to plan a series of classes where each of the research tools is discussed in turn, with examples from the literature. The students can then describe ways in which their own research could be supported with each approach, resulting in a report that describes how those research tools would be created and deployed in each case