Presentation during World Digital Preservation Day 2018 and International Conference 'Memory Makers' organised by DPC and the Dutch Digital Heritage Network

1. Teaching digital preservation
at scale on the MA
Digital Asset & Media Management
Simon Tanner
Professor of Digital Cultural Heritage
Pro Vice Dean for Research Impact and Innovation
Twitter: @SimonTanner

2. @SimonTanner
King’s Department of Digital Humanities @kingsdh
www.kcl.ac.uk/ddh
30 years of activity, against a background of rapid innovation
and change in Humanities Computing and Digital Humanities.
~550 students in 5 x Masters & 1 x Undergraduate degrees
30+ academic faculty plus researchers and teaching fellows
Digital Humanities at Large Scale

3. @SimonTanner
King’s Digital Labs @kingsdigitallab
www.kdl.kcl.ac.uk
Established 2015
14 staff: Directors, Project Manager, Analysts, Software
Engineer, UI/UX Designers, Developers, Systems Manager,
Post-doc.
100 inherited projects, 20 ongoing. ~5 million digital objects.
Supported by external funding, under-written internally.
Digital Humanities at Large Scale

4. @SimonTanner
King’s Digital Labs

5. @SimonTanner
Many strengths coming together
Highly innovative
Collaborations
For scholars
For the people
Working with
Libraries
Museums
Archives
Publishing
Media
Transformative

6. @SimonTanner
BA in Digital Culture = 160 undergraduate students
MA in Digital Asset & Media Management = 210 students
MA in Digital Curation = 5 students
MA in Big Data
+
MA in Digital Humanities
+
MA in Digital Culture & Society = 180 students
Teaching in Numbers (approx.)
MA DAMM Class of 2017-18

7. @SimonTanner
The MA in Digital Asset and Media Management (MADAMM)
is our main point of digital preservation teaching since 2010.
Lots of non-EU
students (mainly China)
Vast majority female
CILIP accredited
Teaching MA DAMM
MA DAMM Class of 2017-18

8. @SimonTanner
Overview
This course looks at the creation, management, curation and repurposing of digital media and digital assets.
As the digital aspects of content industries, the cultural heritage sector and the private sector are reaching
maturity, career opportunities have mushroomed worldwide for professionals, who are familiar with
digital media and have the skills to manage digital content throughout its lifecycle.
Key Benefits
• We draw on a wide range of expertise, offering insights into curatorial and archival practices of dealing with
digital assets as well as into technologies and wider socio-economic questions such as rights and project
management.
• The course tutors offer unrivalled expertise in technologies and processes that allow the quick and efficient
storage, retrieval and reuse of digital assets. They come from a diverse and highly interdisciplinary
background, having run digital archives or worked in the digital industries in the past.
• Through the optional internship module students can have direct access to some of the world’s most
important culture and media institutions.
• Close links and regular speakers from the content sector give students insights and up-to-the-minute
knowledge of the subject area.
MA DAMM marketing

9. @SimonTanner
1 year course from October to following September
Semester 1: Core Course + 2 optional modules
3 x 4,000 word essay/projects = 20 credits each
Semester 2: Core Course + 2 optional modules
3 x 4,000 word essay/projects = 20 credits each
Semester 3: Dissertation
15,000 word research dissertation = 60 credits
MA DAMM course structure

10. @SimonTanner
MA DAMM Core Course

11. @SimonTanner
MA DAMM Core Course
Semester 1:
1 Digital Ecosystems in a Knowledge Society
2 Introduction to DAMM
3 The DAMM Lifecycle
4 Introduction to Metadata
5 Management in DAMM
6 Digital Objects
7 Technical Infrastructures
8 Metadata for Access and Retrieval
9 Management Strategy and Policy
10 Understanding Organisations: turning needs into plans

12. @SimonTanner
MA DAMM Core Course
Semester 2:
1 DAMM Maturity Model
2 Selection and Appraisal
3 Preservation
4 Legal and Ethical Issues
5 Evaluating metadata & understanding user needs
6 Engaging stakeholders: understanding users and audiences
7 Requirements into Functions
8 Projects and Finances
9 DAMM as an Agent of Change
10 Review of Course

13. @SimonTanner
Optional Modules
4 taken over 2 semesters: 30+ choices available
1. Organising Knowledge and Information
7AAVDM07 From Information to Knowledge
7AAVDM17 Research Data Management
7AAVDH08 Making the Connected World
7AAVDM16 Data Visualisation
7AAVDH05 Digital Publishing
7AAVDM21 iData: The Politics of Personal Data Economies
7AAVDC06 Mobility, Culture and Digital Media
2. Knowledge and Information Management
7AAVDM07 From Information to Knowledge
7AAVDM17 Research Data Management
7AAVDM05 Digital Asset and Media Management Technologies in Practice
7AAVDM11 Digital Asset and Media Management in the Broadcast Media
7AAVDM09 Management for Digital Content Industries
7AAVMAPS Maps, Apps and the GeoWeb: Introduction to the Spatial Humanities
3. Using and exploiting knowledge and information
7AAVDM12 Introduction to Data Journalism
7AAVDM04 Curating and Preserving Digital Culture
7AAVMART Critical Digital Arts
7AAVDM22 Radical Design: Challenging Platform Surveillance
5. Information Governance and Compliance
7AAVBCS4 Data Activism
7AAVDM13 Information Ethics and Digital Rights
7AAVDM21 iData: The Politics of Personal Data Economies
7AAVDC11 The Sharing Economy and Its Discontents
6. Records Management and Archiving
7AAVDM17 Research Data Management
7AAVDM04 Curating and Preserving Digital Culture
7. Collection Management and Development
7AAVMARC Communication and Consumption of Cultural Heritage
7AAVDM04 Curating and Preserving Digital Culture
7AAVMART Critical Digital Arts
AAVDH05 Digital Publishing
8. Literacies and Learning
7AAVDM15 Network Literacy
7AAVDM24 Understanding Human-Computer Interaction Design
7AAVDM14 The Dark Web, Dark Nets and Transgressive Cultures
7AAVDC07 Transnationalism and Globalisation in Visual Culture
7AAVDC09 Bodies, Identities and Digital Media
7AAVDC12 Gendering technology: Discourse, Use and Practice

14. @SimonTanner
Dissertations: very varied topics
 How accessible are current online, public, domains of museums?
 The effect of globalization on the management of digital records in national archives: a study
focusing on how practices and policies for national archives in Western developed nations affect
expectations of initiatives in emerging market economies
 Measuring the value of the UK Web Archive
 What is the universal value of the cultural heritage industry under the Macao government
policy?
 Investigation into whether the implementation on the EU-wide General Data Protection
Regulation on May 25 2018 improves the ability for website users to provide informed consent
before their personal data is collected?
 How do we define digital transformation and what affect does it have on business models within
the media industry?
 How is social media influencing users' experience in public libraries
 How does an established company build a digital culture to ensure effective management in the
attention economy?

15. @SimonTanner
Digital Humanities culture
 Interdisciplinary
 Students encouraged to think across disciplinary boundaries
 Mixed methods research the norm
 London based
 Big attractor for our students
 Linked to local business and cultural organisations
 Extra-curricula visits to museums, libraries, concerts and performances
 Industry panels
 DAM practitioners and experts
 Media and digital content experts
 How digital affects humans and humans effect digital.

16. @SimonTanner
“Challenges”
 Too big
 Core course: 1 lecture = 14 seminars
 Too high a proportion of students from one region creates a mono-culture
 Volume makes it more difficult to innovate in teaching methods
 Dissertation supervision over the summer, marking in October
 Practice based teaching problematic
 Don’t do hands on DAM system training
 Trying to link to King’s Archives and KDL for internships and experience building
 Too big for computer lab work to be feasible – but still try to give practical
projects and experiences
 Finding academics with the combination of high academic research and teaching
skills combined with “industry” work experience to teach these subjects