6. Incorporating the Digital
- An estimated 30% of departments in the humanities offered at least one fully online course in the 2016–17 academic year, and only 15% offered a hybrid course (i.e., one with both online and on-site components; Figure 6A). Departments in primarily undergraduate institutions were the least likely to offer either kind of course.
- The estimated share of departments offering fully online or hybrid courses (Figure 6B) varied considerably among disciplines. While an estimated 41% of communication departments and 37% of philosophy departments offered fully online courses, just 9% of American studies and history of science departments did so. One third of communication departments offered hybrid courses, more than twice the percentage for every other discipline.
- Among the departments with fully online courses, those in the disciplines of English and women/gender studies offered the largest average number (an estimated 7.6 per department offering that type of course; Figure 6C). The discipline with the next highest average was communication, with departments in this discipline offering an average of 6.4 fully online courses. Religion departments offered a comparatively large number of hybrid courses on average (8.4 per department offering that type of course). The next highest averages (4.3 per department) were found in English, LLE, and women/gender studies.
- Despite considerable attention to the digital humanities in the media, an estimated two-thirds of departments lacked a center or lab dedicated to such research on their campus (Figure 6D). Fifty-six percent of the departments at research universities had access to a center, compared to 17% of departments at comprehensive colleges and universities.
- The survey estimates that less than 20% of departments offered a seminar on digital methods (for either research or teaching), and approximately a quarter had a faculty member specializing in digital humanities. The share of departments estimated to have formal guidelines for evaluating digital publications for promotion and tenure was smaller than the share with a faculty member specializing in digital humanities.
- The highest rates of overall engagement with the digital humanities were found in the disciplines of folklore, history of science, and linguistics—departments that were more likely to be found in research institutions (Figure 6E). Among disciplines whose departments were distributed more evenly across institution types, English had the highest estimated rate of overall engagement with digital humanities. While 27% of all humanities departments had a specialist in digital humanities, 46% of English departments had such a specialist. And 32% of English departments had formal guidelines for evaluating digital publications for tenure and promotion, compared to 20% for the humanities as a whole.
For the values underlying this figure: See Table 20 in the Appendix, Part A.
* Folklore was excluded from the figure because it was not possible to generate reliable estimates for the discipline. The 2016–17 academic year includes the summer 2017 term and any intersession terms.
** A combined department is one that grants degrees in English and in languages and literatures other than English (LLE).
For the values underlying this figure: See Table 20 in the Appendix, Part A, and the 18th table in each subsection of Part B (e.g., Table AH18, Table EN18).
* Folklore was excluded from the figure because it was not possible to generate reliable estimates for the discipline. The 2016–17 academic year includes the summer 2017 term and any intersession terms.
** A combined department is one that grants degrees in English and in languages and literatures other than English (LLE).
For the values underlying this figure: See Table 20 in the Appendix, Part A, and the 18th table in each subsection of Part B (e.g., Table AH18, Table EN18).
For the values underlying this figure: See Table 21 in the Appendix, Part A.
* A combined department is one that grants degrees in English and in languages and literatures other than English (LLE).
** Anthropology departments did not receive questions that included the term “digital humanities.”
For the values underlying this figure: See Table 21 in the Appendix, Part A, and the 19th table in each subsection of Part B (e.g., Table AH19, Table EN19).