I'd like to have each student create his or her own exhibit in Omeka, using a shared collection of items. I know the MyOmeka plugin offers users to create their own 1-page "poster"---but I want students to be able create deeper exhibits than that.
How to have students create their own exhibits in Omeka?
(7 posts) (5 voices)-
Posted 7 years ago Permalink
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Replying to @Mark Sample's post:
Not sure, but that might just hinge on how your installation is set up. If you can push up your own Omeka installation, you could give students admin rights to create exhibits, and off they go, I think. I don't have enough experience with omeka.net to know if that works with the hosted installation, but I'd guess that it could work that way with the right permissions settings.
OTOH, if you're spinning up your own installation, if I remember right that can be done pretty easily, just by giving the students the permissions to do so.
Posted 7 years ago Permalink -
sharonmleon
MemberBest AnswerI've done this two ways in the past -- works with either Omeka or Omeka.net. I have registered all students as users with administrator privileges. Together we have built a shared Omeka archive. I ask students to put the items they contribute into a collection under their name so that I can quickly identify their contributions. Administrative users can edit and delete all items, so students need to be careful not to harm one another's work. But, this user status means that each student can use any item from the archive in her/his exhibit.
Then, there are two options on the exhibits:
1) Have the class build a single large exhibit where each student is responsible for a single section. The exhibit will have a single theme, but each student can choose from the available page layouts and create many pages. This option limits the ability to single out a student's work on the homepage because you can't feature sections of an exhibit.
2) Have each student build individual exhibits. This allows each person to select a different theme, and allows for the possibility of featuring individual exhibits.
Posted 7 years ago Permalink -
Replying to @Mark Sample's post:
Not sure, but that might just hinge on how your installation is set up. If you can push up your own Omeka installation, you could give students admin rights to create exhibits, and off they go, I think. I don't have enough experience with omeka.net to know if that works with the hosted installation, but I'd guess that it could work that way with the right permissions settings.
OTOH, if you're spinning up your own installation, if I remember right that can be done pretty easily, just by giving the students the permissions to do so.
That's the technical end. The design end? The pedagogical end? Lots of directions.
Posted 7 years ago Permalink -
What are your pedagogical goals here?
In my library-technology course, Omeka is one of the final-group-project options I offer. I make each group install from scratch (no one-step installations allowed), and they're not allowed to stay with the default theme, though I don't require that they build their own. Part of my hope for students is that they develop a sense of self-efficacy and self-sufficiency around novel technology (which for many includes FTP and the command line).
I've found that students respond quite well to this! So, I guess what I'm saying is that you might not want to make it too easy for them. ;)
Posted 7 years ago Permalink -
Replying to @Dorothea Salo's post:
My pedagogical goals have more to do with curating an exhibit than the technological side of things. I'll set up the Omeka site myself, and while they'll deal with uploading items and adding metadata, I'm not too concerned that they become self-sufficient with the underlying steps involved in hosting and maintaining an online exhibition.
Posted 7 years ago Permalink -
jmcclurken
MemberBest AnswerYeah, I agree with Sharon and Patrick. Admin status is the best way to do this. However, make clear that everyone understands that they can change and affect other people's exhibits and the materials in the repository. One of the first times I used Omeka in class, one student was trying to "help" the other students in her group and changed the metadata on a large swath of objects...incorrectly. Tense doesn't begin to describe the interactions among them after that.
Point being, it's worth stressing that each person will have the ability to change everything on the site and the responsibility not to do so.
Posted 7 years ago Permalink
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