<h2 id="welcome-to-crafting-digital-history"><a aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1" href="#welcome-to-crafting-digital-history"></a>Welcome to Crafting Digital History</h2>
Sept 3, 2025 
by Scott Coleman
<img src="https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/resource.mixa.site/cdh2025/Crafting%20Digital%20History/3.%20Tutorials/02%20assets/ObsidianImages/Vault%20Setup/Nodes%20and%20Edges.png" priority="1">
This is the first microblog post of many this term that will communicate additional resources, news, and course updates. I want to welcome you to "Crafting Digital History," and I hope this course will be enjoyable, informative and inspiring. You should have received an email from me containing a Welcome message, a link to the class Discord, and a .zip file for your Obsidian Vault. If you have not received this email, please check your junk email first, and if it is still not there, then contact me (Prof. Coleman).
We will not be using D2L/Carleton-based e-platforms; instead, we will work on the open web. That said, first and foremost, I want you to succeed in this course, and open communication is a vital component in achieving success. I have an open-virtual-door policy. If you need to discuss anything, please visit the virtual office hours (12:30 to 1:30 EST M/W <a href="/Crafting%20Digital%20History/1.%20Course%20Overview/7_Contact" title="7_Contact">7_Contact</a>) or schedule an appointment. I will be on Discord as much as possible, generally between the hours of 10 am and 4 pm. However, I am teaching three courses and have a young family, so my responses may be slow at times. I try to respond to Discord asap, and emails within 24 hours.
Please check the <code>News</code> consistently to avoid missing important content. When a new post is issued, I will share the link in our Discord. If you have concerns, issues, or if something comes up that may impede your ability to complete this course as designed, please contact me as soon as possible at <a href="/mailto:scottcoleman@cmail.carleton">scottcoleman@cmail.carleton.ca</a> or on Discord.
Please read the course syllabus. That is read through the website, which includes the 1. Course Overview section, 2. Schedule, 3. Tutorials, and 4. Assessment. Read it all and understand what my expectations are, and if this course will fulfill yours. This is a third-year course that involves a significant amount of intensive work. I expect you to push yourselves past your comfort zones, but I am not heartless. My goal is to push you to discover what you may have thought was not possible. I was not digitally inclined when I first started university, and now I teach the stuff. However, I understand that for some, this may not be the course for you, and that is okay. Please read through the syllabus.
I have added a 5. Video Transcripts section. I will update this as I make new videos. I will be creating more tutorial videos in the coming weeks. Please be patient as I muddle through this process. Lastly, have fun, explore, and be brave. It's just digital. Things will break, go sideways, and make you want to bang your head off something, though I do not advocate this, but do not fear. The Digital is a process and that is what I am looking for. Your evolution through process. I don't care about the end product (well...to a degree) but more about how you arrived at the point you are at and what your take aways are, how you critically reflect on these processes and how they inform your academic inquiry. Make sense??
Enjoy the semester 
Scott. (Your professor.)

Welcome

1. Course Description

2. Learning Outcomes

3. Course Schedule

4. Evaluation

5. Course Communications

6. Common Regulations

6. Contact the Professor

how the course tech is built; how the course came to be

7. Colophon

8. Reuse

Orientation and Digital Setup

Week 1

Personal Knowledge Management and Linked Thinking

Week 2

Thinking about the “Craft” of Digital History

Week 3

Crusading into the Digital Age of LLMs

Week 4

Consolidation & Check-In Week

Week 5

Digital Excavation

Week 6

Week 8

Defining Data, 'Dark' Data, & Identifiers

Week 7

Seeing the Past?

Week 9

Week 10

Authority and Positionality in Your Digital Research

Week 11

Publicly Crafting a Historical Argument

Week 12

Open-Access Notebook Workshop

Week 13

Exit Ticket

Week 14

1 Setting up your vault

2 Create your first note

3 Templater Plugiin

4 What Goes into a Note?

5 Properties

06 Hypothesis

07 The Simplest Online Memex Worfklow

08 How To Read An Academic Article

09 Import your Hypothesis Annotations

10 Zotero

11 Where to Find help

13 Text Formatting

Introduction to your vault

index note

Atomic Note

Literature Note

Process Note

Weekly Journal

Topic Proposal

Weekly Work & Tasks

Consolidation Reflection

Open Access Notebook/Memex

Benchmarking Your Memex

Exit Ticket/Final Project

1 Welcome to Crafting Digital History Transcript

2 Obsidian User Interface (UI) Guide

3 Templater and Hotkeys Setup

4 How to use PDF++

5 Canvas Core Plugin Introductory Tutorial

6 Hypothes.is and Annotating the Web

7 Omnisearch Plugin for Obsidian

8 How to Use Process Notes for Digital Research Projects in Obsidian

9 Properties, Identifiers and Data Management with Obsidian Core Plugin Bases

10 Week 13 and Exit Ticket Update

1 Welcome to Crafting Digital History

2 Some Logistical Updates

3 Welcome to Week Two

4 What is Digital History?

5 Crusading into the Digital Age of LLMs

6 Week Four Exercise Example

7 Using Obsidian for Digital History Research and Note-Making

8 Reflection Feedback Update and Hypothes.is

9 Week Five Update

10 Consolidation Reflection Submission

11 Module Two Wrangling and Critiquing

12 Week 7 Update

13 Week 9 Welcome Back

14 Consolidation Week Number 2

15 Week 11 Authority and Positionality in Digital Research

16 Week 12 Publicly Crafting a Historical Argument

17 Week 13  Peer-Review of Open Access Notebooks

18 Week 14 Congratulations

1. Course Overview

Module 1 Contextualizing

Module 2 Wrangling & Critiquing

Module 3 Arguing & Communicating

2. Schedule

01  memex help

8. Course Files

3. Tutorials

4. Assessment

5. VideoTutorials

Crafting Digital History

News