Innovating Lecture Material: IIIF Images and Their Pedagogical Potential

Art History, College of Letters & Science, Garzez, Indigo, Leson, Richard, Mentor, Poster Presentation, School and College, Student

Indigo Garzez, “Innovating Lecture Material: IIIF Images and Their Pedagogical Potential”
Mentor: Richard Leson, Art History
Poster #68

Research for this project centers around creating a catalogue of visual pedagogical materials to supplement existing lectures for the Art History course: The Age of the Great Cathedrals: Gothic Art and Architecture. It seeks to answer the question: how can access to detailed digital and IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework) images with supplementary text increase the quality of lectures, and how can this help students to engage more thoughtfully with the materials presented? Similarly, the Storiiies online presentation program facilitates the creation of an interactive visual tour of an image supplemented by didactic text. The methodology of creating Storiiies presentations involves a survey of the use of IIIF digital image “manifests” by major museums, libraries, and cultural institutions throughout the United States and Europe. IIIF is a way of standardizing high-quality images used by many academic institutions. Implementation of IIIF manifests allows one to see art objects in unprecedented detail, allowing for deeper and more informed analysis. The image tours are then compiled onto an easy-access website that is linked in the modules on the Canvas website for each corresponding week of lecture materials. They encourage thoughtful interaction with materials and provide new methods for lecture review to assist in performance on cumulative exams. In conclusion, the Storiiies image tours were created as a pedagogical aid for the benefit of students. Through this program’s interactivity, students are encouraged to engage more thoughtfully and deeply with materials and examine images in unprecedented detail through IIIF manifests and other high-quality images. This project’s result will be a refreshing update to the structure and presentation of lectures and an increase in opportunity for engagement with materials. It also provides a gateway for the potential interdisciplinary implementation of the use of IIIF images in pedagogy.