Social, equitable, collaborative: 10 years of teaching and learning at the Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship

Abstract

In the 10 years since its founding in 2012, the Lewis and Ruth Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship has become a hub through which expertise and resources are shared with the campus community and anyone seeking to do more with digital scholarship. In this chapter, we explore how the centre has leveraged its involvement in teaching and learning to build a community to support the needs of researchers, mentor and develop the talents of emerging scholars, and produce unique programming to make learning about digital scholarship accessible. We share the core values of teaching and learning that guide programming, services, and activities at the centre, prioritizing the social before the technological, striving for equitability of access, and being collaborative by design. The goal of our chapter is to demonstrate how approaching teaching and learning in a way that prioritizes social connections and relationships, a critical engagement with digital technologies, and relational accountability has enabled the centre to iteratively build a reciprocal model of engagement that continues to adapt to the evolving role of digital scholarship in the McMaster community.