Members of the group: Elaina Boyle, Zack Shawn, Madeleine Parr, Sonya Davidson, Cullen Baker, Arthur Viegas Eguia, Ben Turner
The definition of the project topic and objectives for what you plan to produce: History of OCS Carleton Programs, where it’s been where it’s going
The proposed methodology: Talk to the OCS office mainly. Try to get information on which OCS programs have been offered each year since Carleton started offering OCS programs. Get information on where each program was located (city/country) and how many students went to each program. Develop a map with bubbles with dynamic sizes based on how many students went to each OCS, scroller to choose the year. Develop a heat map with all OCS places to date
OCS student portal already has this map:
Programs : Map Search but it only shows current (?) OCS options, and it doesn’t show the popularity of programs.
Sources: We will be looking at historical records from Carleton’s OCS programs. Where the OCS took place and how many students went to each. We don’t know exactly what information will be available to us, but we are hoping to have access to locations of past OCS programs and potentially the number of students in each program. This information will help to give us a sense of the popularity of particular programs. We also are planning to use data from the 50th-anniversary pages, which have personal stories from past OCS programs, collected from this site: https://www.carleton.edu/ocs/office/voices
Processes: We plan on making a map where each point is a bubble with dynamic sizes depending on how many people went to each program. We aim to show where programs have been held and to show their popularity of them. The map will be interactive, so we can link people’s personal experiences and stories with the particular programs. This will be done using mapping software, like ArcGIS, and then a timeline using timeline.js.
Presentation: All of this information will be embedded into a timeline where the data can be compiled. At each stage of the timeline we plan to have the map of that year’s programs, so users can move through the timeline to see how the locations have changed over time. Additionally, we will have participants’ stories embedded on the timeline/map, to give the site a more personal feel. At the end of the timeline, we plan to reveal the comprehensive heat map to show where Carleton students have been over the course of all OCS programs.
The proposed timeline of deliverables:
- 11/6: Get Data, clean & format data set
- 11/8: Making of map/s
- 11/10: Make site/timeline to embed maps
- 11/13: Implement linking to personal stories “OCS Voices and Views”
- 11/15: Submit final draft
And finally, a link to one or more DH projects that you think might make a good model for what you plan to do.
Create a unique tag for your group to tag all your posts going forward.
MappingOCS22f
Each member, write a brief message outlining your personal interests in the project and what you hope it will achieve.
Ben Turner – Even though I am already a senior I have never been in an OCS program. Due to covid, the OCS program to Japan last spring was canceled. However, I wish I could have gone and I think that OCS is a powerful experience for students. I think the idea of presenting previous OCS information in a nice manner can help students determine if and where they want to go abroad since I know that was a scary and daunting experience as someone who has not had much international experience.
Elaina Boyle – One of the main reasons I never went on an OCS was that I was afraid of going to a new place by myself. If I had been able to use a visual tool like the proposed map, I would have been able to see not only all of the possible destinations for travel but also how many people tend to go to each destination. If I had been able to get a rough estimate of how many students tend to go to each place, I might have chosen to go on an OCS instead of staying on campus all 4 years.
Sonya Davidson – This project really interested me because I think it could be really important to show the global side of Carleton College. Even though Northfield is basically in the middle of nowhere, OCS programs are such a valuable opportunity for students to break out of the “Carleton bubble,” and I think it would be really eye-opening to show how far our students go. Additionally, having been on an OCS program, I am excited to learn about other programs that my peers have done and explore this data.
Zack Shawn – I’m considering going on an OCS program in the future, and I think it would be interesting to know where others have gone in the past and learn about their experiences. I’m also curious about how this has changed over the years, to see how history and world events have changed OCS destinations.
Madeleine Parr – I have done some research into Carleton’s history for the other classes and I think it is fascinating to find out more about the history of places and communities I am a part of. I was able to go on an OCS program in the middle of 2020 and I had a really great experience despite it being a very strange time to be abroad. I am specifically interested in integrating people’s stories and experiences from their time abroad into an interactive format that can help encourage people to go abroad and spread information about all the places Carleton students end up in during their four years here.
Arthur Viegas Eguia – I am interested in mapping and wanted to do a project which uses more ArcGIS, as I want to learn more about it. So I decided to come up with a project which does extensive use of it. As most of my friends and I researched OCS programs in the previous months/year I came up with the idea to map the history of Carleton’s OCS. I am also very excited to see how many students took part in such programs throughout the history of the school and how the OCSs locations changed. By the end of the project, I expect how OCSs evolved.
Cullen Baker – I’m interested in this project because when I applied to Carleton I looked all over the OCS office’s website for something like this and couldn’t find it. Not only do I think this would be a cool project for us to work on but I think it could be useful outside of class as well.
