Christian Sandvig earns 2023 Digital Studies teaching award

University of Michigan School of Information professor Christian Sandvig has earned a 2023 Nakamura Exceptional Teaching (NET) Award from the University of Michigan Digital Studies Institute. 

The award recognizes faculty members who “demonstrate outstanding innovation and/or service through teaching digital studies courses.” Applicants are assessed in areas of innovation, accessibility, inclusivity and mentorship. The award is partially based on student feedback.

The award committee highlighted Sandvig’s work in teaching Digital Media Foundations (#digifound), a large undergraduate course in the digital studies minor. They noted the course’s focus on coding-as-writing and the goal of teaching computer programming to students with no prior background, praising #digifound for rethinking what an Upper-Level Writing (ULWR) class at Michigan can look like.

M. Remi Yergeau, Associate Director of the Institute, wrote, “committee members also emphasized not only your generosity and labor in designing a thoughtful, asynchronous class, but also the ways in which you in-built flexibility and attention to student well-being across the curriculum.”

Sandvig redesigned the course during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering it in an asynchronous format to accommodate student needs. He recorded more than 200 lecture videos, as well as a series of interactive demos and activities between lectures. 

“I created a series of Slack activities and optional events to simulate the feeling of doing something together with other people in person,” he said. “I added recorded therapy dog ‘visits’ to take a little of the loneliness out of this terrible situation. I organized an online ‘costume party,’ ‘dance party,’ and meme contest to keep spirits up. I learned video editing and VFX to make the videos more engaging.” 

Sandvig is the H. Marshall McLuhan Collegiate Professor of Digital Media at UMSI, and is also appointed in the Digital Studies Institute; the Department of Communication & Media; and the Center for Political Studies. He co-directs the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC) and his research explores the societal consequences of computer systems that curate and organize culture, as well as the role of artificial intelligence and algorithms. 

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Learn more about Christian Sandvig’s research, news and upcoming courses by visiting his UMSI faculty profile.