In this lightning talk, I will present a concept for curriculum design that optimizes instructional use of digital and physical collections. The premise of this approach is a revised understanding of knowledge that includes modalities of information (e.g. visual imagery, video, digitized rare books) that cannot be communicated through speech or written description. Its purpose is to lay the foundation for technical infrastructure and instructional support services that will bridge gaps in the flow of high quality library media resources, and help develop foundational, multimodal information literacy proficiencies at the undergraduate level.

This presentation considers the historical Chinese precedent of shū huà (classical 書畫; simplified 書画) “text/image” to describe and explain an innovative instructional design concept using the new UCLA learning management system Bruin Learn. The scholar-official social class or “literati” communicated in calligraphic image and text hybrids of ink on paper. Chien-Ling Liu Zeleny (history of science and medicine) and I will demonstrate live UCLA curriculum comprised of image and text inscribed digitally in long-scrolling Canvas pages with embedded digital content and tools supported by the Digital Library Program. The approach allows for immediacy of perception and embodied knowledge production.

Presenter from the UCLA Library Digital Library Program (DLP) will share examples from his collaboration with a faculty member in a pilot to increase and deepen student engagement with holdings from the UCLA Library’s Digital Collections in curricular contexts, leveraging the concurrent adoption by the University of the new learning management system (LMS), Canvas/BruinLearn. Digital collections overseen by the DLP are presented predominantly in the IIIF (International Image Interoperability Framework), which enables reliable vertical integration of linked media content flows for students’ accessing, viewing, processing, and presenting high quality resources sustainably without file downloads, or uploads. Collaborating with administrators and staff from technical and instructional support units outside of the library, particularly the Canvas Transformation instructional design team, the DLP has designed, developed, and piloted a 3-unit modular template in the LMS to facilitate the use of digital collections to support undergraduate course curricula. The three units in the template direct students through three learning phases in their course, related to materials, methods, and products, respectively. This structure ensures adequate instructional attention to critical and proficiency-based learning goals, including information literacy, comparative analysis and annotation, and multimedia composition for public audiences. Pre-built modular units with integrated IIIF tools and learning activities are adapted in consultation with faculty to fit with course content, and presented in online and hybrid “flipped” instruction, making introductory through advanced digital project work scalable and manageable without necessitating substantial commitment of in-class instructional time.