Development of "Lletra de Dona" as an Interdisciplinary Tool for the Continuous Assesment and the Learning of Literary Criticism in Virtual Environments

The aim of this project —the continuation of "Lletra de Dona: a Tool for the Learning of Literary Criticism in Virtual Environments and Continuous Assessment (REDICE, n. A0801-14, 2008-2010)—  is to deepen and extend the range of experience which already exists in the field of the teaching of literature in virtual environments in the Faculty of Philology, that is, the school of literary criticism "Lletra de Dona". In this second phase of the project, a group of researchers formed during the previous years is consolidated as a multidisciplinary network in the humanities.

This useful and innovative tool for the continuous assessment of literature and philosophy subjects helps follow the students' evolution in obtaining the required skills. In that sense, the work of each teacher in their respective classes is also fundamental. "Lletra de Dona" is focused on critical reviews, and consequently it trains the students in responsible criticism all the while underscoring the interdisciplinary qualities of Gender Studes at the Philology and Philosophy Faculties of the Universitat de Barcelona, both in undergraduate and graduate studies. 

Objectives

1. To offer a model for continuous assessment that can be applied to different fields, and to contribute to the use of virtual environments in university teaching.
2. To train students of literature and philosophy subjects in textual interpretation and textual commentary skills, in practice and for professional use, in order to write reviews for literary magazines and cultural supplements, reading reports for publishing houses, to write for blurbs and back covers, etc. The students will adquire specific skills that will allow them to appreciate the construction of a literary or philosophical text and thus evaluate it critically.
3. To help students be responsible for their work —to write thoughtful criticism, to pay attention to style, to avoid plagiarism... — as it can be published online and be disseminated in public.
4. To create, from a selection of this work, a corpus of reviews of literary and philosophical texts written by women from all periods and languages in the section "Lletra de Dona" in the website of the Centre Dona i Literatura. The accepted reviews will be published in a specialised and open web environment, with the guarantee of authorship rights under Creative Commons (non-commercial license), and fitting semantic web search engines.