One aspect of the Faculty Innovation in Teaching program is the technology research that is conducted as part of faculty projects. Often the technology research and  identified solutions are applicable for many instructional uses.

An example of this is “Adobe PDF Packages” which use the Adobe PDF software in a new way.  PDF packages make it possible to search across numerous documents to locate certain keywords or concepts, to see relationships, and to make claims.

One faculty member, David S. Patel (as part of the “Helping Students Evaluate Islamist Moderation” project) , uses PDF packages in his courses on Middle Eastern Politics and Islamic Studies.  He provides his students with PDF packages of political documents, organized by categories such as country or political party, and has the students search across those documents for keywords and phrases such as women and education or moderation.

The results of those searches allow students to see, in context, how those words are used in the various documents. The resulting lists have served as the basis for student papers, and Professor Patel feels the technique helps his students conduct research across a large amount of content and provides them with a very easy way expand upon their research.

To find out more about how you can used PDF packages to promote research analysis, contact innovprojects@cornell.edu