Editing Online Communities (UW COM481 Spring 2024) (section)

== Class format and structure ==

In general, the organization of the course adopts a "flipped" approach where you consume instructional materials on your own or in groups and we use synchronous meetings to answer questions, address challenges or concerns, work through solutions, and hold semi-structured discussions in the form of '''cases'''—discussed in detail below. 

The '''asynchronous elements of this course''' include two parts:

# All readings, recorded lectures/slides, tutorials, and assignments from a variety of speakers; often these will be me or my advisor and supervisor, Benjamin Mako Hill.
# Conversation and discussion that happens in the group Discord server over the course of the week.

I expect you to finish all readings and watch all lectures outside of our class meeting times '''before the class sessions on which they are assigned'''. Please note that this means I will not generally deliver lectures during our class meetings. Please also note that this means you are fully responsible for reading all readings and watching all recorded lecture material before you come to the associated synchronous part of class.

I expect you to check in and participate in the Discord discussion. I plan to check and respond to conversation there at least daily throughout the quarter.

The '''synchronous elements of the course''' will be two weekly class meetings and optional open lab periods. Class meetings will happen at the normal time and in the normal place, unless I communicate otherwise. I will also offer open lab periods where you can drop in and ask questions. Open lab is an experiment I'm trying for this quarter to see if it's useful: I'll try to announce when they're coming up in a weekly announcement e-mail and I'll definitely mention them on Discord. For my more focused attention, please book an [https://cal.com/kayleachampion office hours appointment] with me. Please note that if you book your appointment less than 24 hours in advance, I may not see your booking, so do ping me on Discord to confirm. [[Why should students book office hours appointments?]]

Each session is scheduled to run for a maximum of 110 minutes; we'll take a break half way through -- it's always my goal to end a bit early.

I will use the class meetings to do several things:

# Conduct each day's '''case study discussion''' involving an instructor-mediated conversation using input from each of you.
# Discuss and work through any questions or challenges you encounter in the materials assigned for that day. 
# Discuss and/or answer questions about assignments that have come up.

Open lab periods will include: 
# Time for you to ask your questions
# Time to work on your assignments with immediate help at hand

Attending open lab periods and office hours is optional.

=== Websites and Technology Expectations ===

There are a number of expectations that you will be able to connect to certain websites. In order to complete this class, I expect you to be able to access and use the following web resources:

* [https://wiki.communitydata.science/ wiki.communitydata.science] — This website will host the syllabus for the course. I expect you to be able to visit it regularly. If you're reading this, you have access.
* [https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1734931 UW's Canvas] — We'll be using Canvas for posting announcements, uploading course-restricted files, turning in assignments, and distributing grades, comments, and similar.
* [https://www.lib.washington.edu/help/connect/tools UW Library Proxy] — I'm going to expect that you can use the UW Libraries proxy to access material that UW subscribes to from off campus. You'll need to to get material to read for class.
* [https://discord.com/ Discord] — Discord is a chat system that we'll be using in the course to stay in touch between class and to discuss things asynchronously. It has screensharing and voice chat as well. There is a mobile app as well as a downloadable desktop app that you may find useful but you should be able to do everything you need to while using the web interface version. If you've got a question about an assignment, this is almost certainly going to be the the fastest and best way to get my attention. One benefit of asking a question on Discord is that others in the class will be able to see our answer to you! Instructions on joining the Discord server are in the [https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1734931/pages/course-setup-checklist Class Setup Checklist]. You'll see that there are a series of channels we've created. If you don't see an obvious place to ask your question, go ahead and ask it in the #general-discussion channel.
* [https://www.panopto.com Panopto] — UW uses the video hosting service Panopto which I will be using to share all the lectures and recorded parts for this course.
<!-- * [https://zoom.us Zoom] — UW strongly recommends that all courses be conducted in Zoom so I will be following their advice. Our case studies will involve Zoom.-->
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/ English Wikipedia] — Assignments for this course will involve contributing to Wikipedia. This means that you will need to have access to Wikipedia.
* [https://docs.google.com/ Google Docs] — I'll be using Google Docs to host a series of web forms. This includes the form you'll need to fill out to tell me that you're going to miss class. You will need to be able to access Google to use this.
* [https://www.tiktok.com TikTok] -- we will do one of our cases using TikTok (subject to availability).
* [https://chat.openai.com Chat GPT] -- we will do one of our cases using ChatGPT.

These websites, in turn, use a range of hosting providers including Amazon Web Services, Google, and Microsoft. As a result, participation in this course requires students to access Internet resources that may not be accessible directly in some places outside of the UW campus. Anybody taking the class must ensure that they can access all Internet resources required for this course reliably and safely. For students who are off-campus temporarily and are in a situation where direct access to these required resources is not possible, UW-IT recommends that students use the official UW VPN, called [https://itconnect.uw.edu/connect/uw-networks/about-husky-onnet/use-husky-onnet/ Husky OnNet VPN]. UW-IT advises students to use the VPN with the “All Internet Traffic” option enabled (see the [https://www.lib.washington.edu/help/connect/husky-onnet UW Libraries instructions] and [https://itconnect.uw.edu/connect/uw-networks/about-husky-onnet/faqs/ UW-IT’s FAQs]). Doing so will route all incoming and outgoing Internet through UW servers while it is enabled.

Students who are outside the US should be aware that they may be subject to laws, policies and/or technological systems which restrict the use of any VPNs. UW does not guarantee students’ access to UW resources when students are off-campus, and [https://itconnect.uw.edu/work/appropriate-use/ students are responsible for their own compliance with all laws] regarding the use of Husky OnNet and all other UW resources. Given that this course in-person, I don't expect this to be a big issue.

'''Having problems with the checklist? Running into terms you don't understand? We've collected some [[UW COM 481 FAQs | Frequently Asked Questions and Answers]]'''