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

=== Project 2: Critical Analysis of an Online Community ===
For the final assignment, I want you to take what you've learned in the class and apply it to a community you have observed or participated in. This project will involve two written assignments and a presentation.

==== Community Identification====
;Maximum Length: 300 words (~1 page double spaced)
;Deliverables: Turn in [https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1734931/assignments through Canvas]
;Due Date: Friday May 10

In this assignment, you should identify a community you are interested in — and that you hope to analyze critically in your final project. In this assignment, I am asking you to write 1-2 paragraphs explaining what community you want to study, why you care about it, and why you think it would be a rich site for reflection. If relevant or possible, it might be useful to also provide a link.

I am hoping that each of you will pick a community that you are intellectually committed to and invested in your personal or work life. You should also keep in mind that you will be presenting this publicly to the class.

You will be successful in this assignment if you identify a community and clearly explain why you think it would be a useful community to study using the concepts we have covered in the class.

I will give you feedback on these write-ups and will let you each know if I think you have identified a project that might be too ambitious, too trivial, too broad, too narrow, etc.

==== Optional Extra Credit: Outline or Rough Draft of Final Project ====
;Due Date: Friday May 17
;Minimum length: 500 words (preliminary text) or 1 page (outline)
;Maximum extra credit: 10 points

If you want extra credit, don't wait until the last minute to do your final project. Turning in an early draft or an outline of what you plan to do will get you a small amount of instructor feedback (7 day turnaround maximum, but probably much faster) and extra credit. Your project and grade will likely be even better if you respond to the feedback you get -- but it's up to you if you want to aim for this.

==== Final Projects: Critical Analysis of Online Community ====
;Final (Virtual) Presentation Date: May 28
;Virtual Critique Date: May 30
;Paper Due Date: Jun 3 @ 11:59pm
;Maximum paper length: 2,500 words
;Deliverables: 
:*Details on final presentations including due dates, instructions, and dropboxes are on [[/Final presentations]]
:*Turn in copy of paper [https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1734931 in Canvas]

For your final project, I expect students to build on the community identification assignment to describe what they have done and what they have found. I'll expect every student to give both:

* A final presentation (see instructions on  [[/Final presentations]])
* A final report that is not more than 2,500 words.

Each project should include: (a) the description of the community you have identified (you are welcome to borrow from your Community Identification assignment), (b) a description of how you would use the course concepts to change and improve the community.

You will be evaluated on the degree to which you have demonstrated that you understand and have engaged with the course material and not on specifics of your community. I want you to reflect on what parts of theory we covered apply or do not. What does the community do right according to what you've learned? What might it do differently in the future based on what you've read? What did the course and readings not teach that they should have? 

Your audience is people who are interested in the community as well as the general public. A successful project will tell a compelling story and will engage with, and improve upon, the course material to teach all of us -- that is, an audience that includes me, your classmates, and students taking this class in future years, how to take advantage of online communities more effectively. The very best papers will give us all a new understanding of some aspect of course material and change the way I teach some portion of this course in the future.