Editing Building Successful Online Communities (Fall 2024) (section)

== Organization ==

This course is organized into two components that roughly span the first and second "halves" of the quarter.

=== Component 1: The Theory and Practice of Online Communities ===

After an introductory session, most of the class (through  Week 7)<!-- CHANGE: this will vary by class --> will be focused on helping you learn fundamental social scientific ideas that drive our understanding of online communities and questions about how and why online communities thrive or flounder, succeed or fail, and grow or shrink.

To do this, the course is organized to introduce you to a range of social scientific work. Because this body of work is vast, I'm dividing it into three major "levels" of analysis. We'll focus on each level for about two weeks:

* ''Micro-level'' (personal, individual) — Why do ''individuals'' participate in online communities? How do they build relationships with each other and communities? How do online communities incentivize participation?
* ''Meso'' (group, organization) — How do groups build group identities, construct norms, create rules, and govern themselves? How do communities socialize newcomers?
* ''Macro'' (ecosystem, culture, society) — How do online communities create niches? How do they affect or interact with other online communities? How do cultures, politics, and societies shape online communities?

The bulk of the reading in the course—and most of the most difficult material—will be front-loaded in this first six-week period. The goal is to make sure that you have a strong set of analytical tools and understand the theories you'll need by Week 7 so that you can use this material to focus on your projects.

=== Component 2: Examples and Challenges ===

In the second part of the course, I will focus less on theory and more on examples of online communities and applications, examples, and associated challenges.

Our reading during the second part of the quarter will focus on case studies. We will focus on in-class discussions and exercises that prompt critical consideration of how online communities occur in different domains and the challenges associated with using online communities. I will try to help you all build an ability to critically understand these communities using the theory we covered earlier.

In general, readings during these weeks will be on the lighter side, and there will be no weekly assignments other than preparing for case discussions. The readings are lighter during this component because I'm expecting you to be spending time outside of class working on your final projects.