Editing Designing Internet Research (Winter 2020) (section)

== Assignments ==

The assignments in this class are designed to give you an opportunity to try your hand at using the conceptual material taught in the class. There will be no exams or quizzes. Unless otherwise noted, all assignments are due at the end of the day (i.e., 11:59pm on the day they are due).

=== Weekly Reflections ===

;Deliverables: (1) Post a message in the appropriate [https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1353880/discussion_topics course discussion board]; (2) Respond to at least one of your classmates before class.
;Due Date: (1) Every Monday (on a week with reading); (2) Every Tuesday at 1:30 (on a week with reading)
;Maximum length: 1,000 words

For every week that we have readings (i.e., every week except for the consulting weeks and and the final presentation weeks), I'm asking everybody to reflect on the readings by the day before class and to share their reflections with everybody else. Because we're skipping the first week, that works out to a total of six reflections.

Reflections should be no more than 1000 words (about one single-spaced page). So everyone will have a chance to read the reflections before class, response papers should be posted to our course website the day before (i.e., before midnight each Monday) so that we can all read and construct responses. Please also pose one or two open-ended discussion questions that may serve as jumping off points for our in-class conversation. Don't bother with summarizing (we've all done the reading after all) and focus on engaging with ideas.

In terms of content, response papers offer you an opportunity to engage the readings by identifying common or conflicting premises, thinking through potential implications, offering political or cultural examples, posing well-supported objections, or outlining critical extensions. In my experience, the most thought provoking reflections go beyond pointing out things that one wonders about or finds interesting and explain why you find it interesting.
 
Turn in your response paper to Canvas by posting a new message in the appropriate day in [https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1353880/discussion_topics the course the discussion board].

I'd also like everybody read over everybody else's responses and respond to at least one person—evening things out so that not everybody response to one person would be nice, but use your judgement.

=== Research Project ===

As a demonstration of your learning in this course, you will design a plan for an internet research project and will, if possible, also collect (at least) an initial sample of a dataset that you will use to complete the project.

The genre of the paper you can produce can take one of the following three forms:

# A draft of a manuscript for submission to a conference or journal.
# A proposal for funding (e.g., for submission for the NSF for a graduate student fellowship).
# A draft of the methods chapter of your dissertation.

In any the three paths, I expect you take this opportunity to produce a document that will further your to academic career outside of the class.

==== Project Identification ====

;Due Date: January 24
;Maximum paper length: 800 words (~3 pages)
;Deliverables: Turn in [in the appropriate Canvas dropbox]

Early on, I want you to identify your final project. Your proposal should be short and can be either paragraphs or bullets. It should include the following things:

* The genre of the project and a short description of how it fits into your career trajectory.
* A one paragraph abstract of the proposed study and research question, theory, community, and/or groups you plan to study.
* A short description of the type of data you plan to collect as part of your final project.

==== Final Project ====

;Outline Due Date: February 23
;Maximum outline length: 2 pages
;Presentation Date: March 10
;Paper Due Date: March 20
;Maximum outline length: 8000 words (~27 pages)
;All Deliverables: Turn in in [https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/1353880/assignments the appropriate Canvas dropboxes]

Because the emphasis in this class is on methods and because I'm not an expert in each of your areas or fields, I'm happy to assume that your paper, proposal, or thesis chapter has already established the relevance and significance of your study and has a comprehensive literature review, well-grounded conceptual approach, and compelling reason why this research is so important. Instead of providing all of this details, instead feel free to start with a brief summary of the purpose and importance of this research, and an introduction of your research questions or hypotheses. If your provide more detail, that's fine, but I won't give you detailed feedback on this parts.

The final paper should include:

* a statement of the purpose, central focus, relevance and significance of this research;
* a description of the specific Internet application(s) and/or environment(s) and/or objects to be studied and employed in the research;
* key research questions or hypotheses;
* operationalization of key concepts;
* a description and rationale of the specific method(s), (if more than one method will be used, explain how the methods will produce complementary findings);
* a description of the step-by-step plan for data collection;
* description and rationale of the level(s), unit(s) and process of analysis (if more than one kind of data are generated, explain how each kind will be analyzed individually and/or comparatively);
* an explanation of how these analyses will enable you to answer the RQs
* a sample instrument (as appropriate);
* a sample dataset and description of a formative analysis you have completed;
* a description of actual or anticipated results and any potential problems with their interpretation;
* a plan for publishing/disseminating the findings from this research
* a summary of technical, ethical, human subjects and legal issues that may be encountered in this research, and how you will address them;
* a schedule (using specific dates) and proposed budget.

I also expect each student to begin data collection for your project (i.e., using the technical skills you learn in the class) and describe your progress in this regard this in your paper. If collecting data for a proposed project is impractical (e.g., because of IRB applications, funding, etc) I would love for you to engage in the collection of public dataset as part of a pilot or formative study. If this is not feasible or useful, we can discuss other options.

I have a strong preference for you to write this paper individually but I'm open to the idea that you may want to work with others in the class.

=== Participation ===

The course relies heavily on participation and discussion. It is important to realize that we will not summarize reading in class and I will not cover it in lecture. I expect you all to have read it and we will jump in and start discussing it. The "Participation Rubric" section of [[User:Benjamin Mako Hill/Assessment| my detailed page on assessment]] gives the rubric I will use in evaluating participation.

=== Assessment ===

I have put together a very detailed page that describes [[User:Benjamin Mako Hill/Assessment|the way I approach assessment and grading]]—both in general and in this course. Please read it carefully I will assign grades for each of following items on the UW 4.0 grade scale according to the weights below:

* Participation: 30%
* Weekly Reflection: 15%
* Proposal identification: 5%
* Final paper outline: 5%
* Final Presentation: 10%
* Final Paper: 35%