Course Participation
Course participation will occur primarily through class discussions, the course instance of Slack, and commenting on each others’ blog posts (see below).
B-level course participation will consist of attending classes; actively discussing readings and technical assignments in class or each module’s Slack channel; seeking technical support in the #tech-support Slack channel; and commenting on at least 18 blog posts during the semester.
A-level course participation will consist of all of the above, along with actively participating in classes; bringing outside readings and knowledge into Slack; working with classmates to problem-solve in the #tech-support Slack channel; and commenting on at least 30 blog posts during the semester.
Blog Posts
Students will write weekly blog posts (ca. 500-1000 words) reflecting on the previous week’s readings, discussion, and technical assignments. These will be due every Thursday night.
Students will then have until Sunday night to comment on other students’ blog posts.
Course Modules
Modules are listed in the course schedule and marked as required or optional. A module corresponds to ~1 week of work.
Course Projects
Course projects will be done in small teams. If you would like, I will set you up with access to a Basecamp instance to help with your project management (scheduling meetings, tracking to-dos, document sharing, check-ins, etc.) and I may be able to supply Basecamp integrations with other software (e.g. GitHub) on request.
Course projects have 5 elements that are due throughout the semester; the first 4 are group work, the project reflection paper will be your individual thoughts on your experiences during the project.
1. Project Environmental Survey – due 10/7
2. Project Work Plan – due 10/21
3. Project Presentation – due 11/25 or 12/2
4. Final Project – due 12/9
5. Project Reflection Paper – due on the University-scheduled final exam date (TBD)
Your final projects will be assessed on a combination of effort, process, and self-reflective writing. In other words: don’t be afraid of breaking things and failing to accomplish a specific technical task as long as you work hard, can explain what you’ve done, and learn something new along the way. See, for example, Quinn Dombrowski, “Whatever Happened to Project Bamboo?” or Shawn Graham, Failing Gloriously and Other Essays.