Graded Activity
attendance and participation: 10%
weekly discussion questions: 5%
response writings: 25% (5x5%)
final project proposal: 5%
Zotero bibliography: 5%
in-class presentation & discussion leading: 10%
final project: 25%
final project write-up: 10%
final project presentation: 5 %
Grading Rubric
A = 4.0 (94-100) A- = 3.7 (90-93)
B+ = 3.3 (87-89) B = 3.0 (84-86) B- = 2.7 (80-83)
C+ = 2.3 (77-79) C = 2.0 (73-76) C- = 1.7 (70-72)
D+ = 1.3 (67-69) D = 1.0 (60-66)
F = 0.0 (0-59)
Attendance&Participation
I expect everyone to actively participate in class discussions. This is a discussion-based, seminar-style course and simply showing up counts for little. Your contributions to discussions are an important way to show me that you are engaged with the course topic and class content in general. Class discussion is also your chance to bring up relevant issues you think are important.
Participation in discussions is an important oral communication skill that we will be practicing over the course of the semester. If you are not comfortable jumping into the conversation, please schedule a meeting with me to talk about how we can make it easier and less anxiety-inducing for you. To make sure that the discussion is not monopolized by the most outgoing students, I might call on people who tend to speak up less often. This is to ensure the diversity of opinions as well as to give everyone a chance to practice their communication skills. Be prepared to contribute!
Discussion participation will be graded* based on the following rubric:
9-10 points: Student’s comments show that they have prepared the assigned material by clarifying and articulating the main ideas and arguments expressed in the material and comparing them when relevant. Student’s comments and questions are frequent and often affect the direction of the discussion.
7-8: Student’s comments show that they have engaged with the assigned material. Student’s comments and questions are occasional and sometimes affect the direction of the class discussion.
5-6: Student’s comments and questions sometimes show that they have completed some of the assigned reading. Student’s comments are infrequent and rarely affect the direction of the class discussion.
3-4: Student attends class regularly but does not participate in the discussion.
1-2: Student arrives at class late without excuse and/or actively obstructs class discussion.
*I will be sharing a self-evaluation form for discussion participation in order to give you a weekly opportunity for self-assessment and reflection. While filling out this form does not contribute towards your final grade, I encourage everyone to do so as I will be reading them regularly and will take your self-assessments into account when finalizing your grades.
Punctuality and Absences
This is a discussion-based class that depends on the active engagement of each class member. Each unexcused absence will result in your final grade dropping one point, i.e. from A to A-, or from B- to C+. Excused absences include documented illnesses and emergencies (e.g. injury or death in the family); unexcused absences include oversleeping, extra-curricular activities, and non-emergency-related travel. More than three unexcused absences will result in your failing the class.
Likewise, active engagement is impossible if you don’t show up on time. If you are going to be late for some necessary reason, please let me know via email or in the chat beforehand. I will be taking note of late arrivals; tardiness on a regular basis will negatively affect your participation grade.
Weekly Discussion Questions
On weeks 2 through 10, before each meeting you will submit 2 informed discussion questions via Google Chat (see details here: Chat ) on that meeting's topic and assigned material. The discussion questions can either address a content-related point you encountered in the course material or can present a topic (in question form) that you would like to discuss in class.
Discussion questions are due Mondays and Wednesdays, 5 pm. If you post your questions on time, you will receive full marks. If you fail to do so, you will receive 0 points for that particular day. If your discussion questions are consistently superficial and do not indicate any meaningful engagement with the assigned material and the course content, I may choose to adjust the 'weekly discussion questions' portion of your final grade accordingly.
If you have a legitimate excuse for not submitting your questions on time, please reach out to me. Otherwise, late submission will not be accepted.
In-class presentation&Discussion Leading
On the dates identified in the course schedule, two students will prepare a collaborative, 15-20 mins presentation and lead the discussion on the topic, tools, and readings of the week, situating them within the broader themes of the course. (You may also choose to address some of the questions submitted by your classmates for that week.) I also expect the presenters to identify and provide definitions of the key terminology for the week and, where relevant, point out specific examples and cases of the question(s) at hand.
In-class presentation assignments will give you an opportunity to practice your academic communication and collaboration skills.
Response Writings
On the weeks identified in the syllabus, you will choose one (or more) of the tools & platforms & methodologies covered in that section of the course and experiment with them hands-on. You will then produce a short (500 to 750 words) reflection, providing a brief evaluation of your experience with and critical analysis of that platform/tool/methodology. Your writing will also demonstrate that you have completed and absorbed that week's reading&podcast assignments by referring to the concepts and ideas covered in that material.
The main goals of the response writings are to provide you opportunities:
1) to practice your written communication skills
2) to demonstrate the growth and maturation of your thinking over the course of the semester by discussing the broader themes of the class and the ideas and concepts discussed in the previous weeks
3) to create your own archive of this course and your work
While I will be providing brief prompts or questions for each assignment, they are meant to be very general pointers. I encourage you to produce creative writings in blog post format, addressing a non-specialized but informed audience. The due date of each writing assignment is clearly marked on the Schedule. No late submission will be accepted without a documented excuse.
Here is the rubric for the response writing assignments
Final Project Proposal
500- 750 words proposal that identifies:
1) your topic and the platform you will be using
2) your rationale for choosing this particular topic and platform
3) your approach and the argument(s) you expect to be able to make in your project
Zotero Bibliography
You will use Zotero to create a bibliography with at least five entries that you (expect to) use in your final project and final project write-up. The first iteration of the bibliography is due on the same date as the final project proposal and should have at least three entries.
Final Project Presentation
In-class presentation of the near-finished version of the project. The purpose of the in-class presentation is to receive feedback from the instructor and classmates to improve the work before the final submission deadline.
Final Project
For the final assignment, you will have the option to:
curate an Omeka exhibit about a topic of your choice by using either open-access, publically available or personally created text&visual material&matadata
OR
create a machine-readable corpus on a topic of your choice by extracting text from one of the open digital archives/libraries we study in class. You will then visualize&analyze the corpus for a distant reading question you formulate.
In both options, students are required to produce a write-up for their project. (See below)
You are welcome to collaborate with a classmate for the final project; however, each student will need to produce their individual write-up.
Final Project Write-Up
750-1000 words write-up on the final project. The write-up will address the experience of researching and preparing the project and will include a critical reflection on the digital tools&platforms utilized in the work while also addressing relevant issues&questions we will have discussed over the course of the semester.