Spring 2006 Syllabus

Instructional Staff

Instructor TA
David McDonald
Office: MGH 330A
Phone: (206) 543-6429
Email: dwmc@u.washington.edu
  Office Hours: by appointment
     
Pedja Klasnja
Email: klasnja@u.washington.edu
  Office Hours: Thursday 9:30am - 1:20pm
    And by appointment

Course Meetings

Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30-4:20 in MGH 228

Description

The course focuses on the design and use of collaborative technologies to communicate, share information and coordinate activities. Emphasis will be split between social aspects of adopting and using collaborative technologies and technical infrastructure to enable collaborative applications. The course will include a discipline overview and history as well as a range of selected topics. Several topics that are associated with CSCW include:

  • Awareness Tools & Work Practice Studies
  • Mobile & Distributed Work
  • Video Conferencing & Media Spaces
  • Workflow Systems
  • Text Communications: Email, DLs, IM
  • Recommender Systems
  • Group Writing/Editing
  • TeamRooms & Virtual Workspaces
  • Group Decision Support Systems
  • Shared Information Spaces
  • On-line Communities
  • Theories: Situated Action, Activity Theory, Distributed Cognition
  • Ethnography and Design

Only a few of these can actually be covered by this course. You might consider those not covered as possible places for in-depth work or a project.

Academic Honesty

Academic honesty can be confusing. As a community of scholars we hold to a set of standards about our academic conduct. Please take a look at the UW policy on academic honesty http://depts.washington.edu/grading/issue1/honesty.htm and make sure you understand these standards and norms. If you have questions the Instructor or TA will gladly work to clarify any aspects.

Grading

The grading for the course is made up of written and verbal participation in the course, examinations, labs and projects. The breakdown of the components for grading depend on whether the course participant is taking the course at the graduate or undergraduate level.

Undergrad Participants     Graduate Participants  
Discussion Participation 10%   Discussion Participation 10%
Weekly Reviews 30%   Weekly Reviews 20%
Lab Assignment(s) 10%   Lab Assignment(s) 10%
Mid-Term 20%   Mid-Term 20%
Final Exam 30%   Project 40%

 

Discussion Participation

The course is primarily organized around reading and discussion. It is imperative that students read the assigned readings before class so that they can participate in the discussions. The thoughtfulness of a contribution is as (or more) important than the overall quantity of contributions.

Weekly Reviews

All students will submit 2 weekly reading reviews. Each review should be no more than one single spaced page of 12 point Times (or equivalent) text. A single review should be focused on one of the readings; but a good review will probably compare the reviewed literature to other related literature –(e.g., the weekly readings that you choose not to review are probably related). Each review should include: a) a brief overview of the main point(s) in the paper, b) the significance of the contribution and, c) personal interpretation or reflection (Did you like it? Did you agree with the findings? etcetera).

Lastly, each review should include a numeric score – a rating – on a scale of 1 to 5 following this scale:

  1. Remove this reading from the course syllabus, worthless mud
  2. Candidate for removal, gravel
  3. Could go either way, maybe keep, maybe remove, can’t quite tell
  4. Should probably stay on the syllabus, semi-precious
  5. Keep this reading on the syllabus, a real gem, diamond

Weekly reviews are designed to encourage you to complete all the readings. I will note here that the exams assume that you have complete all readings. Thus, you can do the readings each week and participate in class, or you'll be doing the reading to write your exam. Reviews are due at the start of class on Tuesday the week the reading is assigned. Reviews begin with the second week of readings.

Lab Assignments

Lab assignments are small excercises that you will perform outside of class. The idea of a lab assignment is to allow you to experience some type of groupware or become more familiar with some long standing CSCW problem. Lab assignments will generally be 'group' assignments and will require a single (group) submission. Assignment date and due date for lab assignments will be clearly noted in class, and on the assignment handout.

Mid-Term Exam

The mid-term exam will be a take home exam. It will be handed out Thursday April 27th(Week 5) and will be due Tuesday May 2nd at the beginning of class. Late exams will not be accepted unless prior arrangements have been made with the instructor.

Final Exam (Undergraduate Participants only)

The final exam will be a take home exam. It will be handed out the last Thursday of class, June 1st (Week 10), and will be due Tuesday June 6th by Noon. Late exams will not be accepted unless prior arrangements have been made with the instructor.

Project (Graduate Participants only)

Students taking the class for graduate level credit will be expected to complete all reading assignments, weekly reviews and participate in class discussions. Students at the graduate level will be expected to complete a significant, publishable or near publishable quality research project. The research project can be an ethnographic study, systems development, or a literature survey that brings together some relevant set of CSCW and affiliated research. If you are having a hard time thinking of a good research project, talk with the instructor after class or make an appointment. Often there are natural extensions to existing research projects that would make them appropriate for a CSCW type exploration.

The research project must be approved by the instructor. Approval will be made through a short capsule description of the proposed project. This should describe the scope of proposed work, a possible research question, and a few pieces of related literature. Successfully completing a project in 10 weeks is often a matter of scheduling and time management. The prototypical schedule for a project, below, might help you think about how to organize your project.

Possible Time Line  
Capsule Description Week 2 (4/4 or 4/6)
Initial Research/Fieldwork/Development Week 3 - Week 7
Draft/Follow-up Research Week 8 - Week 9
Final Draft Finals Week (Tuesday June 6th)

All projects are due Tuesday June 6th by Noon. Late projects will not be accepted unless prior arrangements have been made with the instructor.

Reading Schedule

The readings are listed on the page for each week of the quarter. Many of the readings are available as PDF. Readings will be ready at least one week in advance of the weekly write-up due date.