A major part of this course is projects, generally group projects, though they can be individual. You will get more details but in your project you will apply at least three of the methods covered in this course to a hypothetical or (preferably) a real world system, service, or product either in existence or under design or development.
Projects for this course may be combined with projects in other courses. For example, when this course was taught in the spring, often one or more members of a final project team would be taking this course and would be responsible for needs assessment and/or evaluation for the larger project. Many iSchool courses (and others on campus) require design projects of some sort; many (but not all) of those projects would be suitable for combination with your 214 project.
If you wish to combine your I214 project with one for another course, you must:
This is, of course, not a way to do less work across two courses; but it can be an excellent way to do a more comprehensive project, and to integrate what you're learning. It's also often beneficial for the students on the project who are not in 214, who learn about some of the content of 214 through you.
Students are free to develop their own projects, but we also have had contact with some groups that have a need for assistance from the kinds of projects that we do in this course.
Engineering Pathway is a major NSF-funded project of the UC and other organizations aimed at creating access to high-quality teaching and learning resources in engineering for both K-12 and university level education. More details about current plans and the possibilities for a 214 project will be posted. This is an opportunity to be involved in a real project with real-world effects. It's particularly appropriate for students with a background in engineering, but others are welcome as well. The plan is to put together a group of IS214 students to work on user needs and evaluation. There are likely to be 2 to 3 possible projects related to this:
A UCB web accessibility group meets regularly to help improve the accessibility of campus web resources. This is a passionately committed group, engaged in a variety of activities. They have asked if we would be interested in working with them. There are a variety of possibilities that would make good projects. Appropriate for anyone with an interest in learning more about web accessibility, and in making a difference here on campus.
A group of iSchool students did a final project last spring called Delphi aimed at developing a web-based browser for access to the Hearst Museum's collection and improving the collection's visibility. A member of last year's project team who took 214 suggested that continuing this work would make a good 214 project. The museum staff is enthusiastic about continuing this project; they have been working on web-based access as a high priority. We will consult further with them about what they need and what's possible.
A project on campus is interested in assessing public attitudes toward RFID chips in such items as public transit passes. More details soon.
The UCB Library, specifically, the Web Advisory Group (WAG), is embarking on a project to redesign our Website. We are just in the beginning planning stages for this redesign. One thing on our Agenda is a "usability study".
We would like to make the Library website:
One of the challenges of this redesign is comming up with an interface that will work for our "users", which range from the very naive (incoming Freshman undergraduate, who has never used a library before) to the most advanced researcher.
Mari Miller