Students’ work will be assessed as follows:

Term paper(s) / project(s)	70%
Class presentations	20%
Participation	10%

  

1. Term paper(s) / project(s) (contributing 70% of assessment)

By Wednesday, February 1st (third class) students will choose whether they wish to do:

one term paper or project, 25-30 pages in length (or equivalent) and submitted electronically to daniel.greenstein (a t) ucop.edu by 5pm on Friday, May 5, 2006

OR

two term papers or projects, each 12-15 pages in length (or equivalent) and submitted electronically to daniel.greenstein (a t) ucop.edu respectively by 5pm on Friday, March 10, 2006 and 5pm on Friday, May 5, 2006

Term papers and projects will be selected from the list of assignments that is supplied.

Term papers will be based upon review of a relevant and current literature. They may also include original research, for example, as may be available in some aspect of assessment (of users’ needs, information resources or services, evaluation of current events, trends, news, and credible web-based discussions and postings).

Practical work will be technically oriented and submitted with a clearly written statement explaining the approach taken to the assigned problem, why that approach was taken, as well as results achieved (strengths, weaknesses, areas for future work). The statement will be submitted with documented code, and/or any functional and technical requirements statements or specifications that have been produced in the course of the work.

For both term papers and projects, emphasis will be given in assessment to originality, creativity, clarity, and thoughtfulness.

Work may be submitted electronically in an appropriate format that may be rendered easily on the screen via readily accessible desktop software and where appropriate, on paper (e.g. as a Word file).

2. Class presentations (contributing 20% of assessment)

Each student will present twice to the seminar: once on a term paper or project they are preparing, and once on an issue of their choice that relates somehow to “After Google What?”.

Presentation on term paper or project. Two full seminars have been reserved for students to gain input from colleagues about the approaches they have chosen to their term paper or project. Twenty (20) minutes will be available to each student (depending on class-size) and students will be left to determine the balance between presentation and discussion. In their presentations students will introduce the term paper / project they have chosen and focus on the approach they are taking to address it. Students should use the opportunity to gain input from colleagues that may guide and enhance their work

Student-led discussion.  Every Wednesday beginning on January 25 (second class), we will spend 20 or 30 minutes discussing an issue introduced by a student with a brief (5-10 minute) presentation.

Students may introduce any issue they choose so long as it relates somehow to an aspect of “After Google What?”. Students should feel free, in this regard, to pick up on some item “in the news”, on an issue they are engaging with in another SIMS class, on a theme they are encountering in the AGW seminar, or on a topic they are grappling with in a some independent or group-based project they are conducting.

On the Monday preceding their presentations, students should use the class listserv to describe the issue they will be introducing (a title and a sentence or two), pointing to any useful background information that might be useful for colleagues.

In the assessment of presentations, emphasis will be on creativity and clarity, as well as on facility engaging and encouraging lively, constructive, and collegial discussion and debate.

3. Participation (contributing 10% of assessment)

Ten percent of the students’ assessment will be based on participation in seminar discussions (both in class and via the blog). Emphasis will be placed on originality, thoughtfulness, preparedness, and facility encouraging and engaging constructive and collegial discussion and debate