The purpose of assignments is to demonstrate progress toward the course’s learning goals. We identified many ways you could demonstrate your new knowledge, including

Weekly Blog Posts

We’ll be using Jekyll and GitHub pages to house public assignments. You may use an existing GitHub account or create one just for this class. You may use your real name or a pseudonym as long as you tell me which name is yours so I can identify your contributions for grading purposes. You should consider the public at large the audience for your blog posts. You are all authors on the same class blog which lives here.

Your blog posts should be posted every* Monday morning so that your classmates may read them before class. Blog posts may take many forms (e.g., videos, infographics, prose, a combination) but should address the week’s topic and assigned readings. You may find that blogging a critical analysis of the article(s) is an effective way to get started. Because we have decided that the public is the audience for these posts, you may also find it helpful to try explaining a method you are learning, including your own struggles to learn it, as a topic for a blog post. Here are a few example posts from pros:

You’ll notice in those examples that sometimes the blog post is actually a video that explains something, sometimes it’s a tutorial about how to use a tool, sometimes it’s a explanation of a researcher’s process. All of these are fair game for you as well. Think of your blog post as a container for an artifact that combines prose, video, images, links, etc. to demonstrate your new knowledge. Combining these media is one way to demonstrate your skills of appropriation, for instance. All blog posts demonstrate networking skills.

Schedule for Second Half Blog Posts

Date Topic
Oct 31 Your project’s argument
Nov 7 RQ, Argument, and data summary from one of the readings for the week
Nov 14 Project Update
Nov 21 RQ, Argument, and data summary from one of the readings for the week
Nov 28 Project Update
Dec 5 Semester Reflection

* Technically, it’s not every Monday because sometimes we don’t have class on Mondays. On those weeks, blog posts are due Wednesday morning before the “first” class of the week.

Class Discussions

We will practice and discuss many research methods together in class. You are expected to participate in these discussions and activities by respectfully talking with other students and connecting discussions to particular readings. Some discussions will require you to engage in performance or simulation, for instance, you may be asked to debate as if you disagree with yourself or to pretend to be someone else while attempting to solve a problem.

Course Reflection

At least one of your blog posts must be an end-of-semester reflection. The purpose of the course reflection is to give you an opportunity to make sense of the work you’ve done this term and to demonstrate that you have thoughtfully considered how the course material may or may not be useful to you in the future. Remember that blog posts are just containers and that the content can take many forms (e.g., prose essay, powerpoint deck, infographic, video, song).

Whatever form you choose, your reflection should explain how you understand some of the topics we covered in class or how you developed (or didn’t) core media literacy concepts outlined in the syllabus. The syllabus, website, and assignment notes are all good resources for lists of concepts we covered, learning goals for the course, and cultural competencies. You don’t need to explain every concept, learning goal, and competency, but you should address at least a few. I’m especially interested in competencies and concepts that were completely new or that you understand differently now. Use the whole semester; don’t just write about text analysis or video analysis.

Final Project

You will individually create an artifact/product (e.g., video, paper, website) that demonstrates your digital humanities research skills by explaining your particular research project. You should write about your ideas for your project on the blog early in the semester, post an update on your project progress midway through the semester, and post your artifact and commentary about it at the end of the semester.

You have two interim posts related to your final project - an idea blog post and an update blog post. The idea post must explain what research question(s) you will address and provide an overview of your work plan for creating the video. The update post must explain what work you have accomplished, what you have left to do, and what help you need to get it done.

Graduate Students

Students enrolled in COM 601 have a different final project requirement: you need to write a paper. Your paper must be a draft appropriate for submission to the journal or (archival) conference of your choice. Your research project will be a replication study. You must make an appointment during office hours in September to discuss possible studies to replicate.

Grading

On the first day of class, you and your classmates helped set the expectations for what characterizes A and B level work in this course. Here’s what you decided:

A Level Work

An A in this course indicates that at least 80% of the time, the student

  • formal or informal or somewhere in between - it’s up to you
  • the public is your audience, but make sure you at least tell them where they can read whatever you’re responding to
  • demonstrated originality in their comments
  • maintained focus throughout
  • explained how they arrived at their the conclusions (i.e., show your work!)
  • presented clearly written, organized commentary
  • provided work free from grammar and puncutation errors
  • consistently applied a citation standard (links are ok, your reference style should match your tone)
  • relate to the readings

B Level Work

A B in this course indicates that are least 70% of the time, the student produced work consistent with the standards outlined above. B work is also characterized by

  • writing appropriate for the class, rather than the public, as the audience for one’s work
  • good faith efforts at citing prior work
  • less focused discussions
  • relate to course topics

C or Lower Level Work

A body of work that does not meet the criteria for A or B outlined above will earn a grade of C or lower. Tardiness, disrespect, lack of focus, lack of clarity, and missing assignments are common reasons for these grades to be assigned.

Suggestions for blogging

Posts are often more interesting if you can make some connection or application to life outside our class.

Visual elements are also helpful (sometimes), e.g., pictures, videos, charts.

A Note on Academic Honesty

Work you submit must be your own. If you submit someone else’s work as your own, you will be expelled from the course, assigned a punitive failing grade of ‘E’, and will be reported to academichonesty@iit.edu. If you need help documenting sources appropriately, please visit the Writing Center (Siegel Hall 232-233). Refer to the Code of Academic Honesty in the Student Handbook if you have questions.