Students will be evaluated on the following class requirements:

20% A specialized subject guide, such as those produced by www.about.com, compiled on a particular topic from our class.

Visit www.about.com and click on a subject until you get to some of the "personal guide pages." On those pages, the guide organizes about 5-6 important sites on a subject, with a link and some brief descriptions of each. It is like a web annotated bibliography.

I'd like you to use that format to compile a subject guide on a topic from our class. By that I mean, you can look down our syllabus, or the list below, and find something that interests you.

Perhaps you can describe 5-6 sites on Government Research or Search Engines or Privacy or Public Records or Online Databases. You can suggest other topics too.

You want to find 5-6 web sites on your topic and write a paragraph of description on each.

You can write it as a Word document of one page or so, or an HTML document, if you are skilled in that kind of thing. You should have at least five sites, more for a better grade. Due 7 p.m., Thursday, May 30. Possible subjects include:

• search strategies
• search engines
• subject directories
• government documents online
• public records online
• online health information
• online business information
• newsgroups and listservs

20% Research essay on a social or political issue raised by Internet research. The paper, 10 double-spaced pages, should be a well-documented work, with traditional and online sources. It should include a full bibliography. Due 7 p.m., Thursday, June 13. Possible topics include:

• censorship
• access
• copyright
• confidentiality
• privacy
• fair use
• plagiarism
• government surveillance
• online medical records
• identity fraud
• children and the Internet
• workplace privacy
• libel and service providers
• library filters
• electronic commerce
• disability
• gender issues
• education
• information poverty
• intellectual property rights
  

20% End of semester, research project on a company, person, place, school or other subject. The paper should be about 10 double-spaced pages including footnotes, with two additional, 1-page research appendices described below. Due the last day of Summer Session I classes, 7 p.m., Thursday, June 27.

Your subject can be any of interest to you: a company you're interested in working for; a graduate school you'll be attending; a person or topic in the news.

The purpose is to put your Internet research skills to work. You should do your research using as many of your class skills as you can -- compose a research strategy; draw upon search engines, subject directories, public records, specialized tools, online databases, listservs, and finally evaluate your research sources.

Your first Appendix, about one page, should describe your research strategy. Drawing upon research terms and strategies discussed in the early part of the course, outline how you went about the research for your paper.

Your second Appendix, also about one page, should evaluate the top four sources for your paper, using the SCOPE evaluation standards established in our class.

Example: You are working for Dell Computers next fall. You do some research and write a ten-page paper about the company -- its history, current status and future. At the end, provide the 1-page appendix of your research strategy and the 1-page appendix evaluating your top 4 sources for the paper.

30%:  Postings and responses to our online discussion site. As in any college seminar, your contributions each week will be judged on their quantity and quality. 

You will get the highest grade for posting thoughtful responses to the readings early for each assignment and then returning to the conference to discuss points made by a classmate. You should be contributing at least four times each week.

10%:  Email responses to me addressing questions based on the readings. Questions will be assigned with each assigment.

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