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Grading |
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Grading |
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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 7-8 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. You can describe 7-8 sites on Government Research or Search Engines or Privacy or Public Records or Online Databases. You can suggest other topics too. For a passing grade, you want to find 7-8 web sites on your topic and write a paragraph of description on each. Your description should be longer than the About samples. Strive for 5-8 sentences on each. For a superior grade, describe more sites on your topic. You will be an Internet research expert in this area! You can write it as a Word document or an HTML document with links, if you are skilled in that kind of thing. You should have at least 7-8 sites, more for a better grade. Due date will be posted on our schedule. Possible subjects include:
Here's an example of a site description provided by a student: Topic: ONLINE BUSINESS INFORMATION Site: PRIMEDIA BUSINESS MAGAZINES http://www.primediabusiness.com/ This Web site is very sophisticated in providing online business information and contains much updated information related to the business and markets in the United States. It is created by the Primedia media company with the objective of connecting sellers to buyers. The web site has categorized information according to industry. Many links to different industries can be found. Those links provide information of any type related to the industry selected as well as possible business analyses describing the market situation. Other links provide more current events and related topics of interest appear. One of the main objectives of the site is to assist visitors in reaching target markets and providing information on that subject. 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 date will be posted on our schedule. Possible topics include:
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. 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. Use research terms and strategies discussed in the early part of the course and 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: Suppose you want to work for Dell Computers when you graduate. 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. Discussion forums are held over a 3-4 day period, usually Monday to Thursday. You will get the highest grade for posting thoughtful responses to the readings early for each assignment and then returning to the conference over the 3-4 day period to discuss points made by a classmate. You should be contributing at least four times to each Forum. For example, for a Forum that starts Monday: To get a solid B grade for your conference discussion, you would post four times over the next three days. You would write once or twice early, on Monday or Tuesday, responding to the assignment and making reference to the readings. Then during Wednesday and Thursday, you would post twice more, commenting on one or more of your classmates' postings. If you do less than that, your grade ultimately will suffer. To get an A, you should be contributing and commenting more frequently. You should be reading and responding regularly to classmates. Some people write 5-10 comments per assignment. This is an online seminar. An ongoing, thoughtful dialogue is our main goal. You should know: The bulletin board software keeps track of when you visit the site, how many postings you read and how much time you spend reading and writing on the site. You will always get credit for your work. If you do this well, we will have an in-depth, wide-ranging discussion of the issues. Indeed, I have found written conference discussions to be much more thoughtful and thorough than similar "in-class" talks. 10%: Email responses to me addressing questions based on the readings. Questions will be assigned with each assigment. |