Assignments

You'll ANALYZE and REFLECT on social computing systems and techniques.

Tips & Info

What do I do?

There will be a set of assignments that will be announced as the course progresses, in which you'll:

Social computing hall of fame / shame
Become a crowd worker.
Survey & Analyze existing crowdsourcing & social computing systems.

Why do this?

Hands-on exercises, analysis, and reflection are a fun and effective way to learn.

How do I submit?

We'll create an assignment in KLMS for each assignment.

Late Policy

You'll lose 10% for each late day. Submissions will be accepted until three days after the deadline. After then you'll get 0 on that assignment.

Social Computing HOFS

Assignment 1: Social Computing Hall of Fame and Shame

Due: 11:59pm on 10/11 (Thu)

5% toward your project grade

What do I do?

In this assignment, you will analyze two example features of social computing around you, one that you think has good support for social interaction and one that you think has bad support. Examples can come from any applications or websites you have used or visited. Make sure to avoid analyzing the entire service or app, but focus on particular parts of the interface that you think have noteworthy social interaction support. For example, you should avoid analyzing Facebook as a whole but you may pick its emoji reactions for live video. Also, most features designed to support social interaction will have good and bad aspects at the same time, so feel free to cover both sides in your analysis. But for each example, make your final decision about whether it's a good (hall of fame) or bad (hall of shame) example overall.

Why do I do this?

We designed this assignment to give you an opportunity to (1) make observations on various social computing systems around you, and (2) apply the concepts covered in class to analyze real-world examples.

Your report

For each example, please report the following:

Hall of fame or shame?
One-line description of what it is
Where can it be found? (e.g., URL, name of the app) Provide additional information if needed (e.g., go to xxx menu in the app to access the feature)
Analysis: How does it support (or hamper) social interaction? How do you use it? What benefit does it provide when lots of people use it?
Reflection: In what ways might this feature be abused (e.g., trolling, harassment, giving misleading information)? What does it do to prevent abusing, if any? How might you redesign it to address these negative impacts?
Screenshots and photos to effectively support your analysis

For each example, you have a hard limit of maximum 250 words. But you may use as many screenshots and photos as you want. One-sentence captions are allowed for each visual material, and they are not counted toward the word limit.

Grading

Completeness (20%): Cover all the required components listed above in your report.
Depth (20%): Include thoughtful analysis beyond surface level observations.
Clarity (20%): The reader who sees the example for the first time should not struggle to understand your points.
Visual Communication (20%): Use visual materials effectively to communicate your idea. Add annotations and labels to refer to specific elements in an image. Include zoom-in images if needed. Make sure your text and accompanying visuals complement each other.
Conciseness (20%): Adhere to the word limit, and avoid being verbose in the description.

Please make sure to read the academic integrity and collaboration policy of this course carefully.

How do I submit?

Make a single PDF file of your report and submit via KLMS.