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Information Science Capstone Syllabus

What is INLS697-003 all about?

To quote from the UNC Catalog course descriptions, this course is about:

Senior standing required.
Information science major or minor.
Contemporary topics of information science, information systems, information technology, information design, and information management.
Assessment of future impact of new developments.

But what does that mean?

 Senior standing required.

 Information science major or minor.

Contemporary topics of information science, information systems, information technology, information design, and information management 

Assessment of future impact of new developments 

Rather than have me decide what we will talk about, looking back to contemporary topics, ...

we will decide as a group in the first several class sessions about what we want to talk about, and about the methodology we will use to talk about those topics.

Rather than have me decide what we will talk about, looking forward to new developments ...

we will decide as a group in the first several class sessions about what we want to talk about, and about the methodology we will use to talk about such future issues.

Special mention

readings

There are no assigned textbooks,

... but we may read a lot, and we may wish to save many of the readings to your personal professional reading collection.

Readings will not be for memorizing things, but rather to frame your thinking for the session to come. Read them, think about them, and, where useful, comment on them in the Canvas discussions.

We will have a three level plan for readings

  1. something about the topic of the day, easy to digest, perhaps in a visual form
  2. something to think about, relevant to the topic under consideration
  3. articles or book sections that are about research on the topic, research we might not talk about in class, but that might be worth your individual exploration

We will also have a daily video that may broaden our horizons.

How will we find the readings?

Readings will be made available electronically, through the class schedule and the specific session pages.

Evaluation

The several tasks for this class are each worth the following percentages

Value Added

25% of your course grade will be based upon the value you add to your colleagues' class experience. The value you add to your peers' experience in this class is based on three things:

  1. Attendance - You are expected to attend all classes. You should be ready to start at 1325. If you need to miss a class, let me know so we can expect that you won't be with us.
  2. Deportment - Be courteous to your classmates. Use your information tools to support current course activities only. Pay attention. Try not to pursue other interests during the class session.
  3. General Participation - which means being prepared for class, making observations about the readings, asking questions, actively working on in-class exercises and actively listening, writing at least one forum posting every two weeks, and commenting on a colleague's forum posting at least once during the semester. Everyone will get the chance to participate.

Leading a discussion

50% of your course grade will come from two sessions that you will lead during the semester.

  1. 25% of your course grade will come from your opportunity to lead the class in a discussion of one of four possible Monday topics
    1. An article about pondering the world we live in
    2. An article about the book Cybernetics, by Norbert Weiner, or a chapter from that book
    3. An article about a current topic from The Economist
    4. Something else
  2. 25% of your course grade will come from a presentation you give to the class about your academic path and about what you offer to the world

There will be a final deliverable worth 25% of your grade.

It will be a portfolio presentation you create, one that you would be confident and proud to send to a potential employer

But what kind of standard will be applied?

Subjective assessment draws upon the instructor's professionally developed awareness of quality in academic or other work. This may be essential for assessing with validity, because some outcomes require sensitivity to context and thus cannot be assessed in a fixed way across contexts. Objective assessment, in contrast, relies on quantitative scales that could apply to description of student work or performance. [IUPUI]

Therefore, grading the evaluation components for INLS697-003 is necessarily a subjective effort and a grade will generally mean the descriptors in the table below.

Your grades will be calculated using numbers for points, which will translate into letter grades according to this standard.

points what it means grade
94 > Mastery of course content at the highest level of attainment that can reasonably be expected A
90-94
87-90
84-87
80-84		 A totally acceptable performance
demonstrating an adequate level of attainment		 A-
B+
B
B-
77-80
74-77
70-74
67-70
64-67
61-64		 A marginal performance in the required exercises
demonstrating a minimal passing level		 C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
< 60 For whatever reasons, an unacceptable performance F
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