CICS 305: Social Issues in Computing – Fall 2020 Syllabus

Michelle Trim (Email is the best way to reach me. Allow 24 hours for a response.)

Office Hours via Zoom: Tuesday 10:00AM-11AM (other times listed on Blackboard)

Other times by advance appointment

All times listed in this syllabus are in UMass Amherst time, the Eastern Time Zone.

Course Information: Satisfies the Junior Year Writing requirement. The impact of computers on modern society.

Prerequisites: Informatics or CMPSCI major; ENGLWRIT 112 or equivalent.

Detailed Course Description: This class satisfies the Junior Year Writing requirement by providing instruction

in several different technical communication genres, research writing, and academic writing. Writing

opportunities will take many forms, including writing for electronic environments, collaborative writing, and

public writing. Through our writing, we will carefully analyze texts representing a range of disciplinary

perspectives, levels of technological adoption (or adaptation), and civic engagement. Overall, this analysis will

explore various impacts of computers on modern society. Students will produce approximately 20-25 pages of

polished written work over the course of the semester.

Required: Regular access to the internet and to a device that facilitates reading online. Should you have

connectivity or technological difficulties this semester, please be in contact with your instructor ASAP. The

Purdue OWL will be referenced in lieu of a handbook for this course: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl /

Additional writing help can be found here: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/esl/resources/

https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/

Assignments and Grading:All major assignments and the extra credit will be submitted via Blackboard and all

feedback and grades will also be communicated via Blackboard. In general, assignments will be graded in the

order that they were submitted. Feedback will not be posted prior to the due date, but students may submit an

assignment as early as they wish.

I want you to be successful in this course, so if you cannot access or cannot find my feedback, notify me

immediately. Revisions will be a normal part of our class as you will revise your work after each peer review.

Revisions will also be accepted for revised grades after my feedback has been posted for the first four unit

projects. These revisions must be submitted by the dates posted in the course calendar, and they MUST be

accompanied by a list of changes to be eligible to receive credit. This list can be in paragraph form or bulleted

form, and this required list of changes may be uploaded as a separate document or attached to your existing

submission on the first or last page.

Grading scale is as follows: F = <64; D= 64-66, D+ = 67-69; C- = 70-73, C = 74-76, C+ = 77-79; B- = 80-83; B =

84-86, B+ = 87-89; A- = 90-93, A= >93.49

Assignment categories and their respective weights are as follows:

● Discussion Board– 20%. You will post an initial response to the discussion board at the beginning of

each unit, then you must post responses to two classmates’ posts between Wed 11:59pm EST and Sat

Partial preview of the text

Download CICS 305: Social Issues in Computing – Fall 2020 Syllabus and more Study notes Introduction to Computing in PDF only on Docsity!

CICS 305: Social Issues in Computing – Fall 2020 Syllabus Michelle Trim (Email is the best way to reach me. Allow 24 hours for a response.) Office Hours via Zoom: Tuesday 10:00AM-11AM (other times listed on Blackboard) Other times by advance appointment All times listed in this syllabus are in UMass Amherst time, the Eastern Time Zone. Course Information : Satisfies the Junior Year Writing requirement. The impact of computers on modern society. Prerequisites: Informatics or CMPSCI major; ENGLWRIT 112 or equivalent. Detailed Course Description: This class satisfies the Junior Year Writing requirement by providing instruction in several different technical communication genres, research writing, and academic writing. Writing opportunities will take many forms, including writing for electronic environments, collaborative writing, and public writing. Through our writing, we will carefully analyze texts representing a range of disciplinary perspectives, levels of technological adoption (or adaptation), and civic engagement. Overall, this analysis will explore various impacts of computers on modern society. Students will produce approximately 20-25 pages of polished written work over the course of the semester. Required : Regular access to the internet and to a device that facilitates reading online. Should you have connectivity or technological difficulties this semester, please be in contact with your instructor ASAP. The Purdue OWL will be referenced in lieu of a handbook for this course: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl / Additional writing help can be found here: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/esl/resources/ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/ Assignments and Grading: All major assignments and the extra credit will be submitted via Blackboard and all feedback and grades will also be communicated via Blackboard. In general, assignments will be graded in the order that they were submitted. Feedback will not be posted prior to the due date, but students may submit an assignment as early as they wish. I want you to be successful in this course, so if you cannot access or cannot find my feedback, notify me immediately. Revisions will be a normal part of our class as you will revise your work after each peer review. Revisions will also be accepted for revised grades after my feedback has been posted for the first four unit projects. These revisions must be submitted by the dates posted in the course calendar, and they MUST be accompanied by a list of changes to be eligible to receive credit. This list can be in paragraph form or bulleted form, and this required list of changes may be uploaded as a separate document or attached to your existing submission on the first or last page. Grading scale is as follows: F = <64; D= 64-66, D+ = 67-69; C- = 70-73, C = 74-76, C+ = 77-79; B- = 80-83; B = 84 - 86, B+ = 87-89; A- = 90-93, A= >93. Assignment categories and their respective weights are as follows: ● Discussion Board – 20%. You will post an initial response to the discussion board at the beginning of each unit, then you must post responses to two classmates’ posts between Wed 11:59pm EST and Sat

11:59pm EST. For full credit for any week’s discussion assignment, all three posts (initial + 2 responses) must be completed. ● Presentations - 10 %. There will be at least two presentations this semester. Assignments for presentations are located in the units where they are assigned. Presentations can be made using Zoom. For more details, see the presentation assignment. ● Jobs Unit – 15%. This unit consists of a resume and a cover letter, and the job advertisement being targeted by those materials.. ● Special topics papers – 45 %. You will write four different types of writing projects this semester related to topics discussed on Blackboard. The grades for the four projects together will comprise this grade item. ● Course Reflection – 10 %. Instead of a final exam, you will write a reflection on your learning in this class or on your journey in your major. Asynchronous Course Setup: The weeks of the semester are divided into five (5) Units, which you will see is organized in Blackboard under the tab labeled “Writing Project Units” on the left-hand side bar of your Blackboard main page. You will see each unit divided into calendar weeks. Each week’s content will appear Monday of that week. All due dates are on the same day of the week for the following items: Discussions: ● Initial posts will be due by 11:59pm EST Wednesdays. ● Responses to classmates’ posts will be due by 11:59pm on Saturdays. Peer Review: ● In weeks 2,4,7,10, there will be peer review. ● Drafts for peer review should be uploaded to the designated group portal on Thursday by 11:59pm EST and reviews of your peers’ drafts should be uploaded to that portal by Saturday at 11:59pm EST. Projects: ● All writing projects will be due on Mondays. All due date times are 11:59pm UMass Time or EST. For success, you should plan on spending a minimum of 5 - 8 hours per week working on assignments and reading for our class. All major assignments and the extra credit will be submitted via Blackboard and all feedback and grades will also be communicated via Blackboard. Please do hesitate to contact me if you are having difficulties accessing the internet or Blackboard. Similarly, contact me if difficulties navigating Blackboard or unfamiliarity is affecting your ability to access my feedback or complete and submit assignments in a timely fashion. I want you to be successful in this course, so if you cannot access or cannot find my feedback, notify me immediately. Revisions will be accepted for revised grades for the first four unit projects. These extra revisions are optional and must be submitted by deadlines announced in the syllabus, generally one week or more following when students receive their grades and feedback. All revisions must be accompanied by a list of changes made in the revisions. There is one extra credit assignment available that can be used to replace a missing discussion post ONLY. Extra credit is not available for any other grade item in this course. Detailed instructions for the extra credit assignment are posted to Blackboard. No extensions are possible on the due date and no late extra credit assignments will be accepted.

Do not comment on other students’ personalities, abilities, beliefs, attitudes, identities or backgrounds. This community is built on responding to others in a timely and sincere manner with an open mind, respect for your peers, and a willingness to address complex and sometimes difficult questions related to society and technology. An easy way to do so is to try to be patient, sincere, and interested in what others have to say. Remember that even in face to face class discussions where everyone is working hard to be kind and thoughtful, misunderstandings still happen. Intent is very difficult to convey in writing online, and all of us have to work together to make sure we take even more care in crafting our online written comments so that we are treating each other the way we want to be treated. Disagreement, constructive criticism, and different perspectives are all healthy parts of the learning process, and they are welcome here, but be mindful of the humanity of your classmates. Not all topics are appropriate to debate in this class, and some of the topics of this course will impact different people in different ways. Accommodation Policy – Students with a documented disability are encouraged to communicate their needs to the instructor at their earliest convenience. While documentation is required for the instructor to provide reasonable accommodations, CICS 305 instructors are happy to do so. If you aren’t sure if you qualify for an accommodation, or if you have any questions about your right to accommodations, please contact the office of Disability Services: h ttp://www.umass.edu/disability/students Inclusion Policy – In this course, each voice in the classroom has something of value to contribute. Please take care to respect the different experiences, beliefs and values expressed by students and staff involved in this course. We support UMass Amherst’s commitment to diversity, and welcome individuals of all ages, backgrounds, citizenships, disability, sex, education, ethnicities, family statuses, genders, gender identities, geographical locations, languages, military experience, political views, races, religions, sexual orientations, socioeconomic statuses, and work experiences. Statement on English as a Global Language - Though this course will be carried out in English, I recognize that not everyone’s relationship to this language is the same. Some of you may consider English to be your mother tongue or one of your mother tongues. For others, English may be a language you learned in school or elsewhere. This course recognizes that there are many different types of English, each with their own cultural history and relationship to power. I encourage each of you to be open and inviting to how others practice English in this class, and to think of this class as an opportunity to reflect on your own language use in relation to others. As English becomes increasingly dominant as a global language it is important to recognize and consider our own individual and unique relationship to the way we speak English and, perhaps more importantly, the way English speaks us. Learning in the Context of COVID- 19 —Because we are living through a pandemic there are surely going to be circumstances (foreseen and unforeseen) that may complicate your workflow and learning processes. Communication is critical here: please keep your instructor updated should challenges arise related to caretaking obligations or illness. Your health and well-being is always the priority. Recording/distribution Policy – Distribution or copying of course materials (in any media/medium) without written consent of the instructor is prohibited. This policy also applies to completed student projects and discussion posts. I reserve the right to make changes to this syllabus as needed to incorporate current events and to better support positive student learning outcomes.

CICS 305: Social Issues in Computing – Fall 2020 Syllabus, Study notes of Introduction to Computing

Related documents

Partial preview of the text

Download CICS 305: Social Issues in Computing – Fall 2020 Syllabus and more Study notes Introduction to Computing in PDF only on Docsity!