COMMS 301: Digital Communication and Practice

COMMS 301: Digital Communication and Practice

 

 

 Wed 2:00PM - 4:00PM @ Humanities Bldg, Rm 220
Fr 1:00PM - 2:00PM @ Clock Tower-South, Rm 039
(NOTE: Friday sessions are NOT held in weeks 1,6, or 12)

Lecturer: Dr. Ethan Plaut
Office Hours: Wed. 12:00-1:00 (and by appointment)
Office: CLL Bldg. 207- 401A

 

GTA: Tim Signal: (t.signal@auckland.ac.nz)
Leading Friday 1-2pm sessions @ clocktower (weeks 7-10)
+ Office Hours listed HERE (and by appointment)

 

Coding Assistants:
Co-leading Friday 1-2pm sessions @ clocktower (weeks 2-5 & 11)
+ Office Hours listed HERE (and by appointment)

Java Grant (jgra818@aucklanduni.ac.nz)
Caleb Perelini (cper523@aucklanduni.ac.nz)

Class Reps:
Venus Vu (cvu166@aucklanduni.ac.nz)
Chantal Dalebroux (cdal842@aucklanduni.ac.nz)

 

Brief Description:

Format: 2 hours of lectures + 1 hour of lab / work sessions per week

COMMS 301 combines creative work of making digital objects (e.g., Twitter bots, data visualizations, slideshow presentations) with critical discussion of online platforms as well as conceptual frameworks for understanding the roles digital media play in society. At the level of “digital logic & computational thinking” students will learn basic programming skills for the web (no prior experience necessary). At the level of “digital media & configurable culture” students will leverage more user-friendly tools to create, remix, and present multimedia work.

Topics & Structure:

This course is divided into two large units of six weeks each. Each unit is quite different in multiple ways including the kinds of readings, styles of work, use of lab time, etc. 

UNIT 1 “digital logic & computational thinking” emphasizes different ways of thinking with and about computers. This will include basic programming skills in the JavaScript language (no prior experience necessary). This portion of the course concludes with creation of a Twitter Bot and discussions about artificial intelligence.

• UNIT 1 LAB/WORK SESSIONS: In Unit 1, the lab/work sessions will usually be time for you to get help from the coding assistants. 

UNIT 2 “digital media & configurable culture” emphasizes more user-friendly tools to create, remix, and present multimedia work including data visualizations, slideshow presentations, and more.

• UNIT 2 LAB/WORK SESSIONS: In Unit 2,  the lab/work sessions are somewhat different, including some peer review sessions to get feedback on your work (and enjoy seeing your peers' work!) as well as some instruction on and help with media production skills. 

Assessment Summary:

Projects = 75%

Quizzes = 25%

No final papers or final exam!!!

To succeed on assignments and quizzes, students are expected to attend and actively participate in ALL scheduled sessions.

Assignments will each be very different (please consult the Canvas "Assignments" tab for further details) but will typically include a "digital media object" of some kind plus a paragraph of accompanying text. Assignments will usually be due at 11:59pm on Monday nights. This deadline is chosen to encourage students to take the time to do assigned readings before Wednesday lectures. 

Grading is generally based on this 10-point scale: 

• 5 or 6 points = reasonable but flawed attempt
• 7 points = satisfactory work in line with expectations for the assignment
• 8 points = great job! 
• 9 points = above and beyond expectations
• 10 points = so amazing it brought tears to your grader's eyes

Grades for larger assignments are proportional to this (e.g., satisfactory work on a 15-pt. assignment would earn approx. 11 pts). 

Unless noted otherwise in the assignment, assume late submissions are penalized 1 pt. point per day. If you are sick or have some other extenuating circumstance, you may seek an extension by contacting the GTA before the assignment is due. 

There will also be two required  but ungraded  homework assignments in JavaScript programming. Completing and understanding these assignments is essential to success, especially on the quizzes, as well as helping to inform the Twitter Bot and Vandalised Webpage assignments!

We will occasionally announce a CONTEST (starting with a contest for the most amazing ASCII art project created in JavaScript HW1). Contests are a way of recognising and rewarding the amazing work students create. Typically, there will be one contest winner announced, and the prize will be bonus points on the quizzes! (Ethan reserves the right to give multiple prizes if there's too much amazingness, or no prizes, or to reward submissions in other ways). 

This isn't a studio art class, but it has some aspects of such a course, including an emphasis on original and experimental approaches to creative work. One of the richest parts of this experience is that you get to see the wildly different approaches other students took to the projects. In an art course, this might happen in a kind of studio critique where a small group gives feedback on each other's work. Because our course is much larger, this happens in different ways. Twice, during Unit II, you will go through peer review to get feedback on your work, but Ethan also sometimes selects a handful of student projects to discuss, of course including the contest winners but also various work that's beautiful or funny or interesting for some other reason. This will start with the ASCII art contest and continue through most of the projects. If for any reason you don't want to submit your work to the contests or otherwise wish your work not to be shared, please note this VERY clearly in your submission. (Side note: When we get to the Twitter bot, you will have additional options in terms of keeping it totally private or letting it out into the public Twittersphere!)

Related point: Because this class has a large number of small assignments, each one receives a limited amount of feedback. Students are therefore strongly encouraged to come to office hours to discuss their work in more depth with Ethan and Tim! 

See also this Note on Word Counts. 

Quizzes may cover any and all readings, lectures and other materials addressed in the course up to and including the day of the quiz. 

Why is this class structure so WEIRD — and how do I succeed in it?

A paper and an exam would not be the right way to teach and assess this material. Instead, our small projects incrementally build on and relate to each other week after week as you develop new skills and ways of understanding. 

This can feel demanding on a week-by-week basis, but at the end of the semester, when your other classes are stressful, this one will be comparatively light! 

Although we do not formally take attendance, this course is designed for learning through active participation, and the requirement for consistent, weekly work to succeed includes doing the readings beforehand so you can actively participate in all lectures and tutorials. Please note that slides are not used in a normal way in this course, and are not typically shared, as we do not believe they are a good representation of the material taught (please do not ask for the slides). Lecture videos are normally provided, but of course physical attendance will provide you with the best student experience. 

tl;dr: If you consistently do the readings before Wednesday lectures, take meticulous notes, work hard during the Friday lab/work sessions, pay attention to information sent out via Canvas announcements, and submit work before it's due, you'll thrive in this course and learn a ton! 

How To Communicate With Us & Each Other:

Even if you don't have any questions to ask, please come to office hours. Talking to students is the loveliest part of academia, but for those conversations to happen, you have to show up!  Feel free to bring a random friend or a list of questions or a sandwich, whatever makes you comfortable, just be sure you come. 

You can also ask questions on our Piazza site. Two ways to find that:

1. Within Canvas / via navigation bar 
2. Skip Canvas & go to piazza.com 

Piazza is the fastest way to get answers to most kinds of questions because you can get feedback from fellow students, GTAs, and Ethan all in the same place. We strongly encourage you to answer each other's questions on Piazza! 

You can also email your GTA, especially for personal matters. If it is a question that the GTA could conceivably answer, like you want clarification about an assignment, or you need an extension, PLEASE contact the GTA first! Dr. Plaut loves talking to students in person, so please visit office hours, but please don't email Dr. Plaut until you have gone through this checklist / flowchart of other options: 

1. Can you post the question to Piazza? (Usually yes, unless private / sensitive)
2. Can your GTA help you?
3. Can the issue wait until lecture or office hours? 
4. Have you double-checked the chart below? 

  

Also: This guide to emailing your teachers is full of good advice (not just for this course, but in general). 

Also: Just be kind. University is wondrous, especially when we all support each other, but students struggle in silence with all kinds of things we don't know about each other. Your lecturers and GTAs are human, too. Respect each other's cultures and identities to build a little community in which we can make mistakes and laugh together. Also, when things get complicated, of course the university provides support for both personal and academic issues. 

Other Important Stuff:

We expect your best original work, held to the high standards laid out in the Student Charter, university policy on academic integrity and copyright, etc. If you are unfamiliar with any of these policies, please look here. The standards for plagiarism and citation when submitting code may be especially unfamiliar, and when creating digital media projects, copyright concerns are often complex, so please ask us questions about these things. (Word of advice: err to the side of caution by citing everything that might be construed as a source in your student work). 

Accessibility and Inclusion: Everyone should be able to succeed in the class. 
If some form of accommodation is needed for you to thrive in here and do your best work, please let me know. Folks with non-visible disabilities are especially encouraged to reach out so we know to consider your needs. I also recognize that parenting and being a student at the same time can be difficult. Breast-feeding babies are always welcome in class, and although we cannot regularly accommodate other children, you are welcome to bring a child to class if there are last-minute unforeseeable disruptions to childcare (e.g., the normal caregiver falls ill without adequate time to find someone else). 

Personal Needs: Students' performance can be compromised when they have trouble securing housing, food, and other basic needs. The Faculty of Arts Student Development and Engagement team is available to help with these issues and otherwise provide support when personal issues overwhelm academic responsibilities. If you are comfortable in telling Ethan about these issues, he will also try to find ways to help. 

P.S. - Syllabi are strange documents. I agree with almost everything Sonya Huber says here in her "Shadow Syllabus" (even if I might say it a bit differently). 

image credits: Vectors Market (woman speaking) Oksana Latysheva (chatbots) via https://thenounproject.com/

Uni Well-being Statement:

We all go through tough times during the semester, or see our friends struggling. There is lots of help out there - for more information, look at this Canvas page, which has links to various support services in the University and the wider community. If you are experiencing any form of bullying and/or harassment, click here to find out how to report it and get support.