School of Library and Information Science
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Louisiana State University
School of Library and Information Science
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| Instructor | Teaching Assistant | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Name: | Yejun Wu | Jon Frosch | |
| Email: | wuyj (at) lsu (dot) edu | jfrosc2 (at) lsu (dot) edu | |
| Office: | 272 Coates Hall | SLIS Lab (266 Coates Hall)* | |
| Office or Lab Hour: | None | Monday 2-3pm, Wednesday 2-3pm (or by appointment) |
The teaching assistant will conduct lab sessions at the SLIS Open Lab twice a week. Lab sessions provide an opportunity for students to seek clarification of information contained in the reading assignments or presented in class, to seek help with hands-on computer use (including the homework assignments), to review material in preparation for exams, and to seek help with their projects and the associated materials.
I will be on travels this summer, and so may not be available for face-to-face meetings sometimes. I can chat with you on MSN or Moodle upon request, but emailing me or talking to the TA is the fastest way to get an answer. When you email me, please put "LIS 7008" (followed by your topic) in the Subject line (if your message is related to the course) so that you can get a quick response.
Students wishing to discuss accommodations for unusual circumstances (such as diability issues) should contact me no later than the second week of classes.
Students are expected to demonstrate mastery of the following prerequisite knowledge throught the course. These skills are not taught as a part of this course. Students concerned about their mastery of specific skills on this list should discuss the matter with the instructor prior to the second class of the semester.
The required text books are:
You will need to obtain a PAWS account so that you can access Moodle and download necessary software (such as FileZilla FTP Client). Every student will be assigned an FTP account by SLIS to host his/her course Web site at http://slis.lsu.edu/faculty/wu/7008/your_folder/ (where your_folder is usually your last name followed by your first initial, all in lower case, but probably not case-sensitive). You are also allowed to use commercial Web space (such as http://freehostia.com/) to host your course Web site, but we do not provide any technical support. (I am not marketing freehostia.com; I am simply using it as an example.)
It is required that students arrange for regular access to a computer with an Internet connection, either at home or at work, unless they will be on campus daily. There is a tremendous amount of detail to be mastered in this course, and experience suggests that there is no way to learn it all if you only have access to computing facilities only one or two days a week. For this reason, you should plan to use a computer in an intellectually meaningful way at least five days a week. Furthermore, since much of the information in the course will be distributed only electronically (through Moodle, on the web page or by email), access to a computer throughout the week will be important to ensure that you have timely access to this information. If you have a broadband Internet connection at home (cable modem or a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) connection) then you should be able to reach the University's computers through that conection. Help getting connected is available from ITS Help Desk or http://grok.lsu.edu (read Wireless at LSU and Student Section). Networked computers on compus are available at Public Access Computer Labs. The SLIS Open Lab has also some networked computers available. The current schedule of the SLIS Lab is:
M-Th: 7:30am - 8:00pm
F-Sat: 8:00am - 4:30pm
Sun: 12pm - 6pm
Note: closed on home football game days.
In addition to a networked computer, you also need a computer microphone for recording an audio message (see
homework 4). It will also be convenient to have a computer earphone (or a headset)
for listening to narrated PPT slides (unless the people around you do not mind the noise).
| Component | Percentage | Computation |
|---|---|---|
| Midterm and Final | 35% | Best=25%, the other=10% |
| Term Project | 40% | Project will be graded together with report, with higher weight to the project (e.g., 30% project, 10% report). Your report will help me understand your project better. |
| Homework/Quiz | 15% | 3% each for best 5 |
| Class Participation | 10% | Active contribution to discussions on Moodle. We will count intellectually meaningful posts that advance discussions. Any post fewer than 25 words, or expressing an opinion without evidence or reason will be ignored when grading. However, recommending good learning materials will be credited. |
Scores for each course requirement (homework assignment, exam, document, project, class participation) will be assigned on a 100 point scale (with 90-100=A, 80-89=B, 70-79=C, etc). No curve will be used when assigning final grades. Historically, about one-third of the students have earned at least an A-, and a small number of students (varying between zero and three each semester) have received grades below B-.
There will be one quiz and two exams (i.e., one midterm and one final). The principal purpose of the quiz is to support self-assessment and demistify the mid-term exam. More credit will be given for the better of the two exams. Quiz grading is described below.
Students will post their homework on their own course Web sites (except for the first homework). Homework is usually due before 7:00PM each Monday and Thursday unless otherwise specified. Solutions will be posted electronically or discussed in my lecture slides after the assignment is due. There will be 6 assignments. Credit for partial work will be given. Late assignments will be corrected, but will receive no credit. The lowest 2 homework/quiz grades will be dropped, so only the best 5 of these 7 grades will be used to compute the average. All material included in the homework is testable, however, so skipping an assignment is a bad idea.
Students may work together on the homework assignments, but all of the material that is turned in for grading must be produced individually. For example, students may form study groups and work out solutions together on a whiteboard, but it would not be permissible for one student to create a computer file containing the answers and then for other students to copy that file and submit it as their own work. The goal of this policy is to encourage the use of homework as a learning aid. A concentration on grades to the exclusion of learning when working on the homework can be counterproductive, since each exam is worth at least as much as all of the homework assignments together.
For the term project, teams (preferably three-person teams) will design and implement some type of application in a way that makes substantial use of advanced technologies learned in this class. Team work is required. Two-person teams are allowed. Four-person teams are usually not allowed. Each group will be asked to discuss their project ideas and plans on Moodle before (or after) the midterm exam. This is intended to help shape the focus and scope of the project. Groups are highly encouraged, however, to get an earlier start, especially for the summer which is very short; they may submit a one page description of their plans by email to solicit feedback at any time. The project together with a written report describing the project is due on July 31. Each group will submit one project (including one project report) and each member of the group will receive a same grade for that project.
Online discussions on Moodle will count towards your grade of class participation. Posting interesting learning materials, asking questions and answering questions are all positive contributions.