Syllabus for Comm 534: Intro to Online Communities
Email -- cory.ondrejka@gmail.com
Mobile -- 310.650.5689
Email -- knorth@usc.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday, 4-5pm
Course description
This course is designed for students interested in understanding, creating, and managing online communities. Students will use and explore such online tools as blogs and wikis, social networks, business networking and collaboration, virtual worlds, and other online communities. The readings will include both the currently influential industry blogs and academic publications. Guest lecturers will offer information about new developments in the industry, and they will provide students with insights into the leadership and management of online communities. Some of the material presented in class may be proprietary, and we expect student to honor any and all nondisclosure requests made by our guest speakers. Weekly discussions in the seminar will draw from the week’s industry news, other readings, and topics and issues raised by our guests.
With that foundation, we will explore business aspects of online communities, motivations for their creation, participation in online community by users, strategies for growing communities, as well as current and future trends in this industry.
This course introduces you to the basic set of knowledge, skills, and terminology needed to understand the advent, growth and development of online communities. You will learn to engage with, critique, and discuss online communities. This course serves as preparation for future classes and projects within the Annenberg Program for Online Communities (APOC), identifying key themes and ideas that may carry over in greater depth into future classes.
Course materials
Evaluation of performance
Attendance and in-class participation 10%
Online participation 20%
Weekly reflection papers 15%
Module papers 20%
Module Presentations 20%
Final project 15%
Attendance and in-class participation (10%)
Your presence in class and your active oral participation are essential in this course.
You must have completed any reading assignments for a particular topic before we have the class on that topic. This will allow you get the most out of the course and give you the chance to clarify issues you may have found confusing in the reading. At every class you should be prepared to discuss, if called upon, the substance of ideas and concepts from the assigned readings.
Online participation (20%)Your active participation in relevant online communities and reading relevant blogs is vital to your classroom experience. You must have completed any such assigned tasks before the next class meeting. At every class you should be prepared to discuss, if called upon, at least one blog posting you’ve read, while connecting your brief presentation to class themes. We recommend you regularly read:
www.techcrunch.com
www.mashable.com
www.paidcontent.org
www.digg.com
www.engadget.com
www.arstechnica.com
sethgodin.typepad.com
Weekly reflection papers (15%)
Each week, you are tasked with writing 500 words on your experience utilizing an assigned online community. Further instructions may be shared on any particular week. You have the choice of providing your paper directly to the instructors via email or posting your writings on your blog or online destination of choice.
Module Papers (20%)
The mini-term papers are your chance to investigate something of interest to you that surfaced during each particular module of the course. What would be useful for you to know more about? You will write and submit four mini-term papers during the course. You will write four mini-term papers of 5-8 page each.
Module Presentations (20%)During each of the four course modules, you will make a brief presentation to the rest of the class. Specific details of this presentation will be announced in the week prior to your presentation.
Final project (15%)This is the final assignment for the course. You will learn the details of this assignment mid-way through the course..
Helpful Information
Paper guidelines
Papers must be type-written or word-processed, double-spaced, with fonts usually 12 points.
Margins should be at least an inch all around. Papers should be stapled in the top left corner.
Before you turn in your paper make sure you keep a copy of it.
Please ensure that each paper is written in APA style. Refer to the APA manual.
Finally typos and spelling errors are unforgivable at this level and reflect poorly on you.
Effective behaviors and ineffective behaviors
To be successful in a course like this demands somewhat different behaviors from behaviors that may have allowed you to succeed in other courses. It is often feasible in other courses to have a surge of effort in the last three or two weeks write a paper, and earn a good grade. This sort of behavior will almost certainly lead to very poor outcomes in this course. This is because doing research is process-oriented, meaning that there are several tasks that have to be done in a certain sequence, and that how well you did earlier tasks will determine how well you can do the later tasks. This also means that if you are passive, not making progress on the tasks, you will not be in a good position as the deadlines approach.
The most effective behaviors are to work hard consistently, and seek guidance actively. As graduate students I expect you to be active participants in the course.
Academic integrity
The Annenberg School for Communication is committed to upholding the University’s Academic Integrity code as detailed in the in the SCampus Guide. It is the policy of the School of Communication to report all violations of the code. Any serious violation or pattern of violations of the Academic Integrity Code will result in the student’s expulsion of the Communication major or minor.
USC policy for students with disabilities
Students requesting academic accommodations based on a disability are required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP when adequate documentation is filed. Please be sure this letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible. DSP is open Monday-Friday, 8:30-5:00. The office is in the Student Union 301 and their phone number is (213) 740-0776.
Late Work
I realize that working professionals occasionally must submit an assignment late. To encourage everyone to hand in assignments, I will accept late work. However, in fairness to those who do turn things in on time there will be a price to pay for late work. I will grade all late assignments and then deduct percentage points. Work less than 24 hours late will be deducted 10%, work more than 24 hours late but under a week late will be deducted 25%. Each additional week will result in a further 25% deduction per week late up to a maximum of a 50% deduction.
The Grade of Incomplete (IN)
A grade of incomplete can be assigned only if there is work not completed because of documented illness or some other emergency. Students must NOT assume that I will agree to the grade of IN. Removal of the grade of IN must be instituted by the student and agreed to by myself and the department and reported on the official “Incomplete Completion Form”
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