There will be four forms of assessment over the quarter: class participation (20%), programming&design assignments (30%), a presentation or learning activity (30%), and weekly quizzes (20%). All deadlines are given in PT.
Actively participate in class: ask and answer questions, participate in activities, and attend consistently.
Quizzes will take place on PrairieLearn each week, and will be based on the overview lecture and assigned readings. Quizzes will be released Monday 8AM and due Friday 5PM.
PrairieLearn: PrairieLearn link
Each student will prepare either a presentation or learning activity for one paper over the quarter.
Guidance:
Presentations should cover the core concepts of a paper, but will not be able to cover all details. Presentations may also include methods or results if useful/relevant, but the focus should be on key new terms, ideas, applications, etc. Presentations should either use slides or include planned blackboard notes, which should be uploaded to the drive before the start of class (link below). Presentations should be 7-8 minutes in length.
Activities should be an opportunity for all students to practice applying the new concepts/ideas they have learned. This might involve students answering questions, discussing an idea, exploring data or a tool on their own laptop, paper-based activities, moving around the classroom… the sky is the limit! Activities should be interesting, fun, and engaging – think about what would make you excited to come to class.
An example will be given by the instructor in Week 1.
All materials should be uploaded to drive before the start of class. Please use this naming convention for your files: Week#_Paper#_YourLastName (e.g., Week1_Paper1_Vaccaro) submission link
Sign up here: signup link
Update: All students who are not satisfied with the grade they earned will be allowed to make a recording and submit that recording on Canvas and I will average the two grades (the original and the recording). If you led an activity, you can also do the same, although I anticipate it will be more difficult to recruit your peers to participate. Please submit any recordings by 11:59PM Monday of Week 10.
You will complete eight weekly programming and design assignments over the course of the quarter. These programming and design assignments will help you understand and apply the concepts we talk about in class.
Programming and design assignments will be due at 5PM Friday, every week. No programming and design assignments in weeks 7 or 10.
Due Week 1 Friday 5PM
You will explore and analyze two datasets related to intern hiring. You will design a visualization to help others understand potential bias in the data.
Due Week 2 Friday 5PM
You will evaluate and improve explanations Instagram provides for its Explore tab recommendations.
Due Week 3 Friday 5PM
You will explore data on bus arrival time predictions, and then design a bus app that can manage users’ expectations about bus arrival time predictions.
No assignment due
Due Week 5 Friday 5PM
You will explore a model to detect hate speech on social media, and then design for users to achieve recourse and contestability for such a model.
Materials
Due Week 6 Friday 5PM
You will use AI generated content to cheat (and help others cheat) on a practice final exam.
Materials
Due Week 8 Friday 5PM
You will design systems to address an ethics/social justice issue of your choice.
Due Week 10 Friday 5PM
You will consider privacy-utility tradeoffs in “anonymized” datasets as well as the design of ed tech software like Canvas.