Final Projects
The complete Final Project Prompt will be posted here later in the semester. For now, here is a general overview.
Students will choose a project that allows them to deepen their engagement with the material while following their interests. Projects can be completed individually, or in groups of 2-3 people. The topic must be approved by the instructors, and can be chosen from a list of examples or self-designed. All projects require a write-up and slides to be showcased at a final project presentation fair. Some practical projects might involve a different deliverable (e.g., a visualization or code) and thus the write-up would be shorter.
(Image source: lolcats.com.)
Final Project Fair
This course will have a final project fair instead of the final exam. The final project fair will be held during the registrar's authorized final examination period. Attendance and participation are required.
Wednesday, December 21
4:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Location TBD
Example project ideas:
As this is an upper-division course, projects are meant to combine course material in this course with the skills/material you have previously acquired from other coursework. The project turned in for this course must be your original work for this course. Example projects include:
- Has taken SI 206 (Agile Web Development): Design an alternative feed interface that is grounded in what we know about feeds and design/human-computer interaction.
- Has taken SI 206 (Agile Web Development) AND SI 330 (Data Manipulation): Use a feed's API to design an alternative feed interface and populate it with real data.
- Has taken SI 370 (Data Exploration): Provide a picture of a person's social media use on one platform employing social feeds. Use feed-based metrics to propose a rationale for alternative data visualizations for social feed data.
- Has taken SI 370 (Data Exploration): Investigate/critique third-party social feed metrics and visualizations (one or more).
- Has taken COMM 121 (Quantitiave Skills), ECON 251 (Basic Statistics) or other statistics: Perform a quantified self / self-tracking study of your own social media data and discuss the results in the context of a problem raised in this class.
- Has taken SI 422 (Needs Assessment & Usability Evaluation): Conduct usability tests on a feed interface that focuses on a challenge/problem raised in the course, then write it up.
- Has taken SI 425 (User Modeling): Produce a choice model of advertisers and/or feed users that relates to the topics addressed in this class.
- Has taken COMM 325 (Globalization): Compare globalized social media practices about social media news feeds to a specific non-US example of normal local practices. OR: Write a business strategy document comparing current feed offerings in different countries or cultures and relating this to the course material.
- Has taken COMM 421/425 (Media Law & Policy; Internet, Society, & Law): Write a policy analysis brief relating to a problem raised in the course (e.g., feeds and censorship; feeds and intellectual property).
- Has taken COMM 464 (Mobile Communication): Perform a study of the social practices of news feed users that compares the desktop experience to the mobile phone experience.
- Has taken COMM 435 (Ethics in Journalism) or other journalism courses: Write a manual of best practices for reporters to help them deal with the distribution of their stories via news feeds (e.g., "How to Write for Feed Algorithms"). Illustrate your manual with examples of recent developments/controversies.
--Paul Gillen, social media marketing consultant