CIS2 Final Project Guidelines

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CIS2 Final Project Guidelines

The Final Project is an opportunity to demonstrate the application of everything that you have learned in this class. Computers and the internet impact society in many different ways. Through the Final Project work, you and your group will be using these technologies for research, communication, collaboration and presentation that highlight examples of the impact of technology on global social issues.


You will work with your group to come up with some ideas for the project presentation, create an outline, refine the proposal, then research and prepare the project presentation for the group.

Be sure to include your own original ideas and suggestions for improving and benefiting society. Why is this topic interesting? What important information do we need to know about the topic? Your presentation should conclude with a summary and a statement about the implications for society in the future.

You must include references from the web. More information about the project process and presentation are provided below.


CollabOERate

Use your WikiEducator accounts and working in groups of 2-3 to create a document as the final project.

You can use the WikiEducator CollabOERate tool for real-time WikiEducator page creation and editing. The function behind the scenes is TogetherJS. The feature is only supported with modern open browsers and as far as I know, it will not work with Internet Explorer.

After someone launches TogetherJS by clicking the CollabOERate button they can share a special URL via their usual instant messaging scheme (or even email)... and if the other user(s) have also enabled the CollabOERate gadget, everyone can see cursors and typing from the other users. And they can do peer-to-peer voice chat as they work.

It is an amazing asset for real time collaboration. The tool can also allow "following" one user as they navigate through a sequence of pages.

There is a 6-7 screen presentation about the tool features - invitations, chat, audio,... These are viewable as Help within TogetherJS

  • click the CollabOERate button - WikiEducator left navigation menu, last entry in the toolbox section. This launches TogetherJS
  • Dialog box with "session" URL

blue menu stick - floats at the right side of your screen

  • you - your avatar - right click brings up another menu - Help
  • invite others
  • voice chat

In theory there shouldn't be issues with edit clashes because the page collaboration is only saved when the collaborators click the Save button. While not elegant, Mediawiki does keep track of edit clashes -- but users don't always read the instructions on screen when notified of an edit clash.

That is really all there is to it. After someone launches TogetherJS by clicking the CollabOERate button they can share a special URL via their usual instant messaging scheme (or even email)... and if the other user(s) have also enabled the CollabOERate gadget, everyone can see cursors and typing from the other users. And they can do peer-to-peer voice chat as they work.

It is an amazing asset for real time collaboration. The tool can also allow "following" one user as they navigate through a sequence of pages.

This is not a guarantee of your experience. Your mileage may vary...

Learn more...


Module 7

Groups of 4-5 students work together to prepare a presentation on the Final Project topic. The final presentation is developed and presented as a wiki page collaboration. Include references to a minimum of 8-10 online articles that are appropriate to your discussion.

  • Review Collaborative Projects - Collaboration and Group Projects for an overview of the process of collaborating online.
  • Review the Final Project information for this semester.


Module 8

Divide up the work so everyone will make a contribution to the final presentation. Prepare a timeline or schedule with due dates. Include dates for final presentation outline, individual research, individual section completion, introduction and conclusion writing, review and editing. Prepare an outline of the entire presentation.


Module 9

You should be working with your group on your Final Project.


Module 10

Every member should be participating in the final presentation review and editing as well as contributing suggestions.


Final Project submission

When you have completed your Final Project place a link to your project in the Peer Review and Feedback discussion. Use Final Project quiz to "submit" your project evaluation. There are several questions to answer.


Peer Review

Review and provide feedback on at least 2 projects. Post your reviews to the Peer Review and Feedback discussion. Use the Rubric in the Grading Criteria as a guide to evaluating the other project presentations.


Learn more...

  • project outline
  • project groups
  • suggestions for project work
  • project presentation
  • suggestions for group writing

These are discussed in detail below.


Project outline

Everyone writes an outline for a final project presentation. Remember, the project must be completed by the group, so you need to be thinking about the project requirements, the associated global social issues and how they can be helped or hindered by technology. Make sure the outline is broad enough for the group to work together to cover the subject.

The outline should include:

  • the importance of project and associated social and technology issues
  • 2-3 sentence description of the objective, point of view and list of subtopics that might be addressed.
  • describe some research that you would expect to find about the subject

Work on forming a project group in the discussion area for your group. Make sure you know who is working in your Final Project group.

Review and comment on your classmates' outlines. By reviewing and commenting on the outlines, modifying and refining outlines with these suggestions, your group should have an outline for the whole presentation.


Project Groups

For the project work, everyone will be part of a project group. For final project groups, 3-5 people work best. There isn't enough discussion with just 2 people. It is hard to get the job done with more than 5.

To help with organization, here are some suggestions for roles and responsibilities. Someone in the group should be assigned to each. One person can have more than one role. Everyone on the team should have at least one role.

If you think of other roles and responsibilities, let me know and I'll add them to the list.

  • Project manager - oversees project goals, timeline
  • Team coordinator - follows up with team members, reminds others to get deliverables done on time
  • Editor - consistent "voice" throughout project
  • Style coordinator - ensures standards, conventions followed by all. This should be someone familiar with college writing and appropriate use of reference citations.
  • Tech wiz - helps the team with web delivery of the project presentation

Everyone is also

  • Writer / Subject matter expert - everyone have at least one section of the presentation that is their area of responsibility
  • Reviewer - everyone reviews the final presentation


Suggestions for Project Work

  • List all the things that need to be done and the order they must be completed - brainstorm so everyone participates, use collaborative writing on your group wiki page so everyone is adding to a shared list
  • Choose roles - works best if people pick what they are good at and are interested in doing. Or try something you have never done before - this is supposed to be a learning experience! Everyone should have several roles.
  • Divide up tasks, set due dates, assign responsibilities
  • Communicate, communicate, communicate - let everyone know how you are doing, ask for help if you need it.
  • Schedule regular (daily is best) "check in" times, even if you just leave a message in the discussion to indicate that you are working on your section - there is nothing worse than not knowing that a key piece is not finished.
  • Rearrange roles and responsibilities if necessary - things happen that prevent well-meaning classmates from being able to put in the time they thought they could, so don't let that mess up the project for everyone else.
  • Ask for help if you need it.
  • Collaborate - it is ok to challenge ideas (nothing personal, though). If some other group member challenges your idea, explain your position again. Try using different words or a different explanation or add examples. This is how we learn best. You should be challenging your own ideas, anticipating the questions of others.
  • Be flexible - do the best you can with what you have - time, resources, ideas. Pitch in and help if you have extra time.
  • Have fun - this is your chance to really have a great learning experience. It will be as good as you make it for yourself.


Project Presentation

  • Groups of 3-5 students work together to prepare a project presentation
  • The presentation will be a wiki page. The final presentation should include 5-8 subtopics and must include citations and references as links. Suggestion - use links in the text as well as listing them in the References section.
  • Citations should be APA (American Psychological Association) style and used consistently. All citations should be in one References section and referenced in the body of the project presentation. APA includes formatting for web references. APA is preferable, but MLA format citations are acceptable. Pick one format and be consistent. If possible include the date of the article. Consider how current the information is. For example, for subjects like viruses and copyright laws, articles published more than a year ago may not reflect the current situation.
  • This will be a web-based presentation. If someone in the group has some expertise or at least some familiarity with web page creation, that will help. However, the wiki tools are very easy to use, even for a novice. Your work will be accessible by the outside world. Be extra careful about respecting the copyrights of materials you include. Reference all your sources. Include media that is explicitly open source or copyright free.
  • Include a discussion about the impact on society. This can be opinion but it must be based on facts found in the references. Present both sides of a controversial topic, but be sure to back-up the arguments with references.
  • Create an outline for the presentation. This will help the group organize the work. Include an introduction and a summary. Be sure to discuss your conclusions - So what? Why should we care about this? Why is it important to society?
  • Use headers as appropriate. Help your readers follow the main topics of the presentation.
  • It is ok to use bullet lists if you have several short points to include.
  • Use pictures necessary and arrange your page to be coherent with the pictures.
  • Divide your page and big sections into several smaller sections. This will help your reader to read the information.
  • Edit a section at a time and save your work frequently. This allows several people to work on the page at the same time. Edit ties up whatever is being edited. Editing the whole page ties up the entire page. By editing sections, several people can work on individual sections of the page at the same time.


Suggestions for Group Writing

Here are some suggestions to help your group prepare your Final Project presentation.

  • Create an outline for your presentation. Include a brief description of the information that will be in each section. Making a very detailed outline and sticking to it will help keep everyone on track and reduce duplication of effort.
  • Each group member should research and write one or more sections. Before any writing starts, be sure that you know how all the pieces will fit together. This will save time and ensure that your final presentation flows smoothly.
  • Dividing the work in a way that each person’s section is related but not dependent on the others’ sections is effective. Each person takes one topic and explores it from the beginning to the end. This way integrating each person’s part to the final presentation is easier.
  • This is a group effort, so writing should not include "I" statements.
  • The final presentation review is everyone's job. Revision can be done by the entire group OR by the group member who volunteers to be the Editor with input and suggestions from the group. Everyone on the team still participates in the final review.
  • If all groups members are revising the final presentation, use the page "discussion" to explain changes for your team.
  • If there is an Editor, that person makes changes to the final, formatted document. Others should review the presentation and make suggestions for final edits. However, the editor for the group project reports should not be making significant changes to the submission of others. If the editor feels that there should be major revisions, discuss it with the author of the section. Correcting spelling and minor grammatical errors is ok.
  • Spelling and neatness count. Even though this is a course in the Computer Information Systems (CIS) department, all writing, citations and formatting are being graded by college-level writing standards.
  • Allow more time than you think you will need. Create a timeline and stick to it. Schedule rough drafts to be done early so there is enough time to review and revise the entire presentation. Collaborating online takes time.
  • The wiki automatically tracks changes so you can view previous versions as History. The main view is always the current version so there should not be any issues when working collaboratively on the writing.
  • There is a forum for questions about the Final project assignment. If you have questions, please ask!
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