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New Jersey Institute of
Technology
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A Public Research University |
Quick Links: [677
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[Homeworks]
[Mentoring]
[Article Review Guidelines]
[Citation Analysis Guidelines/Handouts]
[Example combination
analysis comments]
Discussion on-line takes the place of discussion in the class room. Each week we will discuss the articles, the technology presentations, the taped lectures and class materials in general.
Each of you will participate in two discussion conferences on WebBoard (please use the ones corresponding to the first letter of your last name).
Here is the general flow of class discussion - see the description below for details. (Note that comments may be posted by 9 a.m. the following morning and still be on-time.)
---> BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE LINKS IN THE SECTION BELOW TO READ THE DETAILS!
By Thursday Night
(You can start posting your comments as early as you like. Please do
not wait until Thursday to start.)
By Monday Night
(You can start posting your comments as early as you like. Please do
not wait until Monday to start.)
*** Please use clear topic headers. Please change the topic header when replying if appropriate.
Between Monday and Thursday (please post before Thursday if possible)
*** Please use clear topic headers. Please change the topic header when replying if appropriate.
By Monday night, you should post one combination analysis comment in your discussion conference.
Your combination analysis comment should reflect on some or all of the text readings, articles, video lecture, and technology presentations for the week. Your comment should be 2-4 paragraphs long and try to tie together many of the ideas in the various materials. You can also tie in materials from prior weeks.
For details on what constitutes a useful comment or reply, see the section below.
One strategy for doing a combination analysis would be to list five major concepts from the lecture, each reading and the technology presentation. These concepts could include models, frameworks, the idea behind a figure or illustation or examples. (You can also use the concepts from prior weeks.) Then look to see what can be integrated:
Combination Analysis is very similar to the idea of "synthesis", which is one of the categories in the article review guidelines.
Crafting a combination analysis comment is a new skill for most people in the class, and I fully expect that it will take several weeks until people learn how to do this well. So don't be surprised or worried if you are finding this tough in the beginning. This skill will serve you well. It will enable you to integrate information from diverse sources more effectively and more automatically in the future.
During the course of the semester, I will post several excellent combination analysis comments on a separate Web page as examples.
*** Please use clear topic headers. Do NOT use something like "discussion for week 3" or "discussion of cognitive aspects." Instead make the topic a theme from your comment.
By Monday night, you should post a comment in your article critique conference for each of that week's articles. For each article you will be assigned ONLY ONE category from the article review guidelines. The article critique matrix spreadsheet will list your assigned category for every article. Post your comment as a reply to that category in your article critique conference on WebBoard. You will have a different category for each article. The Article Review Guidelines explain each critique category.
The goal of CIS677's article reviews is to learn to read materials critically and find the strengths and shortcomings, which are not immediately obvious. This is an important skill which will serve you well on the job and in general in the future.
As with the combination analysis, this is a new skill for most people in the class. I fully expect that it will take several weeks until people learn how to do this well. So don't be surprised or worried if you are finding this tough in the beginning.
Feel free to make additional critique comments, but please wait until after Monday (or once the person assigned has posted his or her comments) to put in other comments. This will give everyone a chance to enter comments for their assigned categories. I really do encourage the extra comments but only after the person assigned has posted his or hers.
For more details on what constitutes a useful comment or reply, see the section below.
Between Monday and Thursday, everyone should post at least three replies:
You also, of course, may add additional replies and additional new comments.
For more details on what constitutes a useful comment or reply, see the section below.
Your comment can include questions, observations, opinions, contradicting information, examples from the real world, speculations, and tell us about something interesting you've read or found through some research, or pretty much anything else.
For your main weekly combination analysis comment, you'll want several paragraphs that tie together what you've read in (some or all of) the materials for this week. You can include the types of things in the paragraph above to enhance your thoughts.
For your two replies, you can include any of these things in the first paragraph. But please back up your points. Don't write just a sentence or two on each point you want to make. Instead have a few sentences that explain and justify each of your points.
Your audience is the entire class, not the professor. Class participants come from all varieties of backgrounds, course work and real-world experience. Several of you will be professional IT-workers. Others may have only browsed some Web pages and have little idea what goes on behind them. All of you should be able to post interesting comments and replies. And because of your varied backgrounds each of you should bring an interesting viewpoint.
Discussion grading will be based on the regularity and quality of your comments and replies.
I will grade you on your regularity of posting discussion comments and replies on-time.
Both your peers and I will be grading the quality of your discussion, based in part on how useful they are :-)
You will find a discussion evaluation sheet on the course home page for your WebBoard discussions. You should turn this in three times this semester: on 2/14, 3/14 and 4/25. The first two forms will not count for a grade, rather will give you an indication of what your peers feel about your discussion quality.
I'll post the intermediate discussion grades on-line in a way that preserves anonymity after I receive the discussion forms.
Many students question whether they are capable of grading their peers, and whether this is even appropriate. I strongly believe both. By the end of the semester you will have read many discussion comments from each member of your group. I do not expect you to reread all the article critique or discussion comments in your conference to make this evaluation. You should have simply a good feel for the overall quality of each group member after this period of time, and be able to grade them based on what you recall at the point of evaluation.
This page: http://ccsweb.njit.edu/~bieber/CIS677S02/discussion-dl.html
To comment on this Web site, please email bieber
@ homer.njit.edu
