CS473

Assignments

You'll ANALYZE and REFLECT on social computing systems and techniques.

Tips & Info

What do I do?

There will be a set of assignments that will be announced as the course progresses, with examples including:

  • Social computing hall of fame / shame

Why do this?

Hands-on exercises, analysis, and reflection are a fun and effective way to learn.

How do I submit?

We'll create an assignment in KLMS for each assignment.

Late Policy

You'll lose 10% for each late day. Submissions will be accepted until three days after the deadline. After then you'll get 0 on that assignment.

Social Computing HOFS

Assignment 1: Social Computing Hall of Fame and Shame

Due: 11:59pm on 9/6 (Wed)
5% toward your grade

What do I do?

In this assignment, you will analyze two example features of social computing around you, one that you think has good support for social interaction and one that you think has bad support. Examples can come from any applications or websites you have used or visited. Make sure to avoid analyzing the entire service or app, but focus on particular parts of the interface that you think have noteworthy social interaction support. For example, you should avoid analyzing Facebook as a whole but you may pick its emoji reactions for live video. Also, most features designed to support social interaction will have good and bad aspects at the same time, so feel free to cover both sides in your analysis. But for each example, make your final decision about whether it's a good (hall of fame) or bad (hall of shame) example overall.

Why do I do this?

We designed this assignment to give you an opportunity to (1) make observations on various social computing systems around you, and (2) apply the concepts covered in class to analyze real-world examples.

Your report

For each example, please report the following:
  • Hall of fame or shame?
  • One-line description of what it is
  • Where can it be found? (e.g., URL, name of the app) Provide additional information if needed (e.g., go to xxx menu in the app to access the feature)
  • Analysis: How does it support (or hamper) social interaction? How do you use it? What benefit does it provide when lots of people use it?
  • Reflection: In what ways might this feature be abused (e.g., trolling, harassment, giving misleading information)? What does it do to prevent abusing, if any? How might you redesign it to address these negative impacts?
  • Screenshots and photos to effectively support your analysis
For each example, you have a hard limit of maximum 250 words. But you may use as many screenshots and photos as you want. One-sentence captions are allowed for each visual material, and they are not counted toward the word limit.

Grading

  • Completeness (20%): Cover all the required components listed above in your report.
  • Depth (20%): Include thoughtful analysis beyond surface level observations.
  • Clarity (20%): The reader who sees the example for the first time should not struggle to understand your points.
  • Visual Communication (20%): Use visual materials effectively to communicate your idea. Add annotations and labels to refer to specific elements in an image. Include zoom-in images if needed. Make sure your text and accompanying visuals complement each other.
  • Conciseness (20%): Adhere to the word limit, and avoid being verbose in the description.
Please make sure to read the academic integrity and collaboration policy of this course carefully.

How do I submit?

Make a single PDF file of your report and submit via KLMS.

Be a Crowd Worker

Assignment 2: Be a crowd worker

Due: 11:59pm on 11/1 (Wed)
5% toward your grade

What do I do?

In this assignment, you'll experience what it's like to be a crowd worker. In class, we walked through the MTurk user interface, both as a worker and as a requester, and discussed its strengths and limitations. Now it's your turn to pick a crowdsourcing platform of your choice (sorry, MTurk doesn't count!) and be a worker yourself. We'll focus on voluntary crowdsourcing platforms, which are quite different from platforms offering monetary reward in many ways.

Pick one of the following platforms: You need to spend at least one hour as a crowd worker using the platform. Show us some visual proof of what you've done with screenshots (e.g., example task, how much work you've done, your score in a game, etc.).

Your report

In your report, please reflect on your experience by answering the following questions:

  1. What is the name of the platform you picked?
  2. Why is this crowdsourcing? What data, service, or idea is it crowdsourcing?
  3. Walk through your task finding, performing, and learning experience with screenshots.
  4. What did you like about the platform? Why do people come to this platform?
  5. What problems did you run into? How would you improve the platform and the tasks to attract more volunteers?
  6. In the scale of 1 (not really) - 10 (very much), answer the following: "I think I contributed meaningful work that helps the goal of the platform."
  7. In the scale of 1 (not really) - 10 (very much), answer the following: "I personally enjoyed working on the tasks."

How do I submit?

Make a single PDF file of your report and submit via KLMS.