DESCRIPTION:

This course focuses on how social groups form and evolve, how members of these groups interact with each other, and how these groups are supported and augmented with computer systems. The course is interdisciplinary, drawing from the fields of computer science, information science, and social psychology. It covers key theories and technologies of social computing in terms of (1) computer systems supporting social behavior and (2) socially intelligent computing carried out by groups. Students will have a chance to explore social computing systems, get experience with social data analyses and focus on design, and evaluation of a social software as their final project for the course.

COURSE FORMAT:

To address the pandemic circumstance, this course is designed following the flipped classroom model; i.e. lectures are going to be recorded and available online for you to watch. Every week we will meet for about one hour during the class time for discussion of concepts in the lectures and interaction around activities, assignments, and the project. The recorded lectures will be broken down into smaller topics to reduce the size of the recording to about 15 minutes. You can attend the synchronous component of the class online but there is also a physical room dedicated to this class for those who would like to attend in-person. As the instructor, I will be joining the class online through zoom. Lecture recordings will include activities that we will discuss during the class time.

PREREQUISITES:

This course does not assume any particular prerequisites. However, this is a graduate course which assumes critical thinking, desire to learn and being challenged with new topics, and hard work.

TEXT:

We will be reading excerpts from a large number of books and articles. Links to electronic copies are provided.

GRADING:

OFFICE HOUR:

Email or online meetings by appointment:

TOPICS TO BE COVERED:

SYLLABUS:

#DateTopicDetailsActivities
12021-01-20Introduction and overviewCourse logistics and requirements
Overview of what social computing is about and what you will learn in this course
Introduction
What is Social Computing?
Collective Wisdon
22021-01-27Connecting people through technology: social softwareWhat is social software?
What are examples of social software?
What should we know about social software
Carousel problem
Designing a blog software
We Feel Fine
Why does Twitter work as it works?
32021-02-03Distributed collaborationComputer supported collaboration tools
Content sharing
Open source software development
Project ideas due
42021-02-10Project topic and team formation Instructor and TA will provide feedback for each team on the general idea, methods, and plan of their project
In-class break out room discussions of project ideas
52021-02-17Social Networks and Social Network AnalysisNetworks: definition, metrics
Social networks: Design, Technology, Features, and Impacts
Social networks: Why and How
Submitting list of papers for literature review
62021-02-24Designing online communities: challenges and solutionsunder-contribution problem
Encouraging contributions to online communities
Quiz 1: Distributed collaboration and Social network analysis
72021-03-03Social computing research methods and research ethicsData collection
Data analysis
Usability studies
Conducting research on the Internet
Privacy
IRB
Literature review due
82021-03-10Social data analysisVisualization
Sense-making
92021-03-17Project progress reportIn-class presentation of developed project idea, progress report, and feedback on your projects
102021-03-24No classStudent self-care day