INFO320
Information Needs, Searching, and Presentation
Informatics Program
Information School
University of Washington
Schedule Overview •
Announcements •
Objectives •
Description
Assignments
Fall, 2011
Instructor: William Jones
Office Hours: After lectures or by appointment
Email: williamj@uw.edu
TA: Ross Hattori
Office Hours: During and after labs and by appointment
Email: rehat+info320@uw.edu
Lectures: Mondays & Wednesdays: 1:30 – 3:20 pm, MGH 251
Labs: Fridays: 1:30 - 2:20 pm, MGH 430
Schedule Overview
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Week 0: |
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Week 1 Monday, 10/3 – Friday, 10/7 |
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Week 2 Monday, 10/10 – Friday, 10/14 |
How search works, Part 1. Building an index
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Week 3 Monday, 10/17 – Friday,10/21 |
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Week 4 Monday, 10/24 – Friday, 10/28 |
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Week 5 Monday, 10/31 – Friday, 11/4 |
Desktop search, personal information and the re-finding of things already found
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Week 6 Monday, 11/7 – Wednesday, 11/9 (no lab) |
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Week 7 Monday, 11/14 – Friday, 11/18 |
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Week 8 Monday, 11/21 – Wednesday, 11/23 (no lab) |
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Week 9 Monday, 11/28 – Friday, 12/2 |
More enhancements & variations on search |
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Week 10 Monday, 12/5 – Friday, 12/9 |
Future directions in search |
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Week 11 2:30-4:20 PM Monday, 12/12 |
Team project presentations during final exam period |
Announcements
Sept. 26th
Welcome to INFO 320 - Information Needs, Searching, and Presentation or, more simply, Search. The course officially begins on Wednesday, Sept. 28th. Please orient yourself to the course website as it is the primary organizing vehicle for the course. Some parts of the website are still being finished, but the overall structure, most readings, and assignments are ready to go.
Also, we will be using a course discussion board for postings and discussions. All students are expected to participate regularly on the discussion board and in posting interesting items.
The class electronic mailing list is: info320a_au11@u.washington.edu.
I look forward to meeting each of you and working together to make this a great learning experience.
William Jones, research associate professor
Course Objectives
We already all know something about Search. After the course, you should know more. Specifically you should know more about:
- Search in all its many variations – in and outside the search "box".
- The different search strategies and techniques.
- Choosing the right sources to search.
- Perspectives on search including those of the end user, search service providers, content providers and IT implementers of search.
- How search works. How is an index built? How are queries processed?
- Needs assessment and search evaluation.
Note: Search is a very large area. From necessity, INFO 320 favors breadth over depth. You will have the opportunity to delve more deeply into sub-areas of search that interest you through your team project, your individual presentation and your weekly readings and discussion.
Course Description
Introduction to information needs, database and information organization and structure, Web and database searching and browsing, and information presentation. Examination of underlying principles in knowledge representation, indexing, record structures, online search process, search strategies and tactics, assessment of user needs, reference interviewing, post-processing, organization and presentation of information.
Assignments
| Assignment Name | Related module | Due Date | Percent of Grade |
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| Class Participation | Including 5% for participation in "final" | ongoing | 16% |
| Lab exercises & participation | 3 points per lab. Exercises are due no later than the Sunday after the lab. | weekly by Sunday following lab | 27% |
| Individual presentation | To sign up, visit the presentation schedule. | varies | 11% |
| Team term project | Including 10 page paper and video to be presented in "final". | week 2, week 4, week 6; final paper Dec. 9 | 30% |
| Quizzes | 5 points per quiz, 3 quizzes total: 1, 2, 3 | TBD | 15% |
| Discussion board participation | You are expected to make regular, weekly contributions to the course discussion board | ongoing | 11% |
| Total Points: | 110%* |
* Note: 110% may be a little like going to 11 on a 10 setting amplifier (a "gold star" to those who know the film I'm referring to). But think of the extra 10% as extra credit and also as a cushion for one or two absences.
You are expected to actively participate in each of the two lecture periods of each week. Activation participation requires that you read the required readings of a week ahead of time. The course will provide an "official" backchannel through which you can make comments and pose questions during class. You will lose participation credit if, during a class, you text, email, surf, etc. on matters that don't relate to the course.
Lab Exercises and Participation
There are 9 labs. You receive 1% each lab for productive participation and up to 2% for the completion of the lab's exercise. The exercise for a lab can be submitted at the end of the lab and is due no later than the end of the following Sunday. Exercises should be submitted to the INFO320 Collect It.
Pick a search related topic of interest to you. This might be the review of a search tool or service. Or an interesting new research direction. Or a business opportunity for search. You will have 15 minutes – divided roughly between 10 minutes for presentation and 5 minutes for discussion (which you will lead). Slides for your presentation should be posted in advance of your presentation to INFO320 Collect It.
Team term project. You will be randomly assigned to a team of 4 (possibly 5) students. Your team will select a search-related topic with scope roughly comparable to the paper that might appear in a conference such as SIGIR or CHI (examples for each conference to be found in the ACM digital library). Your project's focus can either be primarily empirical (e.g., a study looking at how people search) or prototyping (design and build a search prototype).
In order to get early feedback in time to make adjustments, your team will submit the following pieces of the final paper in advance:
- Preliminary abstract describing your project and its expected outcome. (Due Week 2)
- This abstract (#1) plus an introduction and literature review. (What relates? What's already been done? What's already known? How will your project contribute?). (Due Week 4)
- The abstract and introduction (#2) plus a description of method and approach for your project. (Due Week 6)
"How" will you do it? #1, 2 and 3 are due at the beginning of weeks 2, 4 and 6 respectively. Each will be "graded" for feedback. Each is worth 1%. In other words, the final paper + video presentation will count the most but intermediate deliverables will give you a sense for how I grade and my expectations.
The final team term paper should be formatted according to conference paper standards. Papers are 10 pages or less in length including abstract, introduction, methods/approach, results, discussion & conclusion and references. Here is the ACM SIGIR template/formatting guide.
You team will also produce a 10 minute video describing your work to be presented during the period scheduled for a final exam. Both paper and video should be submitted to Collect It prior to the video's presentation.
There will be three online quizzes designed to assess your understanding of both assigned readings, lectures and the labs. The goal of these online reading quizzes is to help students recognize, understand, and use key concepts throughout the quarter.
You will be given 45 minutes to complete a quiz. We have estimated that it will take you about 30 minutes to complete this, and we provide another 15 minutes as a buffer. Plan carefully for when you choose click on the following link because you can only click once and the 45 minute timer will start. You may choose anytime between midnight Sunday (meaning very early Sunday morning) and noon on Monday.
Discussion questions will be posed for each week's topic. You are expected to respond to each through posts made to the course discussion board. Posts for a week's discussion questions are due by the end of the following Sunday.
Grading
Policy concerning absences and late work
Participation in lectures and labs cannot be made up. Lab exercises can sometimes be done out of the lab but are always due no later than the end of the Sunday following the lab. Exceptions are made only for personal or medical reasons and only when these are communicated in a timely manner to the instructor.
Grades
You will receive a decimal grade for this class.
General grading information for the University of Washington is available here. The iSchool has adopted its own criteria for grading graduate courses.
The grading criteria used by the iSchool for graduate courses are available here.
Evaluation of Student Work:
You may expect to receive comments on and evaluations of assignments and submitted work in a timely fashion. All work from the course will be returned, with comments, within two weeks of the last class of the quarter.
Academic Conduct
The following paragraphs discussing academic integrity, copyright and privacy outline matters governing student conduct in the iSchool and the University of Washington. They apply to all assignments and communications in this course.
Academic Integrity
The essence of academic life revolves around respect not only for the ideas of others, but also their rights to those ideas and their promulgation. It is therefore essential that all of us engaged in the life of the mind take the utmost care that the ideas and expressions of ideas of other people always be appropriately handled, and, where necessary, cited. For writing assignments, when ideas or materials of others are used, they must be cited. The format is not that important–as long as the source material can be located and the citation verified, it's OK. What is important is that the material be cited. In any situation, if you have a question, please feel free to ask. Such attention to ideas and acknowledgment of their sources is central not only to academic life, but life in general.
Please acquaint yourself with the University of Washington's resources on academic honesty.
Copyright
All of the expressions of ideas in this class that are fixed in any tangible medium such as digital and physical documents are protected by copyright law as embodied in title 17 of the United States Code. These expressions include the work product of both: (1) your student colleagues (e.g., any assignments published here in the course environment or statements committed to text in a discussion forum); and, (2) your instructors (e.g., the syllabus, assignments, reading lists, and lectures). Within the constraints of "fair use" (you should have/will have learned about that in depth in LIS 550), you may copy these copyrighted expressions for your personal intellectual use in support of your education here in the iSchool. Such fair use by you does not include further distribution by any means of copying, performance or presentation beyond the circle of your close acquaintances, student colleagues in this class and your family. If you have any questions regarding whether a use to which you wish to put one of these expressions violates the creator's copyright interests, please feel free to ask the instructor for guidance.
Privacy
To support an academic environment of rigorous discussion and open expression of personal thoughts and feelings, we, as members of the academic community, must be committed to the inviolate right of privacy of our student and instructor colleagues. As a result, we must forego sharing personally identifiable information about any member of our community including information about the ideas they express, their families, life styles and their political and social affiliations. If you have any questions regarding whether a disclosure you wish to make regarding anyone in this course or in the iSchool community violates that person's privacy interests, please feel free to ask the instructor for guidance.
Knowing violations of these principles of academic conduct, privacy or copyright may result in University disciplinary action under the Student Code of Conduct.
Students with Disabilities
To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled Student Services: 448 Schmitz, 206-543-8924 (V/TTY). If you have a letter from DSS indicating that you have a disability which requires academic accommodations, please present the letter to me so we can discuss the accommodations you might need in the class.
Academic accommodations due to disability will not be made unless the student has a letter from DSS specifying the type and nature of accommodations needed.
Student Code of Conduct
Good student conduct is important for maintaining a healthy course environment. Please familiarize yourself with the University of Washington's Student Code of Conduct.
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Last updated: Wednesday, 19-Oct-2011 22:38:31 PDT
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