Summary of assignments and grading

Readings and weekly memos

For each class, there are 1-2 required readings and 2-5 “recommended” readings. Students are expected to read the required readings in detail, except where noted otherwise (occasionally we will ask you to skim a reading, or to only read a specific section). Students are not required to read the “recommended” readings. Students can also access a long list of “optional” readings for each week via drop-down menus in the readings calendar.

At midnight the day before each class, a short (approximately 1-2 pages) memo is due reflecting on the week’s readings (the memo must cover each of the required readings, and can also cover recommended or optional readings if desired). Memos are an opportunity for you to engage deeply with the readings before class: we expect that memos will provide an analysis of the readings (not a mere summary). Any format of the memo is acceptable, including: discussing reading strengths and weaknesses, raising questions, putting the readings in conversation with one another, and/or relating the readings to other topics discussed in the course. Your memo should demonstrate that you have both completed all readings and thought about them carefully. Memos are due each Monday at 11:59pm. Memos are worth 2 points each. The lowest two memo grades will be dropped (so students can choose not to submit memos on two weeks without penalty).

Final project (details)

Students are expected to complete a semester-long group project that includes some amount of data analysis and some amount of social and ethical analysis. While the format and topic of the final project is flexible — so long as it’s focused on big data and development — we expect students will produce high quality work that could be submitted for publication. More details on expectations for the final project, along with project ideas and a compendium of publicly available data sets, is available in the section on final projects.

The project is made up of several assignments and deadlines:

• • February 5 at 11:59pm: Paragraph submission on data set and application (5 points). Submit one paragraph describing the question you intend to explore in your final project. Your paragraph should include (1) information about the datasets you will analyze; (2) initial ideas for the social/ethical analysis you plan to conduct; (3) names of your team members (if you have already identified any), and (4) how certain you are that you will do this project. Also post your paragraph submission under the bcourses discussion thread for final project milestone #1 so other students can take a look before the in-class final project mixer. This is a soft commitment, your project proposal can change up until February 19. Everyone needs to write a submit this assignment individually, even if they have already identified final project teammates. 
  • February 19 at 11:59pm: Deadline to commit to a project idea, and submit a one-page proposal (10 points). Submit a one-page proposal identifying your team, data source, application area, plan for data analysis, and plan for social/ethical analysis. Also include your stakeholder map (which will be used for in-class labs in the next couple of weeks). Details of the stakeholder map requirement are on the final project page. 
  • March 18 at 11:59pm: Midterm submission (15 points). Submit a 4-6 page report of your work so far, including (1) an annotated bibliography that summarizes the 5-10 most relevant related papers, (2) at least one technical analysis, (3) at least one social/ethical analysis, and (4) a list of questions that you’d like feedback on from the teaching team.
  • April 23: Final presentation (15 points). Each group will give a 10 minute presentation on their project, with 4 minutes for Q&A. Your presentation should cover motivation and related work, your research question, data and methods (briefly), results (on both data analysis and social/ethical analysis, though you do not need to cover both in equal depth), and discussion of broader implications and limitations of your work.
  • May 5 at 11:59pm: Final paper (35 points). The final paper should include both data analysis and social/ethical analysis, and be of sufficient quality to be submitted to a conference, journal, or workshop. Alongside the final paper, students will submit a 1-page reflection on the process of doing technical work alongside social/ethical considerations. This reflection should be written by each student individually. Note: Please include at the top of your submission how you would like us to allocate points in your grade towards your methods and results for data analysis and your methods and results for social/ethical analysis. A total of 15 points are allocated towards these two categories, and a minimum of 3 need to be assigned to each. So, for example, you could assign 3 points to data analysis and 12 points to social/ethical analysis, 12 points to data analysis and 3 points to social/ethical analysis, or anywhere in between.

Late policy

Late reading memos will be given no credit. For final project deliverables, 10% will be subtracted from the grade for each day late.