USLA04: Representing the Interface

Assignments and Assessments

Students will complete two assignments.

Essay:

A close reading (3 - 5 pages) on any one passage from The Fellowship of the Ring of any passage from a work we have read in-class.

Due date: To be announced.

Students are advised to read the web page on Reading texts before writing the essay. There is also a worthwhile selection of short reading assignments online.

All final student projects will be published online in the interface web. AN HTML workshop will be held to teach students basic HTML. I've included the following HTML templates for you to use:

• theory template
• literature template
• design template
• arts template

For more information, go to:

• Harvard's Guidelines for Close Reading

Design or Research Project:

Design groups will propose and visualize a new interface inspired by an idea we have discussed in class or read in the course of our readings. Examples include imaging a new interface for an existing product or proposing a new computer game. Digital artworks, interactive fictions or non-fictional works may also be proposed. For example, you might create a series of non-interactive digital artworks based on the idea of an interface between worlds. Or you might compose a text, or modify an online text and re-work it in some way by creating a different structure and interface.

Students can also work on a group research project exploring an idea we have discussed in class. Class will be devoted to developing design and research proposals. These proposals will, in turn, be presented to the class.

Examples of previous projects are online at The Interface Web. Please note that a list of all media used to complete the project and a list of all works (written and visual) used in your project, as well as a bibliography, need to be included as part of your project.

A great deal of work on the project will be done in our media lab sessions.

Each group will consist of two to three students. Students will need to list their roles and responsibilites in the project about five weeks before the project's due date (to be announced).

Please note that once a group has been formed students cannot change their roles or elect to leave the group to complete independent research.

Assessment

Assessment is determined as follows:

1. Essay : 20%
2. Design or Research Project: 50%
3. Bulletin Board postings: 10%
4. Class Participation: 20%. This includes in-class presentations, questions and responses to other students as well as work conducted in the media lab. All students will be asked to make at least one in-class presentation to the class.

Before class each student will need to post a short response to an IVLE Bulletin Board to one of a number of questions regarding the set reading. Students need to make at least six postings to this group throughout the semester.

Policies

Students must provide a Zip disk to save their own work. Students are welcome and encouraged to bring their own laptops to class.

Attendance

An excused absence (from seminars, writing conferences and presentations) is an absence covered by a medical certificate (a copy of which you must submit to me immediately upon your return to University); or a letter from the Dean (covering special events such as athletic meets, debates, concerts, and conferences).

All other absences are unexcused. You are allowed two unexcused absences over the semester, beyond which you will be dropped from the course.

If you are having problems or difficulties please contact me before any unexcused absence.

Deadlines

All essays and drafts must be submitted on the dates specified in the course syllabus. Late work will not be accepted. If you have a legitimate reason for not being able to submit a piece of work, contact me before the due date of the assignment, providing the necessary documentation - from your doctor in the case of a medical emergency; your parents in the case of a family emergency; or the Dean of your Faculty in the case of other university commitments. Falling behind may warrant exclusion from the course if there is not a legitimate medical or family emergency.