Course Schedule

3.4. Course Schedule#

3.4.1. Homework placements#

The Programming Assignments are dependent on prior chapter material as follows:

A1: Make 7 Reddit Posts depends on Chapter 3 Bots
A2: Try another site is basically a repeat of A1
A3: Trolling a Reply Bot depends on Chapter 7 Trolling
A4: Political Bias depends on Ch 8 Data Mining
A5: Best Comments depends on Ch 14 Content Moderation

Note: We haven’t yet placed the project or writing assignments on the schedules below. You will have to look at those and back track how many weeks early you want students to start those

3.4.2. Combining Chapters#

Depending on your specific schedule, you may need to double up some chapters in lectures. Some good candidate topics for doubling up are:

Ch 1 Intro / Ch 2 Definitions
Ch 6 Authenticity / Ch 7 Trolling
Ch 14 Content Moderation / Ch 15 Content Moderators
Ch 19 Capitalism / Ch 20 Colonialism

3.4.3. Necessary and Skippable Programming Demos#

Some of the programming demos are necessary for understanding future content programming demos and assignments, and some are not. Here is the current status of this:

Ch 1: No demo
Ch 2: Necessary (define programming, comments)
Ch 3: Necessary (program organization, specifically statements, variables, and sleep)
Ch 4: Necessary (data types)
Ch 5: Necessary (loops, lists, dictionaries)
Ch 6: Skippable (get author info)
Ch 7: Necessary (conditionals, string manipulation)
Ch 8: Necessary (sentiment analysis, loop variables)
Ch 9: Necessary (writing functions)
Ch 10: Skippable (alt-text)
Ch 11: Necessary (dictionary counters)
Ch 12: No demo (yet)
Ch 13: Skippable (only positive news)
Ch 14: Necessary (Display comment/reply tree recursively)
Ch 15: No demo
Ch 16: No demo (yet)
Ch 17: No demo (yet)
Ch 18: No demo (yet)
Ch 19: No demo
Ch 20: No demo
Ch 21: No demo

3.4.4. Quarter System Schedule#

This schedule assumes a quarter system with:

~10 weeks of class
~5 hours of class per week
- ~20 2-hour lectures
- ~10 1-hour labs
Total of ~50 hours of class time

Schedule#

Week 1 (Ch 1 & 2)
- Lecture: Intro
  - Syllabus and Demo bot
- Lab: Creating bot account
- Lecture: Definitions
  - Due Ch 1&2 Reading
  - Activity: Ethics Table
  - Demo: Ch 1 Bot demo
Week 2 (Ch 3 & 4)
- Lecture: Bots
  - Due Ch 3 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 3
  - Start A1: Make 7 Reddit Posts
- Lab: Programming Practice Ch 2 & 3
- Lecture: Data
  - Due Ch 4 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 5
Week 3: (Ch 5 & 6)
- Lecture: History of Social Media
  - Due Ch 5 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 5
  - Start A2: Try another site
- Lab: Programming Practice Ch 4 & 5
- Lecture: Authenticity
  - Due Ch 6 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 6
Week 4 (Ch 7 & 8)
- Lecture: Trolling
  - Due Ch 7 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 7
  - Start A3: Trolling a Reply Bot
- Lab: Programming Practice Ch 6 & 7
- Lecture: Data Mining
  - Due Ch 8 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 8
Week 5 (Ch 9 & 10)
- Lecture: Privacy and Security
  - Due Ch 9 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 9
- Lab: Programming Practice Ch 8 & 9
- Lecture: Accessibility
  - Due Ch 10 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 10
Week 6 (Ch 11 & 12)
- Lecture: Virality
  - Due Ch 11 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 11
  - Start A4: Political Bias
- Lab: Programming Practice Ch 10 & 11
- Lecture: Recommendations
  - Due Ch 12 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 12
Week 7 (Ch 13 & 14/15)
- Lecture: Mental Health
  - Due Ch 13 Reading
- Lab: Programming Practice Ch 12 & 13
- Lecture: Content Moderation / Moderators
  - Due Ch 14/15 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 14 & 15
  - Start A5: Best Comments
Week 8 (Ch 16 & 17)
- Lecture: Crowd Work
  - Due Ch 16 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 16
- Lab: Programming Practice Ch 14 - 16
- Lecture: Harassment
  - Due Ch 17 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 17
Week 9 (Ch 18 & 19/20)
- Lecture: Public Criticism and Public Shaming
  - Due Ch 18 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 18
- Lab: Programming Practice Ch 17 & 18
- Lecture: Capitalism / Colonialism
  - Due Ch 19/20 Reading
  - Activity/Demo from Ch 19 & 20
Week 10 (Ch 21 & project fair)
- Lecture: Conclusions
  - Due Ch 21 Reading
  - Activity: Student reflections on course
- Lab: Work on Final Project
- Lecture: Project Fair
  - Due: Final group project
  - Due: Final writing project

3.4.5. Semester System Schedule#

This schedule assumes a semester system with:

~16 weeks of class
~3 hours of class per week
- ~48 1-hour lectures
Total of ~48 hours of class time

16 weeks: 21 chapters - 1.3 chapters per week

48 lectures - .43 chapters per lecture

Week 1: Intro and Definitions (Chapters 1 & 2)
- Lecture: Intro / Social Media
  - Syllabus
  - Define Social media
  - Demo Bot
- Lecture: Ethics
  - Due Ch 1 - 2.2 Reading
  - Activity: Ethics chart
  - Start students on creating bot account
- Lecture: Automation
  - Due Finish Ch 2 Reading
  - Demo Bot in detail
Week 2: Bots (Chapter 3)
- Lecture:
- Due Ch 3 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 3 Programming demo and practice
  - Start A1: Make 7 Reddit Posts
- Lecture:
  - Ch 3 Design/Reflection activity
Week 3: Data (Chapter 4)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 4 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 4 Programming demo and practice
  - Start A2: Try another site
- Lecture:
  - Ch 4 Design/Reflection activity
Week 4: History of Social Media (Chapter 5)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 5 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 5 Programming demo and practice
- Lecture:
  - Ch 5 Design/Reflection activity
Week 5: Authenticity and Trolling (Chapters 6 & 7)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 6 & 7 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 6 & 7 Programming demo and practice
  - Start A3: Trolling a Reply Bot
- Lecture:
  - Ch 6 & 7 Design/Reflection activity
Week 6: Data Mining (Chapter 8)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 8 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 8 Programming demo and practice
- Lecture:
  - Ch 8 Design/Reflection activity
Week 7: Privacy and Security (Chapter 9)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 9 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 9 Programming demo and practice
- Lecture:
  - Ch 9 Design/Reflection activity
Week 8: Accessibility (Chapter 10)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 10 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 10 Programming demo and practice
- Lecture:
  - Ch 10 Design/Reflection activity
Week 9: Recommendation Algorithms (Chapter 11)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 11 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 11 Programming demo and practice
  - Start A4: Political Bias
- Lecture:
  - Ch 11 Design/Reflection activity
Week 10: Virality (Chapter 12)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 12 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 12 Programming demo and practice
- Lecture:
  - Ch 12 Design/Reflection activity
Week 11: Mental Health (Chapter 13)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 13 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 13 Programming demo and practice
- Lecture:
  - Ch 13 Design/Reflection activity
Week 12: Content Moderation and Moderators (Chapters 14 & 15)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 14 & 15 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 14 & 15 Programming demo and practice
  - Start A5: Best Comments
- Lecture:
  - Ch 14 & 15 Design/Reflection activity
Week 13: Crowdsourcing (Chapter 16)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 16 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 16 Programming demo and practice
- Lecture:
  - Ch 16 Design/Reflection activity
Week 14: Harassment (Chapter 17)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 17 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 17 Programming demo and practice
- Lecture:
  - Ch 17 Design/Reflection activity
Week 15: Public Criticism and Public Shaming (Chapter 18)
- Lecture:
  - Due Ch 18 Reading
- Lecture:
  - Ch 18 Programming demo and practice
- Lecture:
  - Ch 18 Design/Reflection activity
Week 16: Capitalism, Colonialism, Conclusions, and project fair (Chapters 19, 20, & 21)
- Lecture: Capitalism / Colonialism
  - Due Ch 19 & 20 Reading
  - Ch 19 & 20 Design/Reflection activity
- Lecture: Conclusions
  - Due Ch 21 Reading
  - Activity: Student reflections on course
- Lecture: Project Fair
  - Due: Final group project
  - Due: Final writing project