LIBR 287-06
LIBR 287-15
Seminar in Information Science
Topic: Virtual Worlds: Life in Tudor Times
Fall 2013 Greensheet

Lori Bell
E-mail
Other contact information: (309)338-5115 cell  
Office Hours: Arranged as needed

Course Description

This course will immerse students in Virtual England during the reign of the Tudors (1485-1603).  Based on research conducted into the events taking place during the reign of Henry VII, through the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I, students will create and participate in an immersive role-playing experience.  The experience will prepare the students to demonstrate the ways in which librarians and archivists and museum curators can create community and serve as leaders in portraying knowledge, history, and documents in creative and educational ways using virtual world technologies.

Course Requirements

Course Format
The course will meet in the virtual world of Second Life on Tuesday evenings from 6-8 pm pacific time. We will use a ning for course communication outside of Second Life:

http://tudortimes.ning.com/

Assignments

• Assignment 1 - Discussion on ning - 25 points - SLO3
• Assignment 2 - Second Life skills checklist - 25 points - SLO3
• Assignment 3 - Ning discussion - 25 points - SLO3
• Assignment 4 - Ning discussion - 25 points - SLO3
• Assignment 5 - Short Tudor topic paper - 25 points - SLO1
• Assignment 6 - 5 minute presentation on Tudor topic - 25 points - SLO1
• Assignment 7 - Ning discussion/informal character intros - 25 points - SLO3
• Assignment 8 - Short simulation paper - 25 points - SLO3
• Assignmnent 9 - Home assignment - 25 points - SLO2
• Assignment 10 - Ning discussion on homes - 25 points - SLO2
• Assignment 11 - Machinima/power point story - 40 points - SLO4
• Assignment 12 - Planning document - 10 points - SLO4
• Assignment 13 - Character introductions - 25 points - SLO4
• Assignment 14 - Ning discussion - 25 points - SLO3
• Assignment 15 - Building checklist - 25 points - SLO3
• Assignment 16 - Display or exhibit - 50 points - SLO4
• Assignment 17 - Ning discussion - 25 points - SLO3
• Assignment 18 - Ning discussion - 25 points - SLO3
• Assignment 19 - Participation in book discussion - 25 points - SLO1
• Assignment 20 - Ning discussion - 25 points - SLO3
• Assignment 21 - Presentation at Renaissance Faire - 50 points - SLO4

Late assignments
If you have a conflict which will cause you to need additional time on assignments, please contact me to arrange an alternate due date. Otherwise, there is a minimum 10 percent deduction for late assignments.

Course Calendar

• Week 1 - August 21 - No class meeting,Student intros on ning
• CLASSES MEET IN SECOND LIFE EVERY TUESDAY NIGHT FROM 8-10 PM SLT
• Week 2 - August 27 - SL Orientation, Basics of navigation, Tour of SJSU SLIS, Student introductions, avatar overview, Introduction of course mentors
• Week 3 - September 3- Introduction to Libraries and Museums in SL, Affordances of Virtual Worlds in displaying artifacts and collections
• Week 4 - September 10 - Overview of Tudor dynasty and culture, Panel discussion with Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, and more, History of the book
• Week 5 - September 17 - Presentations by students on Tudor culture, Introduction to roleplay in Real Life and SL, Field trip
• Week 6 - September 24 - Immersive Learning and Simulated Learning, Character intros and presentations
• Week 7 - October 1 - Tour of living areas, Intro to building and editing simple objects
• Week 8 - October 8 - Preservation and Documentation of Virtual Worlds, Intro to Machinima
• Week 9 - October 15 - A Celebration of the King's Progress event/Ball and Banquet/Role playing event
• Week 10 - October 22 - How to create a simple exhibit, Creating a presentation, Creating a book display
• Week 11 - October 29 - Discussion of Tudor exhibits and displays to commemorate the reigns - work on exhibits in class
• Week 12 - November 5 - Planning and holding events in Second Life
• Week 13 - November 12 - The King's Great matter panel discussion, Begin planning for Renaissance Faire
• Week 14 - November 19 - The Literature and Drama of Tudor times, Book discussion, work on Renaissance Faire
• Week 15 - November 26 - The Elizabethan Era, set up for Renaissance Faire
• Week 16 - December 3 - Renaissance Faire - each student will display their exhibit and present at the Faire

Course Grading

• Penalty for late work - see above

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Course Workload Expectations

Success in this course is based on the expectation that students will spend, for each unit of credit, a minimum of forty-five hours over the length of the course (normally 3 hours per unit per week with 1 of the hours used for lecture) for instruction or preparation/studying or course related activities including but not limited to internships, labs, clinical practica. Other course structures will have equivalent workload expectations as described in the syllabus.

Instructional time may include but is not limited to:
Working on posted modules or lessons prepared by the instructor; discussion forum interactions with the instructor and/or other students; making presentations and getting feedback from the instructor; attending office hours or other synchronous sessions with the instructor.

Student time outside of class:
In any seven-day period, a student is expected to be academically engaged through submitting an academic assignment; taking an exam or an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction; building websites, blogs, databases, social media presentations; attending a study group;contributing to an academic online discussion; writing papers; reading articles; conducting research; engaging in small group work.

Course Prerequisites

LIBR 200, Other prerequisites may be added depending on content. 

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Develop conceptual and practical strategies for presenting information on a mobile device.
2. Explain the elements of a good user experience.
3. Describe user research techniques and a design and innovation methodology.
4. Articulate the relationship between design thinking, user experience, and innovation.
5. Analyze library websites with user research techniques.
6. Evaluate a library website and identify good aspects and areas that could be improved.
7. Describe how libraries can improve their physical touchpoints with user research techniques.
8. Apply design thinking skills to identify opportunities for libraries.
9. Identify nontraditional user-centered library programs or services and use them to explain opportunity for the future of libraries.
10. Describe the web service model and be able to access and retrieve information from a 3rd party service.
11. Design interfaces to display web service content on a variety of mobile devices through responsive web design.
12. Examine programming and markup languages used for web application development.
13. Navigate an IDE (integrated development environment) for web application development.
14. Describe the model-view-controller (MVC) programming model.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

LIBR 287 supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

Required Textbooks:

• Hinrichs, R., & Wankel, C. (Eds.). (2012). Engaging the avatar: New frontiers in immersive education (research in management education and development). Information Age Publishing. Available through Amazon: 1617357510

• Meyer, G. J. (2011). The Tudors: The complete story of England's most notorious dynasty. Bantam. Available through Amazon: 038534077X

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Grading Scale

The standard SJSU School of Information Grading Scale is utilized for all iSchool courses:

In order to provide consistent guidelines for assessment for graduate level work in the School, these terms are applied to letter grades:

• C represents Adequate work; a grade of "C" counts for credit for the course;
• B represents Good work; a grade of "B" clearly meets the standards for graduate level work;
  For core courses in the MLIS program (not MARA) — INFO 200, INFO 202, INFO 204 — the iSchool requires that students earn a B in the course. If the grade is less than B (B- or lower) after the first attempt you will be placed on administrative probation.  You must repeat the class the following semester. If -on the second attempt- you do not pass the class with a grade of B or better (not B- but B) you will be disqualified.
  
• A represents Exceptional work; a grade of "A" will be assigned for outstanding work only.

Students are advised that it is their responsibility to maintain a 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA).

University Policies

General Expectations, Rights and Responsibilities of the Student

As members of the academic community, students accept both the rights and responsibilities incumbent upon all members of the institution. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with SJSU's policies and practices pertaining to the procedures to follow if and when questions or concerns about a class arises. See University Policy S90-5 at http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/S90-5.pdf. More detailed information on a variety of related topics is available in the SJSU catalog at http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/catalog/departments/LIS.html. In general, it is recommended that students begin by seeking clarification or discussing concerns with their instructor. If such conversation is not possible, or if it does not serve to address the issue, it is recommended that the student contact the Department Chair as a next step.

Dropping and Adding

Students are responsible for understanding the policies and procedures about add/drop, grade forgiveness, etc. Refer to the current semester's Catalog Policies section at http://info.sjsu.edu/static/catalog/policies.html. Add/drop deadlines can be found on the current academic year calendars document on the Academic Calendars webpage at http://www.sjsu.edu/provost/services/academic_calendars/. The Late Drop Policy is available at http://www.sjsu.edu/aars/policies/latedrops/policy/. Students should be aware of the current deadlines and penalties for dropping classes.

Information about the latest changes and news is available at the Advising Hub at http://www.sjsu.edu/advising/.

Consent for Recording of Class and Public Sharing of Instructor Material

University Policy S12-7, http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/S12-7.pdf, requires students to obtain instructor's permission to record the course and the following items to be included in the syllabus:

• "Common courtesy and professional behavior dictate that you notify someone when you are recording him/her. You must obtain the instructor's permission to make audio or video recordings in this class. Such permission allows the recordings to be used for your private, study purposes only. The recordings are the intellectual property of the instructor; you have not been given any rights to reproduce or distribute the material."
  • It is suggested that the syllabus include the instructor's process for granting permission, whether in writing or orally and whether for the whole semester or on a class by class basis.
  • In classes where active participation of students or guests may be on the recording, permission of those students or guests should be obtained as well.
• "Course material developed by the instructor is the intellectual property of the instructor and cannot be shared publicly without his/her approval. You may not publicly share or upload instructor generated material for this course such as exam questions, lecture notes, or homework solutions without instructor consent."

Academic integrity

Your commitment, as a student, to learning is evidenced by your enrollment at San Jose State University. The University Academic Integrity Policy F15-7 at http://www.sjsu.edu/senate/docs/F15-7.pdf requires you to be honest in all your academic course work. Faculty members are required to report all infractions to the office of Student Conduct and Ethical Development. The Student Conduct and Ethical Development website is available at http://www.sjsu.edu/studentconduct/.

Campus Policy in Compliance with the American Disabilities Act

If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, or if you need to make special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible, or see me during office hours. Presidential Directive 97-03 at http://www.sjsu.edu/president/docs/directives/PD_1997-03.pdf requires that students with disabilities requesting accommodations must register with the Accessible Education Center (AEC) at http://www.sjsu.edu/aec to establish a record of their disability.

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