LIBR 200-15
Information Communities
Spring 2015 Greensheet

Dr. Scott Walter
E-mail
Office: online
Phone: (773) 325-8023
Office Hours:
Virtual office hours. Telephone advising by appointment. Please note that your instructor is on U.S. Central Time.

Getting Started

Canvas Information: Courses will be available beginning January 22nd, 12:01am PST unless you are taking an intensive or a one unit or two unit class that starts on a different day. In that case the class will open at 12:01am PST on the first day that the class meets.

You will be enrolled into the Canvas site automatically.

Note: All LIBR 200 students receive a complimentary student membership in a professional association, see: http://ischool.sjsu.edu/current-students/resources/complimentary-student-memberships-professional-associations

Course Description

Examines information users and the social, cultural, economic, technological, and political forces that shape their information access and use. The different resources and services that information professionals provide for their user communities will also be addressed as well as ethical/legal professional practice. LIBR 200 meets SJSU's graduate writing assessment requirement.

Note: iSchool requires that students earn a B in this 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.

Course Requirements

Complete LIBR 203 Online Learning: Tools and Strategies for Success
This is a mandatory 1 unit course that introduces students to the various e-learning tools used in the iSchool program. For more information, see: http://ischool.sjsu.edu/current-students/courses/core-courses-and-electives

Writing Requirement
If the instructor finds that a student's writing is unacceptable, the instructor will require the student to sign up for online writing tutoring. The student will ask the tutor to confirm with the instructor that he or she is attending sessions.

Blog Reports
Students will perform a series of activities relating to their community group (i.e., describe and evaluate a service, interview a community member about his or her use of new social media, etc.) and report their findings on their blog. Students will be expected to read and comment on the blogs of other students. (SLOs 1, 4, 5, 6, 7)

Annotated Bibliography
Students will compile an annotated bibliography of 8 to 10 sources relevant to information use by members of the community they have chosen to study, with all sources drawn from scholarly sources, e.g., subject encyclopedias, scholarly books (or book chapters), scholarly monographs, articles drawn from the peer-reviewed journal literature. (SLOs 1,2,3)

Literature Review
Students will compose a literature review based on 10 to 12 peer-reviewed books and articles about the community they have chosen to study. The literature review will assess the current research on the community by identifying the most influential authors and publications, major theories and findings, and continuing gaps. (SLOs 1,2,3)

Information Sources Survey
Using LIS guides, databases, and other relevant professional resources, students will locate and describe 10 information sources created for, and used by, the community they are studying. The survey will include a critical description of each source and an assessment of its value to the community. (SLOs 1,5)

Research Paper
Students will prepare a final paper based on their reading in the scholarly and professional literature and the data collected for each blog report. The paper should include a literature review and critically assess the findings of their blog research. The paper should be a minimum of 4,000 words in length, the reference list should include at least 20 citations (with the majority drawn from scholarly sources), and the formatting should follow APA style, as found in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.).  (SLOs 1,2,3,4)

Grading

Assignment Deadlines
All assignments are due on Sundays and must be turned in by 5 p.m (Pacific). Late submissions may be reduced by 20% of the total points possible for that assignment.

Calendar

Other Relevant Information
As a graduate student, you are expected to:

• Complete and carefully consider all assigned readings.
• Fully participate in all class activities and discussions.
• Complete all assignments on time.
• Inform the instructor if you have an illness or emergency that requires you to be absent from our online learning environment for an extended period of time or to request an extension on an assignment.

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GWAR

This course satisfies the Graduate Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR).

INFO 200 gives students graduate-level writing experience, including a literature review and research paper. Graduate-level academic writing is formal and logical. It involves the avoidance of bias, the inclusion of evidence, and the development of strong arguments. Scholarly writing uses concise, precise, and clear language, is cohesive, and utilizes a logically organized flow of ideas. Successful completion of the research paper satisfies San José State University's Graduate Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR). If the instructor finds that a student's writing is unacceptable, the instructor will require the student to sign up for online writing tutoring. The student will ask the tutor to confirm with the instructor that he or she is attending sessions.

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 has no prequisite requirements.

Student Learning Outcomes

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

1. Define the concept of community within a framework of information creation, use, and exchange.
2. Locate, synthesize, and properly cite research and professional literature relating to specific information communities.
3. Describe the various theories and research devoted to information use and behavior.
4. Articulate prominent issues related to diversity, special populations, emerging technologies, and ethics within the context of various information communities/environments.
5. Identify various resources and services that information professionals utilize to serve their communities.
6. Identify and describe current and emerging technologies that impact the creation, use, and exchange of information within communities.
7. Engage and exchange across open social platforms via various media: text, audio, video.

Core Competencies (Program Learning Outcomes)

LIBR 200 supports the following core competencies:

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Textbooks

No Textbooks For This Course.

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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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