CPE/CSC 581-S07 Usability and Knowledge Management
CPE/CSC 581-S07 Usability and Knowledge Management Presentation and Paper
This course requires a written term paper on a topic related to the use and usability
of computers for knowledge management purposes.
Your emphasis can be either on technical and conceptual aspects of knowledge,
or on relevant usability aspects.
The term paper is accompanied by a presentation on the same topic.
This paper and presentation can be done individually, or in pairs of two students.
If you choose to do it with another student, I expect your paper to be either significantly longer
(about twice the length), or on a more challenging topic. For the latter, please put a short justification in the proposal.
Topic
You can select your own topic, but it must be pre-approved by the instructor.
A formal topic proposal must be submitted via Blackboard.
Your topic proposal must include:
date of the presentation (see also the signup sheet passed around in class)
proposed title
proposed abstract (a two or three paragraph explanation of the topic)
an outline of your approach to the topic (list the big issues and how you want to look at them,
maybe a note about why this is an important or timely topic)
a short bibliography (three sources minimum; books, papers, Web pages or other sources)
When you submit it to the Blackboard discussion forum, please create a new thread
that includes your presentation date and the topic.
Due Dates
The overall timeline for the presentation and paper is as follows:
Activity
Date
Topic selection
Week 1, 2
Topic proposal
Week 3
Reviewer feedback to topic proposal
Week 4
Draft version paper
Week 5
Reviewer feedback to draft version
Week 6
Final version paper
Week 8
Reviewer feedback to final version
Week 9
The documents are due at the end of the day on Thursday of the week
indicated in the table above.
Since the presentation dates are different for individual students, due dates
for presentation material will vary: A draft version of the presentation
is due one week before the presentation, with feedback by the reviewers
due two days before the presentation.
If the speaker and the reviewers prefer to meet in person
to go over the presentation instead of receiving feedback in writing, you can do this.
If so, please post a brief note on the respective Blackboard thread
with an overview of the issues that you discussed.
The final version of the presentation material is due when you give your presentation.
Late submission are subject to a penalty of 10% per business day.
Format
The paper should follow the requirements for submissions to the
ACM Crossroads student magazine;
see their Writers' Guide for more details.
I expect papers to be 4,000-6,000 words long, which corresponds to roughly 5-10 pages (depending on formatting).
Structure
You paper should contain the information listed below. You may use a different structure if you believe that it is better suited for your topic. The one below is based on a paper that makes a significant statement, and then analyses the issue at hand. Computer science papers also frequently use a structure with the following sections: introduction, background and related work, system design, system implementation, experiments, evaluation, and conclusions, references.
Cover Page: Title, author, affiliation of the author, date, and abstract
(5 - 10 sentences, less then 500 words is typical)
Introduction Section: an overview of the topic you are writing about,
and your own evaluation or resolution of the issues.
Facts Section: This section should have no opinion or slant,
just give the basic facts that give rise to the issue of interest.
Any evidence must be supported by citing your sources.
Statement of Issue: This contains a few sentences (preferably one!)
specifying the issue of interest.
Arguments about the Issue:
This will probably be two (maybe more) subsections detailing arguments about the issue.
If your issue is mainly two-sided, you may have one subsection advocating something,
then another subsection giving the opposite arguments.
This section should not hold your own arguments or judgments;
it's purpose is to list and explain the arguments that other people
have proposed (even those you do not agree with.)
Analysis: Now is the time for you to analyze, synthesize, argue,
support or attack others' arguments about the issue.
This is the main part of the paper.
Show what you think, reason out a resolution and show why you believe it works.
I do not have to agree with you, just make a good argument.
Bibliography and Citations (References):
It is imperative that whenever you make reference to a fact of some sort,
you cite an authoritative source for that fact.
(Ex: "the internet now makes up 4% of the Gross National Product
of the USA" [cited source goes here and in your bibliography.])
This is very important. Whenever you use ideas of others,
you must give the reference.
It is good to use ideas of others in your analysis, but you need to
acknowledge it by citing the source.
When you use Web pages as a source, try to provide at least the following information
in addition to the "naked" URL: Title, author, affiliation, date of publication (or date of viewing).
The ACM Crossroads journal refers to the following site for instructions on the use of Web pages as sources:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite7.html#1.
And of course you should be especially careful with the reliability and trustworthiness of Web pages.
The Role of Peer Reviewers
In addition to giving a presentation and writing a term paper, you are required
to act as peer reviewer or commentator on two papers written by other students,
and on their presentations.
In this capacity, your task is to make sure that the material is presented in such a way
that it is as easy as possible for readers to benefit from the paper.
The reviews of th papers are done either through Blackboard
or through the conference management system. For the presentation feedback,
you can use the form that we also use for team presentations.
It is in a spreadsheet "Mutual Team Member Evaluation" (Excel file) with a few other forms for my classes.
This includes, but is not restricted to the following:
Verify the facts. Make sure that the sources cited in the paper exist,
confirm the facts, and are reputable.
Check the arguments, and the conclusions derived. Try to ensure that
the reasoning employed in the paper is consistent and sound. Point out
if there are gaps, inconsistencies, or other problems.
Ensure balance and fairness. Especially for controversial issues,
authors may get carried away by their own preferences and viewpoints.
Look at the arguments presented for or against different perspectives,
and point out omissions or biased presentations. This is of course less relevant
for the sections where the authors present their own, subjective opinion.
Opinions and personal preferences should be clearly identified, and
there should be a clear separation between facts and issues on one hand,
and the subjective opinions on the other.
Do a consistency check between citations and the list of references
in the bibliography. Every citation in the text must have a full listing
in the bibliography, and ideally each source listed in the bibliography
should be referenced at least once in the text.
Point out spelling and grammatical errors.
Phrase your criticism in a professional and positive way.
Your job is not to "trash" the paper, but to help the author improve it.
The issues above are typically addressed when professionals review articles
submitted to academic journals, and are usually followed by a recommendation
to publish the article, reject it, or to ask the author for modifications.
To this end, the evaluators fill out a review form, and return it to
the editor of the journal, who then makes the final decision about
publication, rejection, or a request for modification of the paper.
The identity of the reviewers is usually only known to the editor;
otherwise, authors who are unhappy with the evaluation of their paper
may be tempted to retribute against the reviewers.
Specifically for this class, you need to complete the peer review form,
and submit it to the respective BlackBoard discussion forum (as a reply to the posting of the paper).
In order to keep the administrative overhead low, we will conduct open reviews,
where the authors know the identity of the reviewer.
If it becomes available in time, we may use a conference submission management tool
for this peer evaluation in addition to or instead of Blackboard.
In this case, we may do "blind" instead of open reviews.
You also need to formulate at least two follow-up questions that can serve as a starting point
for further discussion, for example after the respective presentation.
Term Paper Writing Tips
Do a spell check!
Check the grammar!
Remember the Writing Lab in 10-138.
Use a clean, clear format, with descriptive headings.
Number the pages.
Use the formatting support provided by word processors, such as styles.
Do not use long quotes; cite the ones you use.
Cite all "facts" you state by listing a reference
to the sources of those facts (this is important!)
Link citations to your bibliography in a reasonable way
(author and name, or numbers are fine); journals also often
specify explicitly how citations must be formatted.
Do an explicit analysis of the ideas, concepts, methods, or tools under investigation
in a rational manner, and restrict your subjective opinions to the appropriate
parts of the paper.
Grading Guidelines
The score will be determined by the following criteria (which are very similar to the ones used for other assignments):
knowledge of subject matter
(does the author demonstrate a good grasp of the topic)
evidence,
(does the author present facts, examples, or other material
that supports the arguments, and are the sources cited)
complexity and difficulty of the topic investigated,
(is the topic new, unexplored, difficult to comprehend;
does the paper contain original ideas)
thoroughness of the evaluation,
(are all relevant features of the tool examined)
accuracy
(is the material presented correct, consistent, and complete)
organization and readability of the write-up,
(is the paper well organized and easy to follow)
presentation and appearance
(is the appearence of the paper of professional quality,
e.g. without spelling or grammatical errors)
The peer reviews may influence my assessment of the paper, but they will not be used
in a quantitative manner to calculate the score.
There is also a number of articles in the
ACM Crossroads magazine,
(which contains only submissions by students) that are relevant to this class,
although most of them are a little dated by now:
Acknowledgement: I believe this was originally put together by
John Dalbey, with modifications by Clark Turner and Lori Fisher.
Adopted with further modifications by Franz J. Kurfess in Winter 2003, Spring 2005, and Spring 2007.