Foundations of Information Science

How to Succeed in This Course

Do the readings

There is no textbook for this course. All readings have been made available through this course website. You must be logged in to download them.

Each week you will take a short quiz to check your understanding of that week’s reading. You should complete the quiz before you attend recitation that week.

In the course schedule you can see the total amount of reading for each week. I rarely assign more than 20,000 words per week—usually closer to 15,000, often less. The average adult reader reads around 250 words per minutes, and most college students read a bit faster than that. So you should expect to spend around 75 minutes per week doing the reading for this course.

The readings have been selected to be interesting and accessible, but some of them may be a bit difficult if you’ve never read academic literature before.

Attend the lectures

In my lectures, I will draw connections among each week’s readings and try to put them in the context of the broader themes of the course.

You will get more out of the lectures if you’ve done the reading ahead of time. The lectures are not summarizations of the readings, and some concepts will only be introduced in the lectures.

I will post my slides to the course website either immediately before or immediately after each lecture. You must be logged into the course website to download the slides.

Attend recitations

Recitations are your opportunity to learn more actively through synchronous group activities and discussions. You’ll be able to ask questions, clear up confusions, and connect the course topics to your other interests.

Attending recitations is required. You can miss one with no questions asked. If you expect to miss more than one, talk with your recitation instructor.

During the last part of the course, you’ll work with 2–3 others on a case study of a selection system.

Communicate about problems

If an unexpected problem arises for you during the course of the semester (serious illness, etc.), please let me know so that we can discuss an appropriate plan.

If you have a documented disability or medical condition, make sure to contact Accessibility Resources and Service.

If you are experiencing mental health issues, contact Counseling and Psychological Services.

If you are experiencing discrimination, harassment, violence or exploitation of any kind, see the resources listed here or https://safe.unc.edu/.

Evaluation & Grading

Course grades will be determined as follows:

5% Participation and attendance

5% Weekly reading quizzes

30% Exam #1 (written answers, work on it for one week)

30% Exam #2 (taken online, two hour time limit)

30% Final group project: investigative findings presentation and report

Points will be converted to letter grades as follows:

100-95: A, 94-91: A-, 90-88: B+, 87-85: B, 84-81: B-, 80-78: C+, 77-75: C, 74-71: C-, 70-68: D+, 67-60: D, < 60: F

See the UNC Catalog for definitions of these letter grades.

Communicating with me

Email is the best way to communicate with me outside of class. It is particularly well-suited for short-answer and clarification questions.

I will try my best to respond to you within a 24-hour period, but in some cases it may take 2 to 3 days. Please keep this in mind when you are scheduling your own activities, especially those related to exam or assignment preparation. If you wait until the day before an exam or assignment due date to ask me a clarification question, there is a good chance that you will not receive a response in time.

If you need assistance understanding a concept or an assignment, or have another potentially complicated question, then please make an appointment for my office hours. If you ask a question via email that I believe is better suited for in-person discussion, then I will ask you to make an office hours appointment. If you have questions about how your assignment was evaluated, then you must make an office hours appointment. I will not discuss your grades or my evaluation of your work via email.

Student Code of Conduct

You are expected to know and follow the UNC Student Code of Conduct, and in particular to be aware of its policies on academic integrity. Collaboration, discussion, and seeking assistance from other students is encouraged in this class and is not inconsistent with those policies. What counts as acceptable collaboration does change from one activity to another, though, so please see my guidelines for each activity, and ask me to clarify if you are unsure. In the case of written work, all words drawn from others must be attributed appropriately.

Attendance

As stated in the University’s Class Attendance Policy, no right or privilege exists that permits a student to be absent from any class meeting, except for these University Approved Absences:

• Authorized University activities, about which the University Approved Absence Office (UAAO) publishes FAQs for students.
• Disability, religious observance, pregnancy, or short-term military service, as required by law and approved by the University Compliance Office — or, for short-term military service, the Dean of Students.
• A significant health condition, or a personal or family emergency, as approved by the Office of the Dean of Students, Violence Prevention and Advocacy Services, or the University Compliance Office.

If you need to miss a class for a reason that is not one of these, please talk to me, and we will work out the best approach to any work you miss.

Changes to This Syllabus

I reserve the right to make changes to this syllabus, including to project due dates and test dates. Any such changes will be announced as early as possible.

Accessibility and Accommodations

The university facilitates the implementation of reasonable accommodations, including resources and services, for students with disabilities, chronic medical conditions, a temporary disability or pregnancy complications resulting in barriers to fully accessing courses, programs and activities.

Accommodations are determined through the University Compliance Office (UCO) Accommodations Team, which receives requests for accommodations for disability, pregnancy and related conditions, and sincerely held religious beliefs and practices, and determines eligibility and reasonable accommodations in accordance with applicable state and federal laws. See the UCO Accommodations website for contact information or email: accommodations@unc.edu

Counseling and Psychological Services

Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) is strongly committed to addressing the mental health needs of a diverse student body through timely access to consultation and connection to clinically appropriate services, whether for short or long-term needs. Go to the CAPS website or visit their facilities on the third floor of the Campus Health building for an initial evaluation to learn more. You can also call CAPS at 919-966-3658 at any hour for immediate assistance.

Dealing with Discrimination, Harassment, Violence or Exploitation

Any student who is impacted by discrimination, harassment, interpersonal (relationship) violence, sexual violence, sexual exploitation, or stalking is encouraged to seek resources on campus or in the community. Reports can be made to the University Compliance Office (UCO), formerly the Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office, or by contacting its Report and Response Managers (reportandresponse@unc.edu). Note that instructors are designated Responsible Employees, and must report to the UCO any information they receive about the forms of misconduct listed above. Confidential resources include Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS; see above), the University’s Ombuds Office, and the Gender Violence Services Coordinators at Violence Prevention and Advocacy Services (VPAS) (gvsc@unc.edu). Additional resources are available at https://safe.unc.edu/.