Syllabus

The internet is a strange place, and this course is designed to ask the question: “what is the internet and how do I create content for it?” The internet contains the collision of culture, technology, and content — which all come together with unexpected consequences when billions of people are networked together. This class is an opportunity to poke at the internet and explore some of the oddities that make up one of the most significant technological advances in the last century.

We’ll learn how to create things for the internet through a (relatively) simple webpage. My hope is that students will leave this class with the ability to create digital content and develop a website (blog) they can show potential employers, friends, or some other yet-to-be-determined audience. Mostly what I’d like students to develop is a healthy sense of curiosity about the internet and express that curiosity through writing, design, video, and audio content.

Here’s the full syllabus with policies, procedures and such.

Helpful Writing Tools

These are the writing and organization tools that I will mention during the semester. They all have a free option. I’ll add to this list as we go through the semester.

• IA Writer
• Trello
• Zotero
• Grammarly

Class Links

• List of Class Websites
• Slides used in class
• Full Syllabus
• Peer Review Forms
• Personas

Graded Assignments

• Reading Responses (6%)
• Persona & UI Review (In Class) (10%)
• Marking Analysis Due (20%)
• Blog Posts (25%)
• Retrospective (10%)
• Final Blog (25%)
• Attendance (4%)

Grading Matrices

Schedule

5/29/2019: Introductions

6/3/2019: What is the Internet? I

• Watch: WordPress Introduction
• Due: Create a WordPress & Pick a website topic. Submit link to eLearning

6/5/2019: What is the Internet? II

• Read: The Moral Economy of Web 2.0 (Part 1) & How Much of the Internet is Fake?
• Assignment Due: Reading Response – Publish link to eLearning and your site.

6/10/2019: Personas

• In Class: Create a persona for your site
• Guest Speaker: Ben Newell, VP of Product and UX at rewardStyle

6/12/2019: Written Content + WordPress

• In Class: Writing Practice + Choosing a Theme
• Read: Handley part I

6/17/2019: Project Planning

• Guest Speaker: Michael Jacobe, VP of Technical Operations at rewardStyle
• In Class: Plan your Project with Trello
• Read: Handley Part II

6/19/2019: Digital Content

• Read: Handley Part III
• In Class: Planning & pitching your blog

6/24/2019: Long Form Content; Due: Marketing Plan

• Read: Long Form Example from The Atlantic
• In Class: Edit Marketing Plan
• Review Design

6/26/2019: No Class

7/1/2019: Long Form Content

• In Class: Revise Plan Long Form Content
• Read: Chapter 73 in Handley (it’s short)

7/3/2019: Short Form Content; Long Form Due (eLearning)

• In Class: Peer review of long form
• Due: Final Long form assignment due in eLearning
• Peer Review Link

7/8/2019: Data (Visualization) + Short Form Content

• Read: Review a blog post that has short (300 words or less) content
• In Class: Write a short form content (100 words) and post it

7/10/2019: The Audible Web (Podcast)

• Due: Draft of Visual Assignment
• In Class: Peer Review Visual Assignment; Peer Review Form

7/15/2019: No Class

7/17/2019: Podcasts); Visual Assignment Due (eLearning)

• Due: Visual Assignment Final (eLearning)
• In Class Form
• Read: 3 Learnings from Creative Teams  
• I’m assigning the Google Think article to see how markets think about videos and targeted marketing. It’s helpful to see the thought process from a Google employee’s perspective.

7/22/2019: YouTube

• Due: Audio Draft
• In Class: Peer Review Audio Assignment
• YouTube Favorites Form
• Audio Peer Review Form

7/24/2019: YouTube II; Audio Post Due (eLearning)

• Due: Final Audio Post (eLearning)
• Form for Class

7/29/2019: Finalizing your design

• In Class: Video Peer Review
• Video Peer Review Form

7/31/2019: Retrospective; Video Post Due (eLearning)

• Read: How to run a retrospective meeting
• In Class: Class retrospective
• Due: Video Assignment

8/5/2019: Wrapping up; Retrospective Due (eLearning)

• In Class: Peer Review of Websites
• Due: Retrospective

8/7/2019: No class. Due: final blog link (eLearning).