Reading Journal: Course Web & Questionnaire

Due
12:00 noon, Friday, September 4
Preparation
Read the course Web site: http://cs.whitman.edu/~davisj/cs/200A-HCI/2015F/
Submitting your work
Please post your response as your first blog entry on CLEo. If you have not done so, read the introduction to the reading journal. If you have any difficulty posting to your blog, please email me.
Collaboration
Each student should turn in their own answers to the questions below. You may discuss the assigned readings with anyone you wish, but you should clearly acknowledge the source of any insights that come from outside your reading of the text(s).
Evaluation
I will evaluate this assignment on the scale presented in the syllabus.
Note
This reading journal entry is atypical in several ways. First, there are a lot of questions; usually I will ask only 3-4 questions in total. Second, I have some questions to ask about you and your background, as well as about the reading. Third, journal entries will normally be due the day of class; this journal entry is due on Friday to make sure that you are ready to do the "real" assignments before class on Monday.

Part A: About the course

Write at least one sentence and at most one paragraph in response to each of the questions below.

  1. Having read the course Web site and glanced over the schedule, what aspect of this course are you most excited about? Why? [prioritization]
  2. What sentence in the syllabus most surprised you? Please quote, and indicate which section the quotation is from. Why did you choose that sentence? [prioritization]
  3. In your own words, what do you need to do be successful in this class? [translation]
  4. Think of a class that you've taken that had some policies or learning activities similar to this course. Explain how they are similar. [analogy]
  5. Confirm that you have read and understood the Academic Honesty Policy for this course.
  6. Why do you think I gave this assignment?
  7. What questions do you have about the course that aren't answered by the course Web site?

Part B: About you

  1. What do you like to be called?
  2. What pronouns should I use to refer to you? (She/her/her, he/him/his, they/them/their, ze/hir/hir, or something else.)
  3. What is something important to you outside of academics? (For example, family, friendships, a group you belong to, a hobby or intellectual pursuit, ....) Write a few sentences about why it is important to you.
  4. What other courses have you taken (or what courses are you taking now) that seem potentially relevant to this course?
  5. Do you have a relationship with an organization that might benefit from this course's design project? You might consider campus offices, student groups, community non-profits, or local businesses. What is the nature of your relationship?
  6. What do you hope to gain from this course?
  7. What are your concerns about this course?
  8. What's one thing I should know about Whitman as a new faculty member?
  9. What questions do you have about me that haven't already been answered?

Janet Davis (davisj@whitman.edu)

Created September 1, 2015
Last revised September 1, 2015

Acknowledgments: This assignment is adapted from previous assignments given by me, Sam Rebelsky, and Jerod Weinman. Question 10 is adapted from an exercise reported by Claude Steele in Whistling Vivaldi (2010).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.