Course Syllabus

Draft – not for class use

DGMD E-599 Digital Media Capstone Design Studio

Last Updated: July 27, 2015

Course Description

Students create an individual project, presenting it to fellow students and visiting faculty. They apply knowledge and skills obtained in the program to design a significant project in a collaborative environment. At the end of the semester, they make a formal oral presentation of their project to a faculty committee. (4 credits)

Course Prerequisite

Students must be degree candidates in the digital media arts and instructional design concentration, have completed eight courses (32 credits) toward the degree, and have an approved capstone project. They must submit a capstone project proposal to Dr. Jeff Parker by July 15. Approved students will be notified shortly thereafter for course registration.

Instructor

Jen Kramer, Instructor
Email: jen@jenkramer.org
Twitter: @jen4web
Facebook: www.facebook.com/webdesignjen 

Please email Jen with any personal issues that are affecting your class experience or with any information you do not wish to share with the rest of the class. Example: death in the family, severe illness, grading issues, etc.

Class meetings

This course runs wholly online starting September 1 and through an in-person weekend for capstone presentations. This will happen at One Brattle Square 202, in Harvard Square. You are expected to attend for the entire weekend as follows:

• Saturday, December 12, 9 am-5 pm
• Sunday, December 13, 9 am-1 pm

 

Grading

Your grade will be based upon:

20%: Student feedback, project management, and interim check-in assignments

20%: Final in-person presentation

60%: Capstone project

Capstone project: Students will be required to construct their own grading rubric. The instructor will review and approve these rubrics. Details will be provided in the first assignment.

Presentation: A grading rubric will be distributed at least one month in advance of the project presentation.

Student feedback, project management, and interim check-in assignments: Each month, you will report on your progress, including a revised list of deliverables, rubric, and milestones as needed. You will provide feedback to two other assigned students as part of each assignment.

Final in-person presentation

This course includes an intensive—and mandatory—weekend residency. Tuition does not include hotel accommodations, transportation, or meals for the on-campus weekend session.

NOTE: Students will not receive credit for the course if they miss any part of the required weekend unless they have approval in writing from the instructor and an alternative plan for presenting their work. In general, these waivers are granted only to international students not located in North America.

During this weekend, you will present your capstone project to a committee of faculty. This presentation will be worth 20% of your grade.

If you are not in North America, you must present remotely. Please contact Jen (jen@jenkramer.org) in writing for a waiver for this requirement. 

Regrading of assignments

There are no regrading of assignments offered for this course.

Academic Honesty

Once again, the purpose of this course is to teach you the fundamentals of digital media design and development. This means that copying the files of other students and submitting them as your own work is not only a violation of school academic policies, but a real shortchange to your ability to learn what you need to learn.

I fully expect that there will be no issues in this area. I ask that you help keep out of situations where I might need to take action regarding plagiarism, cheating and other acts of poor academic integrity.

You are responsible for understanding Harvard Extension School policies on academic integrity (www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/student-conduct/academic-integrity) and how to use sources responsibly. Not knowing the rules, misunderstanding the rules, running out of time, submitting "the wrong draft", or being overwhelmed with multiple demands are not acceptable excuses. There are no excuses for failure to uphold academic integrity. To support your learning about academic citation rules, please visit the Harvard Extension School Tips to Avoid Plagiarism (www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/tips-avoid-plagiarism), where you'll find links to the Harvard Guide to Using Sources and two, free, online 15-minute tutorials to test your knowledge of academic citation policy. The tutorials are anonymous open-learning tools.

Accessibility

The Extension School is committed to providing an accessible academic community. The Disability Services Office offers a variety of accommodations and services to students with documented disabilities. Please visit www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/disability-services-accessibility for more information.

Textbook

There is no required textbook for class.

Course Outline (subject to change)

Class #/date	Agenda
01- Sept 1	Introductions Introductions to each other and to our projects.
Sept 4	Assignments 1a-e due Grading rubric Project milestones Video of project overview Report of progress made over the summer Creation of blog
02- Sept 8	Guest lecture, project management with Lisa Sieverts
Sept 11	Assignment 1f (peer reviews) due
03- Sept 15	Guest lecture, usability fundamentals with Dr. Dennis Galletta
04- Sept 22	Guest lecture, user testing with Heather O'Neill
05- Sept 29
Oct 2	Assignment 2 Updates for project Effectiveness of meeting milestones Problems that need to be resolved Next steps
06- Oct 6
Oct 9	Peer reviews for assignment 2 are due
07- Oct 13
08- Oct 20
09- Oct 27
Oct 30	Assignment 3 Updates for project Effectiveness of meeting milestones Problems that need to be resolved Next steps
10- Nov 3	Guest lecture, perfect presentations
Nov 6	Peer reviews for assignment 3 are due
11- Nov 10
12- Nov 17
Nov 23-29	Thanksgiving week, no class
13- Dec 1
14- Dec 8
	Presentation weekend: Dec 12-13
15- Dec 15	All deliverables due December 18.