Fall 2023 - MACS265: Innovation Illinois

Fall 2023 Syllabus

[Fall 2023] MACS265 -- Innovation Illinois: From Accessible Design to Supercomputing Cultures
Class Syllabus

Karen Rodriguez’G, rodrigzg@illinois.edu
Anita Say Chan, achan@illinois.edu
Karrie Karahalios, kkarahal@illinois.edu

Teaching Team Contact:
Email: MACS265TeachingTeam@gmail.com
Office Hours: By appointment

Course Description
What are the social foundations to innovation practices? How do they emerge? Who’s behind them? What makes them transformative? Innovation Illinois introduces the histories of the varied, world-changing interdisciplinary innovations from the University of Illinois that bridged students and researchers in engineering, humanities, sciences and the arts. We will explore how local histories of Illinois innovations help us understand today’s innovation trends and processes, from contemporary accessibility design and wheelchair sports and kneeling buses, to computer-composed music, online education, public media, and the first massively-used Internet browser.

For the duration of the course, we’ll work with various perspectives from different parts of our campus to imagine, research, and develop future innovation ideas. We’ll be introduced to and get to experiment with mixed media resources and prototyping methods, spanning on- and off-line archives, digital editing, and online data collection. We’ll also visit campus sites and speak to key campus figures related to Illinois’ world-changing interdisciplinary innovation histories and collaborations. Our work will culminate in a research project that surveys interdisciplinary practice on our campus, and explores innovation as a phenomenon that emerges from creative cultures that cross the arts, humanities, social sciences, and computer science.

Projects will use a variety of primary sources, from interviews and news media to data collected online and materials drawn from the University Archives. Your work throughout the course will build oral and written communication skills, skills in interdisciplinary team collaboration, critique, and skills in mixed methods and ethics for research and design. By the conclusion of the course, you will be able to recognize and narrate various “Illinois firsts” that will inform your design and innovation practice well after you leave the campus. You will further have the chance to explore a means to extend an Illinois’ legacy with design exercises that address questions of student safety and inclusivity.

All readings and media resources for the course are available through the Assignments & Readings page. No book purchases are needed.

Student Project and Paper
Students will develop a research project over the semester that explores innovation’s multidisciplinarity, and survey creative innovation practices across UIUC’s campus. Students will develop surveys that gather feedback on what inspires, supports, and fosters innovation practices in diverse settings across the campus – and will gather resources from archives to develop insights on relevant past innovation practices. All projects will incorporate materials/draw analysis from the University Archives, coverage from The Daily Illini or Illinois news resource, online data, and data from an interview conducted with either a UIUC alum, or key campus contact/leader from UIUC’s past or present. Interviewees can include:
Students will also design an outreach and communications strategy as part of the project deliverable. This should map a multi-pronged plan that can gather 10 or more individual responses for the survey. Your outreach plan should be included with your final paper’s submission as an appendix.

Students will present their work in class with a visual presentation at the end of the semester. You’re welcome to use a standard slideshow format, but if you’re inclined toward multimedia contexts, you may create something unique with instructor approval (examples include: use of creative visualization techniques, videos, podcasts, archives, apps, etc.).

Students will write a research paper (8-10 pages, double-spaced, 12-point Times, 1-inch margins) that summarizes insights from the survey process and results on your Subject Area, drawing on readings from the syllabus and resources from the class and assignments to put your findings in dialogue with past innovation practices, and any other appropriate secondary resources. (i.e. Wikipedia doesn’t count, but feel free to ask for help finding good sources).

Final papers should present a bibliography of sources, properly incorporated and cited using APA, MLA or Chicago Manual style, using in-line citations (Purdue OWL is recommended as a resource for this, and should include two different readings/sources from the syllabus and at least five additional sources (3+ of which should be primary).

Over the semester, students will be educated and trained in the responsible conduct of research, including informed consent.

There is no final or midterm for this course.

Requirements
Weekly readings will be posted to our class’s shared Scalar site. Students will each create their own individual Scalar workspace to post assignments to after the first week of class.  

Weekly assignments with reactions (minimum 1 page) to the readings and lab exercises should be posted to your workspace, and the link sent to the instructor team (at: MACS265TeachingTeam@gmail.com) by 12pm the day before next class. Reactions should respond to the specific questions/prompts given to you in advance to help identify arguments, common themes, oppositions, and issues worthy of further discussion from the texts. Use of visuals is terrific and encouraged, but should not be used as filler or in place of analysis.

No incompletes or makeups are assigned. Your lowest weekly assignment grade will be dropped.
Please Note: Instructors are available for questions after class and by appointment. Paper drafts, paper content, and grades will not be commented on via email.

Attendance Policy
Attendance and punctuality will be recorded for each class, so be on time. Unexcused late arrivals and early departures may count as absences and diminish your grade and class participation. If you must be absent, it is your responsibility to inform us beforehand and submit a valid excuse immediately. Excuses for absences during the course will not be accepted at the end of the semester. Accumulating three unexcused absences will automatically lower your grade by half a letter grade (ie. a B to a B-). Accumulating five unexcused absences will result in a full letter grade lowering. More than 8 unexcused absences will result in an automatic failure.

To be respectful of your classmates and instructors, take bathroom breaks before or after (not during) class. If you need special accommodations, let the teaching team know.

Accommodations
Please let the instructors know as soon as possible if you have a letter from DRES or need other accommodations. Should you ever need anything during the semester don’t hesitate to ask. 

Tech Policy
Laptops in class are just fine. Cell phones and headphone as a general rule should not be used or out using class (there may be homework assignments where they will be needed, however). We'll often make use of laptops in class for activities. BUT: do keep activities relevant to class. This is a basic courtesy to the class and your classmates. Activity otherwise will warrant an invitation to be excused from class and can count as an unexcused absence. Also: When using the class website and online platform, do not edit or alter any content you did not author. Obstructions of such nature could result in automatic failure.

Predictive Writing Technologies
Predictive writing technologies (like ChatGPT) can be valuable writing tools in many contexts, when used effectively. However, much of the learning in this course occurs through a reflective and direct, personal experience of the research and writing process, from first drafts to final revisions. If you use predictive technologies in this class, it is your responsibility to use them ethically by disclosing how you used them. For this class, this means including adding an endnote that specifies, for every use of the technology: 1. what prompt you entered/used; 2. what the answer returned by the technology was, and 3. a minimum of a .5-page long single-spaced explanation of how you incorporated that information into your assignment, explaining in particular what and how you substantially added, changed, or altered from the answer to justify that the response you turn in for your assignment qualifies as primarily original work by you. Regardless of what you use to compose, you are responsible for what you turn in. Including inaccurate citations and sources from predictive technology puts you at risk of academic integrity violations.  

Failure to cite or disclose your use of a predictive writing technology in work you turn in could result in a 0 for the assignment, and if used in the final research project, a failure of the course.

Academic Integrity
UIUC Student Code of Policies and Regulations specifies that students must refrain from violations of academic integrity (cheating, plagiarism, fabrication and other forms of obstruction); from behavior that may lead to suspicion of such violations; and from behavior that helps others commit such violations. You can read the Code at: http://www.admin.uiuc.edu/policy/code/ 

Food and Beverage Policy: Water, coffee, tea in a closed container is fine to bring in class. But no food or snacks are allowed.

Emergency Procedures
Emergencies can happen anywhere and at any time. Your instructors are prepared to lead you should an emergency occur during class time. If you have not already done so, please sign up for Illini-Alert text messages at emergency.illinois.edu.