Final Project and Paper Overview
MACS265 - Innovation Illinois: Final Project and Paper Overview
Presentation Due: 12/9 (in-class presentation at 11A sharp; email slides by 9A)
Paper Due: 12/16. Submit to teaching team via email by 11A
Workflow
- October - Your project is born – begin formulating and planning
- Early/Mid November - Game time – conduct your surveys and interviews
- Mid/Late November - Compile your research and draft your paper
- Early December - Get feedback on your drafts, present, make final edits
Schedule
- Week 8, 10/16 - Group Lab: EUI training @ NCSA 2103
- Week 9, 10/21 - Independent Lab: Communications Worksheet and Five Questions
- Week 10, 10/28 - Ind. Lab: Return to Archives independently
- Week 11, 11/04 - Survey Launch! Ind. Lab: Initiate your interviews
- Week 12, 11/11 - Ind. Lab: Re-visit Alice Campbell Hall Alumni Center
- Week 13, 11/18 - Ind. Lab: Tech Buzzwords assignment (Draft your reports for 12/02)
- Week 14, 11/25 - Survey Closes for Data Collection. No Class, Thanksgiving Break
- Week 15, 12/02 - Data Visualization, Project Advising. Lab: Workshop in NCSA 2103
- Week 16, 12/09 - Presentations in-class on Monday 12/9
- Final Week, 12/16 - Papers due: submit by email before 11am
Description
Students will develop a research project 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. Teams will meet with the course instructors to consult on project ideas. 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:
- One of the alum from the Radical Illini event held on campus
- An alum from organizations we’ve covered in class, such as DRES or the BSA
- An alum who is a friend or family member
- A representative/contact from any of our site visits: a DRES coach, a University and Student Life Archivist, an Alice Campbell Hall Exhibit Curator, etc.
- A contact from a key report or document found in the archives (who might have been part of a student or campus organization)
- A contact from a key report or document from an organization relevant to your topic area
- A contact from a contemporary campus actor who represents “innovation” practice related to your topic
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 write a research paper (8-10 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font, 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. (ie. Wikipedia doesn’t count, although: feel free to use to find secondary resources)
Final papers should present a bibliography of sources, properly incorporated and cited (in a citation style of your choosing; for information on citation, Purdue OWL is highly recommended). Include five sources from the syllabus and at least five additional primary and secondary sources (at least 3 of which should be primary: ie. materials from the archives, photos, external reports, etc).
Students will present their work in class with a visual presentation (8-10 minutes, with additional time for questions) 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.). Email your slides or visual presentation to the teaching team by 9A on Monday 12/9 - the Final Day of Class and Presentation Day.
The final paper is due by email at 11:00am, Monday, December 16th.
Paper and Presentation Worksheet (from Lab on Wednesday, 12/4)
Paper Checklist:
_____ 8-10 written pages* (double-spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins)
_____ Consideration/Citation from one Interviewee (UIUC alum, or campus leader)
_____ Consideration/Citation of at least 3 readings/texts/films/documentaries from the class and Syllabus (to be cited in your Bibliography
_____ Consideration of at least 5 additional resources (to be cited in your Bibliography)
_____ Scholarly books/texts/articles related to your topic (a secondary source)
_____ Reports/materials drawn from University Archives (a primary source)
_____ Independent reports/films/news articles related to your topic (a primary source)
_____ Photos/images/maps drawn from University Archives (a primary source) *
_____ Your own contemporary photos from the campus (a primary source)*
_____ Observations from past class assignments (ie. Alice Campbell Hall visit)
_____ 1-2 page outreach plan *
_____ 1 page bibliography *
_____ Consent form for each interview *
_____ EUI Final Research Form *
_____ EUI Intellectual Property Form *
* keep in mind: your paper should include 8-10 pages of written analysis; and images, bibliographies, and outreach plans do not count towards paper length.
Presentation Checklist:
_____ In-class presentation length of 8-10 minutes
_____ Visual presentation format (ie. slideshow or multimedia format, given prior instructor approval).
_____ Representation of data from your interview (with UIUC alum, or leader)
_____ Citation of at least 1 reading/text/film/documentary from the class syllabus
_____ Representation/consideration of data from at least 2 additional resources, including:
_____ Reports/materials drawn from University Archives
_____ Independent reports/films related to your topic
_____ Photos/images/maps drawn from University Archives
_____ Your own contemporary photos/images from the campus
_____ Observations from past class assignments (ie. Alice Campbell Hall visit)
Note: To prevent technical hang-ups, use browser-based content whenever possible (i.e. streaming a video from Vimeo instead of downloading a file to the classroom machine). And bring a backup of your presentation and visuals on a thumbdrive as a fail-safe.
Final Survey Results:
- PDF Summary (automatically generated analysis of the responses)
- Cleaned Data with Demo Charts (.xlsx format, use this for your projects. View the additional sheets to access the included charts as references for creating your own)
- Raw Data (CSV format of the original data, not required -- look if you are curious)
Additional research and visualization resources:
- Voyant - Word Visualization Tool
- Various reports of Champaign-Urbana and Illinois, from Danielle Chynoweth and Cunningham Township
- Two reports from Data & Society (recommended for their use of qualitative techniques)