Social Informatics PG (7196.5)

Please note these are the 2023 details for this unit
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Social Informatics PG
Available teaching periods Delivery mode Location
View teaching periods On-Campus
 Bruce, Canberra
EFTSL Credit points Faculty
0.125 3 Faculty Of Science And Technology
Discipline Study level HECS Bands
Academic Program Area - Technology Post Graduate Level Band 2 2021 (Commenced After 1 Jan 2021)
Band 3 2021 (Commenced Before 1 Jan 2021)
This unit explores the impact of informatics on society in areas such as e-government, e-learning and e-law. Topics may deal with the social, cultural, philosophical, ethical, legal, public policy and economic issues relating to information technologies; the interaction of technological developments with social, economic, organisational and class issues; and the many implications of design choices made by information professionals including social control and privacy, computer crime, electronic communities, and risks of safety critical systems to people.
This unit may be cotaught with 11490 Social Informatics.

Learning outcomes

On completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an advanced understanding of the consequences of technology usage including ethical, privacy and digital divide implications of emerging technologies in organisations and society;

2. Deploy theoretical frameworks to analyse the complex relationships among information technology, people, and institutions in any social setting; and
3. Evaluate the impacts of the design choices made by information professionals and various technologies on people, organisations and society.


Graduate attributes

1. UC graduates are professional - use creativity, critical thinking, analysis and research skills to solve theoretical and real-world problems
1. UC graduates are professional - work collaboratively as part of a team, negotiate, and resolve conflict
2. UC graduates are global citizens - behave ethically and sustainably in their professional and personal lives
2. UC graduates are global citizens - communicate effectively in diverse cultural and social settings
2. UC graduates are global citizens - make creative use of technology in their learning and professional lives
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - evaluate and adopt new technology
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - reflect on their own practice, updating and adapting their knowledge and skills for continual professional and academic development


Prerequisites

Completion of 9 credit points at graduate level OR enrolment in the degree of Graduate Certificate in Social Media and Public Engagement, 271JA.

Corequisites

None.

Incompatible units

11490 Social Informatics and 8571 Social Informatics .

Equivalent units

None.

Assumed knowledge

You are expected to be a competent computer user and familiar with word processing, presentation software. It is expected that you will teach yourself how to use the suite of social web 2.0 tools by working through the exercises in the softwares tutorials and/or studying examples supplied with the software/unit convener.
Year Location Teaching period Teaching start date Delivery mode Unit convener
2024 Bruce, Canberra Semester 2 29 July 2024 On-Campus Mr Sisira Adikari
Not available

Required texts

There is no required text for this unit. However the following text should be consulted for social informatics:

Yang, S., Zhu, X., & Fichman, P. (Eds.). (2023). The Usage and Impact of ICTs During the Covid-19 Pandemic. Taylor & Francis.

Fichman P, Sanfilippo M R. and Rosenbaum H 2015, Social Informatics Evolving, Morgan & Claypool
Kling R, Rosenbaum H and Sawyer S 2005, Understanding and Communicating Social Informatics: A Framework for Studying and Teaching the Human Contexts of Information and Communication Technologies, Medford, NJ: Information Today.
(This book is available at the library for short-term loan)
Various papers and relevant articles will be made available through the unit web site and e-reserve as appropriate.

Other sources for this unit include online resources, journals and proceedings relevant to social aspects of technology (but not limited to):
Communications of the ACM
Interactions
First Monday Journal
The Information Society
Social Science Computer Review
Journal of the American Society for Information Sciences
Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
Conference on ACM CHI
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication
Cyber Psychology and Behaviour
Computers in Human Behaviour
New Media and Society
Information, Communication and Society
European Journal on Information Systems
International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS)
European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS)
Australasian Conference on information Systems (ACIS)

Submission of assessment items

Extensions & Late submissions

To PASS this unit, students have to obtain a mark of 50% or greater for all the Online Quizzes, Module Presentation and Emerging Technology Assignment (in total), and 50% or greater for all the assessments in total. 

In the case of any assignment that places you in jeopardy of a Fail in the whole unit, appropriate moderation procedures will be used.

If there is any doubt with regard to the requirements of any particular assignments or assessment procedure, the onus for clarifying the issue rests with the student who should contact the unit convener about the matter.

All work quoted from any source should be appropriately referenced using the "Harvard" referencing style as described in the link below (note that there are multiple versions of the Harvard referencing style, and you should use the one described here). http://canberra.libguides.com/referencing

Students who are not familiar with referencing academic work should undertake the Academic Integrity Module within Canvas as noted below.

Special assessment requirements

The unit convenor reserves the right to question students on any of their submitted work for moderation and academic integrity purposes, which may result in an adjustment to the marks awarded for a specific task.

Academic integrity

Students have a responsibility to uphold University standards on ethical scholarship. Good scholarship involves building on the work of others and use of others' work must be acknowledged with proper attribution made. Cheating, plagiarism, and falsification of data are dishonest practices that contravene academic values. Refer to the University's Student Charter for more information.

To enhance understanding of academic integrity, all students are expected to complete the Academic Integrity Module (AIM) at least once during their course of study. You can access this module within UCLearn (Canvas) through the 'Academic Integrity and Avoiding Plagiarism' link in the Study Help site.

Use of Text-Matching Software

The University of Canberra uses text-matching software to help students and staff reduce plagiarism and improve understanding of academic integrity. The software matches submitted text in student assignments against material from various sources: the internet, published books and journals, and previously submitted student texts.

Learner engagement

The likely allocation of effort is shown in the table below.

Actviity Due date Effort (hours)
Weekly Activities (e.g. lectures, essential readings, module participation, progress reports, engagement & discussions) (6 hrs. x 12 weeks) 72
Emerging technology summary & online quiz Week 7 & 9 30
Major assignment: Futuristic study – report & presentation Weeks  12, 13 48
Total hours of effort = 150

Participation requirements

The lecture slides and other material are published on the website. You are strongly advised to listen to all lectures and to fully participate in discussions. The tutorial discussions are particularly important because there is recurring and ongoing individual and group work throughout the unit. Lecture slides should not be considered a substitute for attending the tutorials.

Announcements made in lectures or published using the website are deemed to have been heard and read by all students in the unit.

Required IT skills

You are expected to be a competent computer user and familiar with word processing, and presentation software. You will also be required to use appropriate IT tools to create an infographic-style summary.

In-unit costs

There may be some additional optional costs incurred by students undertaking this unit. For example, students may wish to purchase online single license for infograph production. These costs are expected to be nominal.

Work placement, internships or practicums

When available, industry representatives and government officials are invited to present guest lectures.