Winter 2021

INFO 498 A: Designing Voice-First Information Systems

• Instructor: Mike Doane
• 4 credits; standard grading

This UX course provides an overview of voice-first systems, a background in using voice to drive interface design, and practical experience in designing VUIs using a set of industry software tools. Students learn how to create user requirements, user personas, user flows, content strategies, and taxonomies for voice-first systems.

INFO 498 B: Indigenous Ways of Knowing in the Digital World

• Instructor: Sandy Littletree
• 4 credits; standard grading

Indigenous people are using a variety of digital tools such as video games, virtual reality, language apps, and digital heritage sites to maintain their relationships to place, language, history, and culture. In this course, we will explore the respectful use and development of these tools with an emphasis on Native North American Indigenous approaches to knowledge. By the end of this course, students will understand how relationality can inform thoughtful, respectful and appropriate uses of information technology that is designed by and for Indigenous people.

INFO 498 H: Global Disinformation

• Instructors: Jevin West and Jessica Beyer
• 5 credits; standard grading
• Note: Offered jointly with the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies (JSIS 478 A & JSIS 578 C)

INSC 598: Child-Computer Interaction

• Instructor: Katie Davis
• 3 credits; standard grading

Interactive technologies are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in children’s lives, with implications for the way children learn about and experience their world, other people, and themselves. Child-computer interaction researchers play a critical role in understanding how the design of these technologies impacts children and society, as well as envisioning future technologies that support children’s multi-faceted experiences, from birth through adulthood.

LIS 598 B: Information and Migration

• Instructor: TBD
• 3 credits; standard grading

Graduate reading seminar about the intersection between human migration and information practices and behaviors. What are the particular needs, behaviors and practices of migrants, in the US or abroad? How is migration changing social movements? How do refugees, undocumented migrants and DREAMers in the US change the discourse about immigration?

LIS 598 C: Interrupting Privilege

• Instructor: Gina Aaftaab
• 3 credits; standard grading

Most discussions of inequality focus on violence, disproportionality, and discrimination. But what about the concept of privilege? How does privilege — in terms of race, gender, sexuality, and citizenship status — shore up inequality? This seminar engages questions of privilege through facilitated discussions with a classroom community of students and librarians.

LIS 598 D: Grant-Writing Workshop

• Instructor: Stephanie Gerding
• 1 credit; credit/no credit grading

This hands-on introductory course covers all aspects of library and museum grant work, including determining community needs and planning, developing grant project ideas, researching the best funding sources and grant opportunities, and writing winning grant proposals. You will learn an easy-to-follow grant process cycle and receive practical advice, including valuable time-saving strategies. You will apply the concepts learned to discover grant opportunities, create a grant project and winning proposal, and receive personalized feedback from an expert grant reviewer and peers. Develop the confidence, knowledge, and skills you need to win library, museum, and nonprofit grants. This course can be accessed asynchronously with recorded lectures and meetings, readings, and online collaboration. Instructor Stephanie Gerding is a grants expert and an author of the ALA Editions best seller Winning Grants.

LIS 598 E: Indigenous Art is Indigenous Knowledge

• Instructor: Miranda Belarde-Lewis
• 4 credits; standard grading

This course examines the relationship between Indigenous art and Indigenous Knowledge (IK) with an emphasis on tribal groups in North America. How have Native artists documented oral history, cosmologies, maps and plant knowledge through art? How are the customary forms of art evolving to keep up with the needs of contemporary Native peoples? This course draws on theory from Indigenous Studies, Information Science, Art History and, visual and museum studies to unpack the intention, purpose and interpretation of Indigenous art and artifacts. 

In this course, students will be asked to explore: the concept of Indigenous Knowledge; the role of the arts in Native communities in ancient times and in the present-day; the complicated colonial legacy between museums and Indigenous peoples; and, the push by Native peoples to be consulted with and their views respected about objects from their home communities that reside in museum collections. In addition to engaging with research, theory and the practices related to the study of Native art, Native history and IK, students will be asked to complete an in-depth research project about a particular group of art works, a community-based effort to maintain the transfer of IK through Indigenous art, or, the presentation and incorporation of IK through a museum exhibit.

LIS 598 G: Future of Libraries

• Instructor: Chance Hunt
• 3 credits; standard grading

Students completing this course will realize a heightened sense of optimism and passion for the future of libraries. They will have developed a deeper understanding of themselves as leaders and change agents, equipped with the confidence that they can "make" a desired future for libraries.

LIS 598 H: Youth and Children Homelessness: The Role of Libraries

• Instructor: Vikki Terrile and Julie Winkelstein
• 3 credits; credit/no credit grading

Autumn 2020

IMT 598 A: Digital Transformations

• Instructor: Fawad Khan
• 3 credits; standard grading

This course is going to introduce the concept of Digital Transformation and Cloud's key emerging technologies and how they are forcing companies to review and formulate a digital strategy which affects the bottom line of any company. We will review the key digital transformation strategy pillars and use Cloud's key emerging technologies, including Cognitive Computing, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and IoT to build solutions and applications to help the organizations along this digital journey.

INFO 198 F: Esports & Sports in Competition

• Instructor: Jennifer Hoffman, Associate Professor, College of Education
• 3 credits; standard grading
• Note: Offered jointly with the College of Education (EDUC 200 C)

Are esports - sports? How are today’s conventional sports taking up characteristics of gaming? Will esports transform the traditional sports industry? In this course, we will examine the contemporary structures, economics, legal issues, and sociocultural complexities of esports. This also includes the history of video gaming and its influence on the contemporary issues in competitive esports and gaming industry. We will also explore esports in the greater global market for competitive sports, including comparisons to conventional sports and highlighting unique aspects where esports are on the front end of live competitive events. Using a variety of media (video, podcast), readings (reports, books, news articles, empirical research), guest speakers, and case studies, this class introduces esports fundamental concepts and examines the complexities of esports in electronic gaming communities, competitions, and careers. At the conclusion of this course, students will be able to integrate knowledge from the ecosystems of esports and apply course concepts to an analysis of esports organizations.

INFO 498 A: Data Ethics

• Instructor: Anna Lauren Hoffmann
• 4 credits; standard grading

This course provides an introduction to critical and ethical issues surrounding data and society. It blends social and historical perspectives on data with ethics, policy, and case examples — from Facebook’s “Emotional Contagion” experiment to search engine algorithms to self-driving cars — to help students develop a workable understanding of current ethical issues in data science. Ethical and policy-related concepts addressed include: research ethics; privacy and surveillance; data and discrimination; and the “black box” of algorithms. Importantly, these issues will be addressed throughout the lifecycle of data — from collection to storage to analysis and application.

INFO 498 B: The Record of Us All 

• Instructor: Joseph Janes
• 3 credits; standard grading

Every day - for that matter, potentially for every minute or second of every day - we interact with a widening variety of information objects, from the trivial to the profound. All of those form part of the human record, the record of who we are as individuals and who we are as a society. That record goes back thousands of years and is our only way of knowing, understanding and remembering days and people gone by, and in turn is the only way we and our world will be known and remembered.

INFO 498 C: Exploring Information Science through BTS and Kpop

• Instructor: Jin Ha Lee
• 3 credits; standard grading

What can BTS teach you about information science? Explore different aspects of information science such as classification, social media, misinformation and disinformation, transmedia storytelling, participatory media, fan wars and fandom gatekeeping through Kpop, in particular, the case of BTS. Design and conduct a research study investigating an information science problem in the domain of popular culture media.

INFO 498 D: Technology, Freedom, and Justice

• Instructor: Adam Daniel Moore
• 3 credits; standard grading

In this course, attention will be given to different aspects of the relationship between technology and freedom.  How has technology, specifically information technology, enhanced or undermined freedom, liberty, and justice. In exploring the relationship between technology, justice, and liberty we will focus on the writings of Pool, Locke, Mill, Rawls, Nozick, and others.

INFO 498 G: Observation and Creativity in Design: How to Look Better

• Instructor: Lily Rajan 
• 5 credits; standard grading
• Course counts toward the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) option

Noticing the world around us is something we do all the time, yet focusing our attention as designers and researchers can be more challenging than we expect. In this course we will explore multiple ways of observing the world through hands-on studio projects that engage multiple senses. We will move from framing our observations to capturing them in forms that we can share with others, including words, images and more. We will practice collaborative observation and techniques for bringing multiple perspectives into conversation, skills that have significant value in professional settings. After mastering the techniques of observation, what comes next? Considering the possibilities of creative response to observation will allow us to become more flexible and methodical designers of all kinds.

INSC 598 A: Civic Media Co-Design Studio

• Instructor: Chris Coward (with Eric Gordon, Visiting Professor, MIT)
• 3 credits; standard grading
• NOTE: This class is being taught in collaboration with Eric Gordon of MIT and will include students from both universities. The class will meet from September 1 – December 8.

The Civic Media Co-design Studio is a project-based studio course in collaborative design of civic media. Students work with a range of organizations to create civic media projects grounded in real-world community needs. Covers theory and practice of co-design, including methods for community participation in iterative stages of project ideation, design, prototyping, testing, launch, and stewardship. This semester, the course will focus on building systems of collaboration between municipal government and local care networks to facilitate effective response to crisis. Working with organizations in Boston and Seattle that have struggled to coordinate their immediate response to COVID-19, the class will explore novel human and technical systems for more resilient cities.

Summer 2020

INFO 498 A: Digital Humanities

• Instructor: Sarah Ketchley
• 3 credits, standard grading

This course will explore current Digital Humanities methods, tools, topics and debates. Students will have a unique and exciting opportunity to investigate the hands-on application of digital tools to primary source material, using computational methodologies to answer a range of humanities research questions.

LIS 598: Harry Potter and the 21st Century

• Instructor: Michelle Martin
• 3 credits, standard grading

This course will study the Harry Potter transmedia empire from both an academic perspective and for the purpose of library programming primarily for young people. We will read and study several of the Harry Potter books and other texts from the genres that Rowling relied on in creating the series such as folklore and fantasy, the school story, and the hero tale. The class will have lectures and interviews with librarians from around the country who are hosting exciting Harry Potter-themed programs, and the culminating assignment for the course will be to create a plan for a Harry Potter or fantasy-themed program for a specific community that asks students to make excellent use of their community resources.

Spring 2020

BIME 300 A: Transformational Technologies for Biology, Medicine and Health

• Instructor: John Gennari
• 5 credits; standard grading

How are new information technologies affecting health care and medicine? When you visit the doctor, is he/she using modern information management methods? Are medical errors more likely or less likely to occur with new technologies? And how will new knowledge about the human genome affect health care?

In this course, we introduce the field of biomedical & health informatics through three modules that focus on current technologies in the field: (1) Electronic health records (EHRs), (2) Data science and secondary use of EHR data, and (3) Translational bioinformatics & personalized medicine. Each module will include hands-on exercises, and course evaluation will be based primarily on team projects that explore the technologies involved.

IMT 589 A: Problematic Information

• Instructor: Emma Spiro
• 4 credits; standard grading

Addressing the problem of misinformation is among the most pressing challenges of our time — and times to come. Recent decades have seen a profound shift in the ways people, groups and organizations produce and consume information and participate in public discourse. This new paradigm for human interaction and information sharing creates space for diverse voices and enhances collective action in positive ways. Yet these information environments have also opened the door to misinformation, disinformation and other forms of networked manipulation, which function not only to mislead and create divisions, but also to diminish trust in democratic institutions such as science and journalism.

This graduate seminar will introduce students to the lexicon of problematic information, tracing the historical roots and context of this phenomena and exploring the new realm of online information operations employed in today’s socio-technical infrastructure.

IMT 589 C: Cloud Computing

• Instructor: Fawad Khan
• 4 credits; standard grading

This course is going to introduce the concept of Cloud Computing and how it is transforming and evolving the IT industry and the developer ecosystem, as we move away from on-premises to Cloud-based infrastructure and app development scenarios. Discussion of Cloud services models including SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS. Review of Cloud services usage and migration scenarios considering business goals and objectives along with developing a Costs/Benefits Analysis model. Understand primary business consideration for migrating to cloud services including cost, security, compliance, fault tolerance, backup, disaster recovery and monitoring. Learn about the most popular and consumed services including deploying, managing and maintaining a VM network infrastructure, developing Cloud-based App solutions, Containers, Serverless and Identity & authentication. Discussion of on the horizon key Cloud services in the new digital transformation age including Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and IoT.

IMT 598 A: Blockchain Technologies and Strategies

• Instructor: Frank Coker
• 3 credits; standard grading

Blockchain technology is a game changer and is becoming integral to information management strategies and architecture options. It is going to impact the global economy and change the way companies and individuals share important data. Blockchain began as the underlying technology that enabled cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and is having an even bigger impact in broader forms of data tracking in areas such as contracts, deeds, intellectual property, music, aircraft assemblies, drugs, agriculture and much more. This course provides an understanding how blockchain works and how it is evolving and how it can be an important part of a personal career development. This course is for information professionals whether pursuing a technical systems development track or a career in design and architecture; the goal is to bring technology and users together with systems and technologies that manage and deliver reliable data with certainty and trust.

INFO 498 A: Designing for Evil

• Instructor: Alexis Hiniker
• 4 credits; standard grading
• Course counts toward the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) option

What does it mean for a technology to be evil? What, if any, responsibility do designers and developers have to create systems that serve the greater good? In "Designing for Evil," we explore frameworks for considering these questions, tease apart moral panics from credible threats, study manipulative, addictive, and exploitative interfaces, critique existing designs, and create the evil — and not so evil — technologies of the future.

INFO 498 E: Activism and Technology

• Instructors: Megan Finn and Anna Lauren Hoffman
• 4 credits; standard grading

“Tech activism” is on the rise. From walkouts to internal protests, workers at companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Salesforce have pushed their firms to engage more forcefully with the social impact of the tools and services they provide. These movements remind us that technology, information, and computing professionals have long been a part of social movements — local and global — and advocates for change, as with physicists organizing against nuclear weapons or computer professionals advocating for radical forms of social responsibility.

Despite this rich history, conventional approaches to technology and ethics often overlook activism, social movements, and advocacy as key sources from which to draw inspiration. This seminar seeks to address this disconnect in three ways. First, it will revolve around guest talks from local activists, not-for-profits, and city employees presently engaged in “tech activism” and “public interest technology.” Second, course content will be grounded in up-to-the minute developments in tech activism as well as histories of organizing in the Pacific Northwest; from Seattle’s Black Panther Party to Native and indigenous activism to Riot Grrrl, our local context offers a rich culture of activism within which to situate and animate our activities. Finally, the seminar will contain an “active learning” component, supporting students as they develop proposals to intervene and advocate for change locally. At the end of the quarter, students will have the opportunity to compete for small grants to help bring their proposals to life.

INFO 498 F: Internet Dating

• Instructor: MxWE King
• 4 credits; standard grading

This course will explore the role of internet dating in structuring romantic and sexual relationships in a global context. Lines of inquiry in this course will focus on how particular forms of internet dating, ranging from those based on self-reports, psychological profiling, niche markets, location, or DNA testing, may inform, mobilize and challenge social and political norms, expectations and practices. Using the walkthrough method, students will “walk through” a selected internet dating platform and offer a critical analysis of the interface, business model, and environment of expected use including design recommendations for creating new or revising existing internet dating sites.

INSC 598 A: Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

• Instructor: Jason C. Yip
• 3 credits; standard grading

Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) focuses on how information and communications technologies (ICT) support 1) learning through peer interaction in group work; 2) sharing and distributing knowledge within a community; and 3) enhancing coordinated efforts to solve a problem. Social media, massively open online courses (MOOCs), learning analytics and big data, and online gaming are all examples of new ICT that have the potential to transform how we think about social learning. Today, as modern ICT offer increasing possibilities for sharing, collaboration, and distribution of information and knowledge, the design and study of CSCL systems is a burgeoning area for research. In this course, students will explore the role of collaboration within technology-enhanced learning environments. We will survey the prevailing learning theories and research related to CSCL.

Throughout the course, we will explore: An overview of the history and background of CSCL; The theories behind CSCL systems and how researchers conceptualize learning; Examples of different CSCL systems and environment; and How new ICT are changing the way we think about collaborative learning. Ethics and issues surrounding CSCL research.

INSC 598 B: Indigenous Research Methods

• Instructor: Clarita Lefthand-Begay
• 3 credits; credit/no credit grading

INSC 598 C: The Internet and the Future - Challenges and Opportunities

• Instructor: Ron Johnson
• 4 credits; credit/no credit grading

Explore current issues such as network neutrality, digital divide/broadband access, "end of the public internet," network based censorship, privacy issues, the internet of things, smart cities, libraries and the internet, internet (in)security, regulatory environment, metro networks, content/media consolidation etc.; while, if you don’t already know, learning a bit at a high level about how ‘the internet’ really works and is operated, what it can do, and what some of its limitations are. Each student may choose a topic of personal interest as their project for the quarter in any of a very wide range of policy, practical, or technical areas. Grades will be based on that project plus constructive class participation.

LIS 598 A: Grant-Writing Workshop

• Instructor: Allyson Carlyle
• 1 credit; credit/no credit grading

The purpose of this online course is to introduce students to essential steps required to find, write, and submit a successful grant proposal. It covers the entire grant process from developing grant proposal ideas to how to evaluate the result of your grant proposal – whether it is accepted/funded or not. The course is a workshop during which students prepare a grant proposal and receive feedback on it from other students in the class.

You will learn:

• the basic terminology and concepts of grant work
• where to look for grant opportunities
• how to go about finding potential grant sources
• steps in preparing a strong grant proposal
• the typical components of a grant proposal
• why partnering and collaborating is a good idea
• tips for proposal preparation and proposal writing.

LIS 598 C: Advanced Data Curation

• Instructor: Nicholas Weber
• 4 credits; standard grading
• Online course

This course examines a broad range of practical and conceptual issues in the emerging field of data curation. It focuses on recent advances and challenging problems in the curation of research data across disciplines and new trends in open data resources and services for the general public. The course will draw on research, case studies, and current initiatives to examine key challenges in the field and and practical solutions applied by data professionals. In-depth study of topics will be driven by student interests and their contributions to the course through presentations, discussion facilitation, and a final project.

LIS 598 D: Indigenous Art is Indigenous Knowledge

• Instructor: Miranda Belarde-Lewis
• 4 credits; standard grading

This course examines the relationship between Indigenous art and Indigenous Knowledge (IK) with an emphasis on tribal groups in North America. How have Native artists documented oral history, cosmologies, maps and plant knowledge through art? How are the customary forms of art evolving to keep up with the needs of contemporary Native peoples? This course draws on theory from Indigenous Studies, Information Science, Art History and, visual and museum studies to unpack the intention, purpose and interpretation of Indigenous art and artifacts. 

In this course, students will be asked to explore: the concept of Indigenous Knowledge; the role of the arts in Native communities in ancient times and in the present-day; the complicated colonial legacy between museums and Indigenous peoples; and, the push by Native peoples to be consulted with and their views respected about objects from their home communities that reside in museum collections. In addition to engaging with research, theory and the practices related to the study of Native art, Native history and IK, students will be asked to complete an in-depth research project about a particular group of art works, a community-based effort to maintain the transfer of IK through Indigenous art, or, the presentation and incorporation of IK through a museum exhibit.

LIS 598 E: Native American Knowledge Systems: Sovereign Rights, Protections and Protocols

• Instructor: Clarita Lefthand-Begay
• 3 credits; standard grading

Who owns, protects and disseminates the knowledge systems and data among tribal communities? For several years, tribal nations in the United States have established internal mechanisms and protocols to protect their traditional knowledge from appropriation, exploitation and misuse. In this course, students will engage multidisciplinary literature to examine the complexities tribes face when protecting their communities, become familiar with efforts of tribal citizens to revitalize their knowledge and demonstrate understanding by synthesizing topics discussed in class. To illustrate these concepts, the course will include case studies, interactive lectures, guest speakers, and in-class discussions.

LIS 598 F: Problematic Information

• Instructor: Emma Spiro
• 4 credits; standard grading

Addressing the problem of misinformation is among the most pressing challenges of our time — and times to come. Recent decades have seen a profound shift in the ways people, groups and organizations produce and consume information and participate in public discourse. This new paradigm for human interaction and information sharing creates space for diverse voices and enhances collective action in positive ways. Yet these information environments have also opened the door to misinformation, disinformation and other forms of networked manipulation, which function not only to mislead and create divisions, but also to diminish trust in democratic institutions such as science and journalism.

This graduate seminar will introduce students to the lexicon of problematic information, tracing the historical roots and context of this phenomena and exploring the new realm of online information operations employed in today’s socio-technical infrastructure.