COM 499 SYLLABUS

COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION RESEARCH
Communication 499 Syllabus
(Senior Seminar)

COURSE SCHEDULE

Leonard Shedletsky
College of Arts & Sciences
Department of Communication
The University of Southern Maine

Lenny@USM.Maine.Edu

What the Course is About

This senior seminar will focus upon research, theory, practice,

and experience associated with communicating by means of the

computer. The course is about communication mediated by computers,

especially communication via the Internet. It is about research

and theory on how communication via computer influences the communication

process. You will receive instruction in Internet skills, with the aim of

developing a term project presentation on research about communication

mediated by the computer. For instance, examples of relevant topics

are as follows:

communication apprehension

satisfaction

turn taking

meaning

learning

time spent

outcome of collaboration

persuasion

group dynamics

self disclosure

attribution

function

control

gender

organizational structure

aggression and assertiveness

political activism

sense of community

visual journalism

critical theory

AND MANY OTHER VARIABLES AND ISSUES

If you have taken Research Methods (COM 300),

the knowledge you acquired there should be very useful

in this course. If you haven't had Research Methods,

I will try to supply needed concepts and to point you to

extra reading. Hence, I will assume that you have some background

and experience in critically reading social science research

and theory. At the same time, I will try to help where I

can, and we will raise research issues whenever possible.

Since we will do hands-on work on the Internet, it is

assumed that all students who registered for this course

will devote time outside of class-time to homework exercises

designed to develop computer skills and knowledge; Internet

skills, home page construction, and slide presentation will require work

outside of class. In addition, you will need to devote time

to exploring research questions, both methodological and

theoretical; you will need to devote time to critically

reading research on computer-mediated communication. You

will need to devote time to writing up your report of the

research you find.

Some of you may already know many of the Internet and

computer skills used in this course. In those cases, I

welcome your helping classmates who are learning these

skills. Also, if you are an advanced computer user, please

talk to me about how you can do homeworks that work for you.

You should be able to devote more of your time to preparing

your term project.

The Computer as a Medium of Communication

The computer is a new medium of communication. The

Internet is a very large number of computers world-wide that

are linked in a network of communication with one another.

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is all the kinds of

communication that takes place using a computer, including

the user/computer communication, the user and computer at a

distance, two or more users on computers separated by time

and space, users in a variety of contexts, and many other

forms of communication mediated by computer. Our access to

people and information is changed by this new medium. And

in turn its potential to change patterns of interaction is

brought forth.

. . . new communication technology leads people to
pay attention to different things, have contact
with different people, and depend on one another
differently. Change in attention means change in
how people spend their time and in what they think
is important. Change in social patterns means
change in who people know and how they feel about
them. Change in interdependence means change in
what people do with and for each other and how
these coupled functions are organized in norms,
roles, procedures, jobs, and departments. Social
roles, which codify patterns of attention and
social interaction, change.

(Sproull and Kiesler, 1991)(1)

In addition to its growing role in education, health

care, and commerce, CMC offers the communication scholar the

opportunity to study a truly new medium. CMC allows the

student to try out a new medium and to thereby learn first

hand what it means to communicate within a medium; it allows

the student to learn how one medium differs from another;

how such differences affect human behavior.

What We'll Do In This Course

Overall, there are three major components to this course:

(1) learning how to use the Internet: INTERNET SKILLS; (2)

using the Internet to gather information about computer-

mediated communication: RESEARCH and (3) presenting your

research findings as a home page or slide presentation.

The goal is to understand computer-mediated

communication. A great deal of your time will be taken up

with learning how to actually use the Internet. You will

receive instruction in using the computer, you will have

readings to report on each week; you will have required

Internet laboratory work; you will have homework to carry

out using CMC. THE HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS MAKE UP 20% OF YOUR

GRADE, AND SO THEY MUST BE TAKEN VERY SERIOUSLY.

Self-Learning

This course will require a great deal of self-learning.

By that I mean that, outside of classroom time, you will

have to decide when and for how long to work at a computer;

you will have to decide on a research topic; you will have

to put in time to researching your topic, reading from the course

gathering readings and writing to WebBoard,

critiquing the research you find, learning

relevant theory, and finally, presenting your findings in

the form of an electronic term project, a home page or slide

presentation or both. You will have weekly homework, reading

and writing.

I will do what I can to facilitate your learning, but there

is simply no substitute for the hours you put in at the

computer, and noone else can learn for you or at your pace

or with your interests and critical responses.

BUT HERE COMES THE DIFFICULTY. For some learners, self-

learning may be especially challenging, because they prefer

to have a course where the instructor leads them through

their learning. Since that is not how this course is

structured, and since self-learning is a frequently observed

dimension of the online environment, it will be important

for you to let me know if you are having a problem with this

type of course and we can at least talk about what can be

done to help. At the same time, your own experiences with

this medium may spark an interest in a particular research

project.

HOMEWORK

Homework should be posted to our electronic discussion group

(WebBoard) prior to the class meeting for which it is shown (SEE THE COURSE

SCHEDULE BELOW). So, if, for example Homework #2 is shown on

the schedule for our second meeting, then it ought to be

posted before our second class meeting. In the SUBJECT LINE

of each homework posting please use HOMEWORK #1 or HOMEWORK

#2, and so on. By the end of the semester, you should have a total of six

homeworks done for the course. Homeworks will be graded on a pass/fail

basis. I cannot emphasize enough that it is imperative that

you practice the CMC skills that I will introduce you to,

and that practice during the classroom time is not enough--

you will need to put hours in outside of class time.

Outside of class time, you can work from wherever you have

access to the computer and the Internet, whether that is

here at the university, or home, or work, or elsewhere.

Most of the class time is needed to demonstrate computer

skills and to show you Internet resources; we need some

class time for you to practice, some to discuss what you are

finding, some class time to discuss the research issues

related to CMC, e.g., the interpersonal effects, the

outcomes, the psychological, financial, and cultural

implications of CMC. It is assumed that you will complete

the weekly reading assignment by the time we meet each week. Some

classroom time will be taken each week with your telling the class about

your reading for the week (what you've posted to the WebBoard).

Remember, this course is largely about communication via

computer--so, we need to try it out.

ELECTRONIC DISCUSSION GROUP (WebBoard)

We will have our own electronic discussion group. This is a place for us

to stay in touch on a daily basis, to discuss our Internet (computer)

experiences, to ask questions, post homework responses, comment,

seek help from one another, and so on. I plan to check in just about every

day, and I assume that you will check in to our discussion group at least a few

times a week. Instruction in using the electronic discussion group will be given

during our first few meetings.

PRESENTATIONS

Your work in this course will culminate in a term project

that synthesizes what you were able to find out about your

research topic. Moreover, your findings will be presented

in the form of a home page or electronic slide show, as

opposed to a printed term paper.

The course schedule is designed to allow you two

opportunities to tell the class about your research project

and to take us through your electronic presentation. At any

point in the semester that you want me to look at your

presentation and discuss it with you, please let me know.

I will encourage presentation each time we meet. I find that

student lead discussion of how to do computer applications and

also discussion of readings is very helpful to all.

Completed term projects will be published to USM's server.

EVALUATION:

Homework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20%

Participation. . . . . . . . . . . . 10%

Presentation #1 . . . . . . . . . . 15%

Presentation #2 . . . . . . . . . . 15%

Term Project . . . . . . . . . . . 40%

communication apprehension	satisfaction	turn taking	meaning
learning	time spent	outcome of collaboration	persuasion
group dynamics	self disclosure	attribution	function
control	gender	organizational structure	aggression and assertiveness
political activism	sense of community	visual journalism	critical theory
AND MANY OTHER VARIABLES AND ISSUES