Course catalog

  • 110 - Introduction to Information Studies

    Introduction to Information Studies --- This course will provide the foundational knowledge necessary to begin to address the key issues associated with the Information Revolution. Issues will range from the theoretical (what is information and how do humans construct it?), to the cultural (is life on the screen a qualitatively different phenomenon from experiences with earlier distance-shrinking and knowledge-building technologies such as telephones?), to the practical (what are the basic architecture of computing networks?). Successful completion of this "gateway" course.

    124 - Network Thinking

    Network Thinking --- We live in a world of networks. We increasingly depend on each others knowledge when we play together, work together, and learn together. We think of Google, Facebook, EBay, and the Internet as our own personal assistants that help us answer questions, make decisions, or buy goods and services. We happily use all these tools and interact with people near and far and never really think much about how or why things work the way they work. Is there a reason, logic or science behind EBays bidding scheme or Facebook's privacy policies? How and when does a VouTube video go viral? How can we understand and take advantage of connected thinking, where the group has more intelligence than any one of us alone? How do Netflix and Amazon predict what you might be interested in seeing or reading or buying? How does Internet search and advertising work and who is making money advertising on the Internet? How might you maximize your blog post's position in Google's search results? Why do people volunteer to work on Wikipedia without being paid? This course examines human nature, information structures, and enabling technologies that contribute to networked `intelligence'. You'll learn how groups behave and function from technical and non-technical perspectives. You'll finish the class fascinated by network thinking and ready to dig deeper into the social and technical underpinnings of today's technological landscape.

    182 - Building Applications for Information Environments

    Building Applications for Information Environments --- Fundamental programming skills in the context of end-user software applications using a high-level language, such as Ruby or Python. Rapid design of a variety of information-oriented applications to gather, analyze, transform, manipulate, and publish data. Applications drawn from statistics, pattern matching, social computing and computer games.

    301 - Models of Social Information Processing

    Models of Social Information Processing --- This course focuses on how social groups form, interact, and change. We look at the technical structures of social networks and explore how individual actions are combined to produce collective effects. The techniques learned in this course can be applied to understanding friend systems like Facebook, recommender systems such as Digg, auction systems such as Ebay, and information webs used by search engines such as Google. This course introduces two conceptual models, networks and games, for how information flows and is used in multi-person settings. Networks or graph representations describe the structure of connections among people and documents. They permit mathematical analysis and meaningful visualizations that highlight different roles played by different people or documents, as well as features of the collection as a whole. Game representations describe, in situations of interdependence, the actions available to different people and how each person's outcomes are contingent on the choices of other people. It permits analysis of stable sets of choices by all the people (equilibrium's). It also provides a framework for analysis of the likely effects of alternative designs for markets and information elicitation mechanisms, based on their abstract game representations. Assignments in the course include problem sets exploring the mechanics of the models and essays applying them to current applications in social computing.

    320 - Theories of Social Influence

    Theories of Social Influence --- This course is a writing-intensive course that introduces some of the major theories of social influence in psychology and economics so that you may become a better decision architect and effective leader. In this course we will learn why and under what conditions in individual's thoughts and actions can be influenced by those around them. We will touch on related theoretical ground in economics and in psychology but focus heavily on the empirical findings and how they can be applied.

    379 - History of Computers and the Internet

    History of Computers and the Internet --- Development, use, and impact of computers from the ancient world to the present. Focus on social, political, and cultural context of post-1939 digital computers and computer networks. Relevant to anyone interested in the history, politics, and culture of technology. Nontechnical.

    410 - Ethics and Information Technology

    Ethics and Information Technology --- This course explores the ethical dilemmas that exist where human beings, information objects, and information systems interact. The course introduces students to a variety of ethical models from historical and cross-cultural perspectives and then explores the relevance of these models to a variety of new and emerging technologies that are inherently social in their construction and use. Initial examples of issues that the course covers include interpersonal engagement through online games and virtual environments, maintaining the integrity of digital content in a networked world, and balancing trade offs between secrecy (security) and openness of code, data, and information systems. Students explore the technological underpinnings of associated technology systems, experiment with individual and group interaction with technologies, and examine the mechanics of ethical and unethical behaviors.

    422 - Evaluation of Systems and Services

    Evaluation of Systems and Services --- Any product--whether a website, a technological system, or an electronically mediated service--benefits from evaluation before, during, and after the development cycle. Too often, the people who use a product cannot find what they want or accomplish what they need to do. Products are more successful when they are developed through a process that identifies how the products will be used, elicits input from potential users, and watches how the product function in real time with real users. This course provides a hands--on introduction to methods used throughout the entire evaluation process--from identifying the goals of the product, picturing who will use it, engaging users through a variety of formative evaluation techniques, and confirming a product's function through usability testing and summative evaluation. Specific methods include personas and scenarios, competitive analysis, observation, surveys, interviews, data analysis, heuristic evaluation, usability testing, and task analysis. Students will work on group projects that apply these techniques to real products in use or development.

    429 - eCommunities: Analysis and Design of Online Interaction

    eCommunities: Analysis and Design of Online Interaction --- This course gives students a background in theory and practice surrounding online interaction environments. For the purpose of this course, a community is defined as a group of people who sustain interaction over time. The group may be held together by a common identity, a collective purpose, or merely by the individual utility gained from the interactions. An online interaction environment is an electronic forum, accessed through computers or other electronic devices, in which community members can conduct some or all of their interactions.

    446 - Personal Privacy: Policy, Practice and Technology Issues

    Personal Privacy: Policy, Practice and Technology Issues --- This course explores personal privacy issues in the context of: 1) traditional American concepts related to privacy, as well as government protections that have developed over time; 2) technology and systems that affect the availability of information, the ability of the private sector to gather and publish data and monitor activities, and the ability of individuals to protect their privacy; and 3) business and lifestyle changes, resulting from the Internet and other developments, that have created new behavioral and privacy issues and vulnerabilities, and altered the balance concerning existing ones. These developments range from online storage of traditional documents, such as medical information and property records, to new areas of potential concern, such as social networking and data mining. The course examines theory, history, law, policy, and technology -- as well as approaches taken by other nations -- in its study of contemporary privacy issues, the questions and potential problems that they raise, and the consideration that must be part of addressing them in meaningful ways. While issues related to security will, of necessity, appear periodically, the focus of the course is on privacy matters and considerations related to the individual.

    500 - Information in Social Systems: Collecting Flows and Processing

    Information in Social Systems: Collecting Flows and Processing --- The core properties of information, of people, and of technologies, create constrains and opportunities for analysis, design and management. This course introduces students to those core properties and their implications. In addition, the course introduces a perspective on the central responsibilities of professionals who "bring information, people and technology together in more valuable ways."

    501 - Contextual Inquiry and Project Management

    Contextual Inquiry and Project Management --- This course addresses a fundamental need of information professionals: how to examine an organization's current information use in the context of work practice and discover and recommend improved ways of working. This is a projects based course. All projects are scoped to allow students to examine how information influences actions in some process or service within an organization and to develop and practice relevant skills.

    502 - Networked Computing: Storage, Communication, and Processing

    Networked Computing: Storage, Communication, and Processing --- In order to appreciate the opportunities, and make wise choices about the use of technology, information professionals need to understand the architectures of modern information systems. In alternative system architectures, storage, communication, and processing substitute for the complement each other in different ways. This course introduces students, at several different levels of abstraction, to sets of functional components and alternative ways of combining those components to form systems. It also introduces a set of desirable system properties and a core set of techniques that are useful in building systems that have those properties.

    507 - Foundations of Information Policy Analysis and Design

    Foundations of Information Policy Analysis and Design --- This course, the proposed gateway to the SI Information Policy Analysis and Design (IPAD) specialization, will introduce students to the conceptual, institutional, and practical foundations of information policy analysis and design. The first part of the course introduces some of the key regulatory paradigms, principles, and forces (speech rights, freedom of information, regulatory convergence, intellectual property, competition and antitrust, privacy and security, research and innovation policy, etc.) that have both shaped and driven developments in the information field. The second part of the course examines the role of information technologies and practices in democratic governance itself, exploring such themes as digital or e-government, and new forms of democratic practice (real and emergent) associated with new information technologies. The final section of the course places these considerations in transnational perspective, examining such themes as competition and restructuring in the global information industries, the uneven emergence of global information policy regimes, and the strategic adoption of information technology in international development settings. Beyond such topical foci, the course will also emphasize the development of core information policy skills, introducing students to relevant analytic contributions from the fields of economics, legal analysis, and public policy.

    508 - Networks

    Networks --- This course will cover topics in network analysis, from social networks to applications in information networks such as the internet. We will introduce basic concepts in network theory, discuss metric and models, use software analysis tools to experiment with a wide variety of real-world network data, and study applications to areas such as information retrieval. For their final project, the students will apply the concepts learned in class to networks of interest to them.

    510 - Data Security and Privacy: Legal, Policy, and Enterprise Issues

    Data Security and Privacy: Legal, Policy, and Enterprise Issues --- As data collection and information networks expand (and stories of security breaches and the misuse of personal information abound), data security and privacy issues are increasingly central parts of the information policy landscape. Legislators, regulators, businesses, and other institutions of all kinds are under increasing pressure to draft and implement effective laws, regulations, and security and privacy programs under rapidly changing technological, business, and legal conditions. A strong need is arising for individuals with the training and skills to work in this unsettled and evolving.

    514 - Special Topics

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    515 - Special Topics

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    516 - Special Topics

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    517 - Special Topics

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    519 - Intellectual Property and Information Law

    Intellectual Property and Information Law --- This course would explore related and sometimes competing legal and policy frameworks for the development and dissemination of ideas and expression in the Information Age. The ways in which principles of free speech and expression compare and contrast with intellectual property rights will be explored as related to the advancement of knowledge and innovation, with particular focus on the impact of the Internet and new technology. The impact of other legal considerations and values on the development and dissemination of ideas and information (such as security, privacy, local control v. national and international considerations, competition, and the protection of minors) will also be examined. The course will draw upon the contexts of education, business, and government, with a special emphasis on the changing nature, roles and responsibilities of educational institutional in light of the so-called "information revolution."

    520 - Graphic Design

    Graphic Design --- This course aims to support professional development of SI students by exploring the art and science of visual communication. The conceptual part of the course enables students to improve/develop their aesthetic sensibilities and design skills through mastering visual language vocabularies, understanding principles of effective visual communications, and solving creative problems while connecting these to technological, cultural, and social spheres.

    521 - Special Topics

    Special Topics

    522 - Special Topics

    Special Topics

    523 - Information and Control

    Information and Control --- There are two purposes for this course: to give participants some background on information and control and the relationship between the two: and to be of practical use to people who work as professionals. Participants in this class will be able to examine situations involving social control issues and provide a quick and accurate, analytic assessments of the informational issues that are likely to factor in those situations. For example, participants should be able to examine the role of the Institutional Review Board at the University of Michigan, describe the ways in which information is

    525 - Empirical Methods for Health Informatics

    Empirical Methods for Health Informatics --- This course examines health informatics as an empirical science, which is one of the many faces of this complex field. As such, the course will focus on formal studies of applications of information technology applied to health care, population health, and personal health. These studies can be conducted while an information resouce is under development as well as after a resource is in routine service. Questions addressed by these studies often include: Is the resource functioning as anticipated? How can it be improved? Does it make a difference? Are the differences it makes beneficial?

    528 - Records Management: Principles and Practices

    Records Management: Principles and Practices --- The purpose of this course is to introduce individuals to the essentials of records and recordkeeping systems in organizations. The impact of electronic records will be particular focus. In this course, records management (RM) includes both traditional records management plus the challenges by modern information communication technologies (ICT). Students will also review software tools and technologies for managing records in the modern organization. It is intended that students should understand the relevance of records management methods for working with information systems and the variety of paper and electronic formats.

    529 - eCommunities

    eCommunities --- This course is intended to give students a background in theory and practice surrounding online interaction environments. For the purpose of the course, a community is defined as a group of people who sustain interaction over time. The group may be held together by a common identity, a collective purpose, or merely by the individual utility gained from the interactions. An online interaction environment is an electronic forum, accessed through computers or other electronic devices, in which community members can conduct some or all of their interactions. We will use the term eCommunity as shorthand, both for communities that conduct all of their interactions online and for communities that use online interaction to supplement face-to-face interactions. There will be two main treads that weave through the course, based on the two main texts. One tread will be concerned with the practical issues of design and use of online tools to support communities, and how choices that must be made in design can impact the function and style of the resulting community. The second thread will focus on the sociological theory that provides a frame to better understand communities in general. These theoretical pieces will provide a lens for better understanding the implications of choices made on the more practical level.

    530 - Principles in Management

    Principles in Management --- This course provides a foundation in management for information professionals interested in working in for-profit or non-profit organizations. In this course students will learn about management principles (e.g. planning, organizing, leading, controlling). Having a firm grasp of the principles is the first step. This is a skills based course, so students are expected to apply what they learn in class by reading and analyzing case studies. At all times students will be required to take on various roles (e.g. manager, employee, supplier, customer, competitor) to outline the issues managers face, evaluate managers' responses, and provide alternative courses of action.

    531 - Human Interaction in Information Retrieval

    Human Interaction in Information Retrieval --- This course explores interactive retrieval systems from users' perspectives. The purpose of this course is to introduce theory, research, and practice related to current information retrieval systems in which humans control search processes and interact with information on various levels from interfaces to functionalities. Students are encouraged to consider the nature of interaction with information in various information retrieval systems, etc. Students also learn about user studies in information retrieval in terms of experimental evaluations and measures and criteria for system performance.
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