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Last revised 1/16/06

Course Syllabus for IRLS614 Information Theory and Transfer: Networks

Link to Course Outline

Spring 2007 Instructor: Martin Frické

Image of Martin Frické


COURSE NAME, NUMBER, AND PREREQUISITES

Information Theory and Transfer.

IRLS614 791

This course is an elective, and there are no course prerequisites.
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COURSE DESCRIPTION

"Online instructional course on the structure of networks and their value in the theories of information." (3 credit hours)

Considerable interest has arisen recently in scale free networks and features typically associated with them such as connectors, small worlds, and degrees of separation.

Such networks are central to information science. The World Wide Web, the dissemination of information through society, and the citation patterns in literature are all examples of scale free networks. And, to amplify a little:- with the Web, Yahoo and Google are examples of connectors, the number of clicks to get from one site to another is the degree of separation, and parts of the Web are small worlds in so far as the degrees of the sites are small. And to mention a feature from the second example, librarians, often traditionally called 'gatekeepers', are one of the connectors in the dissemination of information.

Many questions of interest to information science can be raised within this theoretical structure. For example, we often want to know how authoritative a source is-- how likely it is for that source to provide correct and complete information-- and it seems that it may be possible to answer this in terms of the network structure or topology of links between that source and other sources. Much research is going on at present to use these ideas in Search Engine technology.

This course will consist of the study of scale free networks and their application to information theory and transfer.

How this course will be taught

This is an online course taught virtually at a distance using the Web. The course is conceived of as discussions on 15 (or so) topics. A lecture course in the University of Arizona amounts to 37 1/2 hours of instruction spread through a semester. Our 'discussions' will be the virtual counterpart of 15 (or so) two and one half hour lectures or seminars, delivered at a rate of one a week. There will be notes, readings, discussion groups, chat, and (of course) assignments.

The course has a start date and an end date, and the class as a whole will move through the course together The primary means of introducing the scholarly material will be Notes. These are going to be posted one at a time steadily through the session, keeping the whole class moving forward through the material. There are about 15 sets of Notes, and these normally will be delivered at a rate of one a week (usually put up on a Thursday). There will be assignments, with due dates, and formal discussions, and these will serve to check progress. There also will be readings or references to be followed up on the Web.

Almost all interactions will be asynchronous. That is, students can log on whenever they wish, and read material and post replies on timetables that suits their individual needs. A student will typically need to log on about 5 times a week. (An analog here is email-- most folk check their email at least five times a week.)

d2l (desire to learn) is used as the instructional and course management environment. Students who enrol in the course will be given an account. They will be able to log in to their account via the Learning Technologies Center E-Learning Portal. d2l has facilities for internal email, and this will be one way to contact the Instructor or the Graduate Assistant Teacher (GAT).

Students are expected to log on reasonably regularly, to read and study the Notes and references, to participate in the online discussions, to interact by email (and other means) with their fellow students, to write (or otherwise answer) the assignments, to download and upload files (this will be taught), and to carry out various other activities. It is hard to anticipate accurately how much time all these course related activities will take in total (and such a figure would vary from student to student and from week to week),  but seven hours a week is a rough order of magnitude estimate.

The course will start in earnest a few days after the start of the semester. The d2l software can detect when students log on, and when most of the students have shown that the are present by logging on, the Instructor will get the course underway.
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COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the completion of this course, you will:

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REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS

There are two set texts for the course (I am just thinking about this right now, so revision of this is a possibility.)

And online materials are available either directly on the Web or through password protected electronic reserves at the library (http://eres.library.arizona.edu with password xxx)

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COURSE REQUIREMENTS

The course requirements are

The participation requirement is that you post a 'Participation Note' to the discussion board six times during the semester. Each Participation Note is to be a note, summary, or review etc. associated with some topic or reading that we are studying. The Participation Notes will be the virtual counterpart of a brief ten minute class presentation. Each Note needs to be at least 250 words long. Each Note will be assessed by 'completion' (you get full marks for each one done).

The coursework requirement will be one paper, one due about 7 weeks into the course (due at a time to be posted later).

The final examination will be a take-home exam of two hours duration, which you may take home for one week. It will be distributed electronically on xxx and has to be returned by Wednesday xxx at 11.55pm.

The coursework will count for 30% of the final grade, the participation 30%, and the final exam for 40% of the grade.

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COURSE POLICIES

Academic Code of Integrity

Students are expected to abide by The University of Arizona Code of Academic Integrity (one theme of which is that The guiding principle of academic integrity is that a student's submitted work must be the student's own.). If you have any questions regarding what is acceptable practice under this Code, please ask an Instructor.

Accommodating Disabilities

The University has a Disability Resource Center. If you anticipate the need for reasonable accommodations to meet the requirements of this course, you must register with the Disability Resource Center and request that the DRC send me, the Instructor, official notification of your accommodation needs as soon as possible. Please plan to meet with me by appointment or during office hours to discuss accommodations and how my course requirements and activities may impact your ability to fully participate.

Assignment Policies

Incompletes

The 1997-8 University of Arizona General Academic Manual, p.23 reads

The grade of I may be awarded only at the end of a semester, when all but a minor portion of the course work has been satisfactorily completed. The grade of I is not to be awarded when the student is expected to repeat the course; in such a case the grade of E must be assigned. Students should make arrangements with the instructor to receive an incompete grade before the end of the semester ...

If the incomplete is not removed by the instructor within one year the I grade will revert to a failing grade.
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GRADING

The following scales will be used

Internal

For Graduate School

90-100%

A

70-89%

B

below 70%

C

General grading criteria: For ordinary papers, and unless specified otherwise, you should write about the equivalent of four pages of ordinary text. Grammar, style, or spelling are not central-- provided the paper is understandable and the faults are not so severe as to be a distraction. Then, important grading criteria include:-

How to find out your grades: d2l has two main ways to help a student find grades. There is a link on the toolbar named 'Grades' which, if clicked on, will display all the grades. Second, if a student clicks on a submitted and graded assignment in the Dropbox, the grade, and feedback comments from the Instructor, will be displayed.

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CONTACTING ME

Please raise queries by email. When the course is up and running, and you are a registered student, use the course's internal email (this is best for me as it keeps material related to this course in one place). Failing that, use ordinary email to mfricke(AT)u.arizona.edu . 

There will be an online office hour, during which I will be available in a Chat room. This will be at a time to suit you students, but it may well be an evening at 7pm MST.

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