Independent Study (Graduate Credit Requirement)
Summary
For this assignment, you will research a topic of your own choosing and write a set of notes relevant to that topic. The notes will be similar to the style of course notes I share with you.
Goals
- Learn more about a topic of interest
- Practice technical documentation/communication
- Share supplemental information with classmates
Topic choices
The topic you choose to explore should be somehow tangentially related to this course.
For example, you may wish to explore a competing technology/language, a related tool, or just take a deeper dive on a topic we don’t have time to get too far into.
Topic brainstorm:
- Technology X vs. Technology Y
- How to create and share a package/dependency
- How to contribute to an open-source project
- Explore some web-dev specific service (e.g. Sentry bug reporting, Forge server management, etc.)
- How to build [some utility] using [xyz] technology
- How to do a good peer code review
- Code style - comments, syntax, organization, best practices, etc.
Example
Checking your HTML code using the W3C Validator
Outside sources
To write your notes you will reference and cite outside sources and documentation.
However, you should not just regurgitate an existing tutorial/blog post that you find online. Instead, you should distill the information from multiple sources, explaining the topic in your own words.
Milestones
- In your Week 5 assignment, I will ask you to share potential topics you might write about.
- In your Week 8 assignment, I will ask you to share a starting outline of the notes, including relevant sources you’ll reference.
- In your Week 12 assignment, I will ask you to submit your final notes.
Logistics
- Only students taking this course for graduate credit are required to complete this assignment. It is optional (but suggested) for students taking the course for undergraduate credit.
- Notes should be at least a 1000 words in length (this can include code examples), and should have graphics/screenshots as needed to communicate the information.
- Your notes should be written using proper Markdown syntax.
- Your notes will be shared with the class.
- Your notes should exist in your course repository following this directory structure:
/independent-study
README.md
images/
Assessment
- Information is clear and easy to follow.
- Notes show care and attention to detail, with sufficient depth and length.
- There are little to no typos. Proper sentences and grammar is used throughout.
- Sources are properly cited.
- Content is written in student’s own voice; it is not a retelling of information from an existing source.
- Sufficient graphics are used to communicate instructions/ideas.