Send ALL course-related email to uci.ss3a.hull@gmail.com (This account is monitored by both instructor and TAs.)

This is the only email address you will likely ever need to get in contact with your instructor and other teaching staff. All of the course TAs assist me in monitoring this account and answering questions, and they are authorized and capable of handling questions about nearly every issue that can arise in regular day-to-day course operations.

Your TAs will automatically flag questions they cannot answer so that I see them and reply to them personally. No need to write me directly unless the matter is extremely sensitive and not related to everyday operations.

Course Basics 

Office Hours 

Email Etiquette 

Email is an essential technology in our modern world, but one that is prone to abuse and misuse. Please observe these simple guidelines when writing to us about the course:

• Send it from your official UCI email account
• Include a subject line that looks like this: SS3A: [your subject here]
• Include a greeting and address your TA or me by our titles and names
• Include your lab section number (especially for lab-specific matters)
• Include your full name and student ID in the email signature
• Allow 24 hours for an email response, 48 hours over the weekends
• Responses are usually much faster than this, but please be patient

Office Hours Etiquette 

Observing the following will ensure that all students get to see me:

DROP-IN

• Drop-in office hours are for all regular questions and course assistance
• Drop-in office hours are first come, first serve. Expect drop-in hours to be a mad house at certain times.
• Please restrict phone calls to during drop-in office hours
• If you would like to chat remotely during drop-in or appointment office hours, you may do so. I will repost information here soon about using the "Big Red Button" and other Canvas tools to facilitate remote meetings. 

• Fridays are by-appointment hours and are for more involved discussions, not regular run-of-the mill stuff.  You can now sign up for appointments without emailing me. Just navigate to the Canvas Calendar and look for "Scheduler". Of course, if I get too many students signing up for everyday questions, I will have to go to approving these via email first, so please use your best judgment about whether you need a 1-on-1 appointment or whether one of the four other options might work better for you.
• A standard Appointment meeting is 20 minutes. If you expect to need more time, you should contact me directly so that we can discuss it.
• NOTE: NO-SHOWS for pre-arranged appointments should expect to receive the lowest priority for any future appointment sign-ups

• You are free to attend any TA's office hours, but you should attend your regular TAs office hours with lab-related questions.
• Any student not regularly attending lab may be asked to do so before receiving extra assistance during TA office hours.

 Registrar-Related Issues 

Drops and Adds

You are responsible for managing your own drops and adds. Please take care of these through WebReg, StudentAccess, or the Registrar’s Office. For complete information, please see: Official Registrar’s Drop Add Policy

Can I Audit this Course?

No. Students must be officially registered to attend and to view course materials.

Waitlist

Waitlisted students will be added automatically by the Registrar’s office if seats become available. Most of my classes have strict caps on lab section enrollment, which greatly restricts my ability to do manual adds anyway.

Alternate Arrangements

If you require special arrangements for testing, readings, assignments, or other aspects of the course, you do not need to identify yourself to me. Instead, please contact the UCI Disability Services Center. Their website has detailed instructions on the services offered and procedures to register. Official notice from DSC is required before testing and other types of accommodation can be made.

Grading Basics 

There are five components to your Overall Course Grade. (See "Grading Details" for full Information, also see "Assignment Details" for complete descriptions of work).

General Course Schedule

This version is provided to define course scope.  Order and topics will respond to student interest. The complete and current schedule will always be available on the course website. NOTE: From time to time I may substitute some new topics in place of the least popular from past quarters, so again, the course calendar is best.

In Short: Skim this once, then only rely on the regular online course calendar. 

Week 1

Lab 0 – lab mechanics, submitting assignments, charting initial aptitudes

1.1 Orientation, Introduction, Invitation to Join me in Study

1.2 Connections between technology and research, and readers and writers

Lab 1 – using technology to brainstorm and plan a research project

Week 2

2.1 The Cloud: Why (almost) everything you know about taking notes might* be wrong

2.2 BMS: Why nobody should ever need to "study" a citation format again

Lab 2 – Tools for Note-Taking / Tools for Managing References and Citations

Week 3

3.1 Better Searching for Better Research (and is Google Making us Stupid?)

3.2 Thinking about the Web of Science and how best to Navigate it

Lab 3 – “Powersearching” with Google and Google Apps

Week 4

4.1 Online Impression Management and Social Media Savvy

4.2 Your Resume or CV – An (Overlooked) Essential Research Skill

Lab 4 – Harnessing MS Word, Adobe, and HTML to Stand Out from the Crowd

Week 5

5.1 None of the Above: Why Everyday Questions Often Make Terrible Surveys

5.2 Don’t Talk to the Humans: a Crash Course in Responsible Research Conduct

Lab 5 – Using Google Forms and Spreadsheets to Collect and Organize Data

Week 6

6.1 - Midterm Prep

6.2 - Technology Holiday and Midterm Prep

There is no Lab 6

Week 7

7.1 One Graph, One Message: DataVis and Visual Storytelling for the 21st Century

7.2 From Thumbnail to Masterpiece: Getting What You Really Want out of a Data Analysis

Lab 7 – Evaluating Data Visualizations Critically

Week 8

8.1 All the Ways We Can Get it Wrong: Error, Types of Error, What’s with all these Errors?

8.2 Everything you Ever Wanted to Know about Coding but were Too Asleep to Ask…

Lab 8 – Excel as a “Window” into Data: Data in, Data Organized, Data Ready to Go

Week 9

9.1 At Least Five Good Reasons to Use SPSS to Answer your Questions about Anything

9.2 The Data Autopsy: Why a Paper Trail is an Essential Part of Serious Research

Lab 9 – Getting Acquainted with SPSS Views, a First Program, Why Might I care?

Week 10

10.1 - You vs. the Machines: Reflections on the Pace of Technological Change and What to Do About It

10.2 - Final Exam Prep

There is no Lab 10

Week 11 - Final Exam Week

* * *

Syllabus Version 5.2.1 | Updated: 2017 01 10