If you can think of an appropriate category not listed above that you want to investigate, please let us know. 

Assignment
This assignment falls into three parts:

• the serious, collaborative investigation of each group's chosen issue, drawing on up-to-date, sophisticated information sources appropriate to an upper-level college learning community
• the writing, as a hypertext, of a research report presenting each group's analysis and conclusions
• the publication of this report as a multi-level web site, which includes appropriate design & graphics and the ethical citation of sources

Guidelines

I. Pick your broad theme, then narrow it down to a specific focus
Always try to choose a subject that seriously interests all group members.  You could report on some digital aspect of a political campaign or e-commerce (plenty of boom and bust to research at the moment) or virtual communities, for example.

Within the framework of that broad theme, narrow your investigation down to a specific sub-topic.  For example, if your broad theme is "education," then your narrowed theme might might be "distance education via the Internet."  To sharpen your focus even further, you might concentrate on "college level courses via the Internet."  If there is sufficient material to justify a four- or five-person investigation, you might want to focus even more narrowly on "masters degree programs in computer-aided design," for example. 

Then you must submit your proposal for our approval. You will write a proposal, subject to revision, outlining the subject and scope of your report. Don't proceed until we accept your proposal. 

II. Begin your research:
a) Define your major questions -
Think about why you are seeking this information.  Are you a group of students thinking about applying to schools which have a masters degree program in a particular concentration? Are you a group of students who are interested in finding out about the Digital Divide, the inequities in the "haves" and "have nots" in the digital revolution? 
Student looking for courses in a particular major?  Teachers looking for ways to teach a college-level course in a particular subject?  An employee tasked with looking for ways to implement telecommuting into your workforce? 

b) Search for appropriate sources - Search for sources, which can be a mixture of text and electronic sources, interviews, videos, etc. Remember that different subjects require different styles of projects. Be very wary indeed of relying too heavily on one category of source (print, online, video). You may be internalizing the bias built into a particular medium of writing and presentation without even realizing it. In our assessment of the your rsearch and your report, we shall examine the balance of sources very carefully. 

c) Evaluate your sources
Use your skills in evaluating sources to select the most appropriate and credible resources.  As a way of assessing the success of your collaborative research process, you need to ask yourself the following questions and answer them honestly. 

Given the amount of time you had and available resources, how did you decide that you had looked at enough sources? How did you determine whether or not they were valuable and credible sources?  Look at the balance between digital and non-digital sources. What criteria influenced you to select the digital and non-digital sources?  The criteria below will help you consider why you chose particular sources: 
 

If your group decides to stop looking for new research materials simply because it has exhausted all sources of full-text articles online and it is too lazy to go to the library or learn to use a specialized database, then you are heading for trouble!

d) Sort & categorize your sources according to their relevance.  What conclusions can you draw from your research?  Some subjects lend themselves better to examining the complexities of the subject rather than taking a stand/position.  These often turn out to be the best reports because you are more open to looking at the issue from all sides, rather than going in with a preconceived notion. 

III. Academic Criteria 
a) Citation requirements

- Provide detailed reference to your research process and the texts you used
Include links, where relevant, to the electronic sources that you use in your report: Write about your research process. 

- Provide in-text citations where you use the sources and include an annotated bibliography:
You should have at least 7-10 credible sources.  Use the APA citation method to document your reference page. Annotate your bibliography sources. To annotate a bibliography means to provide a short description of the content of each source.  Insert the annotation below the citation of the source in your "References" page. 

Design Considerations:

• Hypertext 

The  content should be organized as a hypertext Web site.  See one example of one hypertext format, the hierarchical format. 
• Navigation 

Design your site so that your visitors/audience can easily find all components of your project.  See these examples of basic navigation possibilities. 
• Balance 

Aim for a balance between visual and text information. 
• Graphical elements 

Colors, contrasts, images should enhance text, not distract. Follow copyright rules. 
• Text 

Too much text can overwhelm the reader.  How much text to include depends, of course, on the purpose of the Web-based document. 
• Site Plan 

Plan your pages.  What is the purpose of the site?  What are the objectives and policies? 
Make a storyboard. Here is one example of a design template to create a  mockup of each MAIN page in the site.  Feel free to create your own version of storyboards

• Who is your target audience? 
• What theme and personality do you want to convey? 
• What information do you want to provide? 
• What graphical elements will enhance the site and purpose? 
• How can you make your site user friendly? 
• What color palette will give your design uniformity and be suitable for the subject?