The class will be responsible for two in class activities as well as each student will lead a workshop on their project topic. Often times the strength of an analyst lies in their ability to work within a team. When conducting analysis using coding, that process is perhaps more evident. In order to develop code when working together, the team must work with each other and each must individually develop their method for working successfully within a group. These exercises will provide opportunities for individual as well as team growth in applying text analysis. This is worth 25% of your overall grade.
During two separate lessons, the class will be presented with a text mining application problem. The class period will be devoted to coming up with the best solution for each of those problems. The event will be graded as far as completion of the assignment, but additionally, each student will fill out a survey on the participation of all the students in the class. That survey will be used to distribute the grade appropriately as demonstrated by your effort towards assisting the group accomplish the assignment.
The class after a student delivers a class on the assigned topic, the student will lead a workshop involving the other members of the class on advancing their course project work. The student leading the workshop will give some discussion on the topic and background of the project, and will then introduce 1-3 problems they are struggling with for their project. These problems can be anything from specific areas of their existing code not working (troubleshooting), to documentation, to developing new code to increase functionality of existing code. Bottom line, the problems introduced must be in class time allotted sized sections that would be reasonable to get accomplished within the class time only (no homework assignments allowed). This is an opportunity to advance each of your course projects by gaining the input of the class – take advantage of this opportunity. Plan for at least 70-80 minutes of workshop within the class. Grade will be assessed based on the ability to motivate the group around the proposed project topic, making full use of the allotted time and the presence with which the group leader leads the workshop. Though not graded, some examples of tools which can be used to help organize the group are slides on the topic and background, assigning of teams to work particular problems, etc (get creative).