The course addresses the role of interaction design for collaborative media, including design of innovative media “texts” as well as designing for collaboration and community. Academic maturity is ramped up by focusing on the fundamental craft skills of academic writing and reflection on research methods and results.

The course covers topical areas in interaction design for collaborative media, including key design elements in designing for prosumers, designing participatory media and designing grassroots media. Concerning analytical and critical perspectives, the course offers an introduction to media and communication studies as applied to interaction design and collaborative media, as well as particular analytical/critical concepts concerning, e.g., emergence, critical mass and virality.

On the level of methodology, the course focuses on intervention- and community-oriented design methods and techniques such as envisionments, mashups, social interventions, community-based participation and co-determination, and perpetual-beta development approaches.

1. Building a repertoire of important design elements in collaborative media.

2. Developing familiarity with introductory media and communication perspectives on interaction design.

3. Displaying ability to execute interaction design techniques suitable for the design of collaborative media.

4. Displaying ability to execute further skills required in the craft of academic knowledge construction, and specifically to write short academic texts.

5. Displaying some ability to analyze and critique collaborative media using relevant analytical/critical concepts.

6. Displaying some ability to reflect on academic research methodology and epistemology.

Work in multidisciplinary teams on pertinent design topics within collaborative media, including innovative media “texts” and remediations as well as designing for community and collaboration. Writing individual academic short papers on the work. Critical review of academic publications in collaborative media and of fellow students’ papers, with particular emphasis on research methodology and epistemology.

Learning outcomes concerned with designing and critiquing collaborative media (1–3, 5) are assessed in oral group examinations (studio crits). The learning outcomes that have to do with academic craft (4 , 6) are assessed in individual writing assignments, individual critical reviews and group review seminars.

TBA

Plenary discussion and individual written evaluation, focusing on the learning outcomes and the means for achieving them (learning activities, resources, course organization etc.).