Associate Professor, Multimedia Program and
Co-Director, Bradley University New Media Center
Associate Professor, Speech Communication
Bradley University
Peoria IL 61625
Global Communication Center 315
(309) 677-2378 ell@bradley.edu
AIM/IM: dredleelam; 2nd Life: Professor Beliveau
office hours Tuesday & Thursday 11am - 12 noon

Field Research in Second Life :MM 490

Course Goals

The purposes include:

•   Teach our students about virtual worlds/immersive environments. Most of our students want to learn to author things like Second Life. Doing meaningful things therein (like holding class, making presentations, observing other, etc.) will help them further understand the products they want to someday make.
•   Teach students to better understand how new media impacts society by learning a valuable and oft-use strategy/method for doing research (ethnographic field methods) that they may later use (in more detail) to study how new media is used.
• Learn about this new environment for distance education.

Grading
Class Discussion over texts: 200
Daily student presentations: 200
Research assignment/exercises: 200
Blog entries: 200
Final Paper: 200
Total----------------------------------------------1000* (final total could be more or less than 1,000)
A: 88.5%-100% B:88.4-78.5 C: 78.4-68.5 D: 68.4-58.5 F:<58.5

Texts :
Field Research: Strategies for a Natural Sociology (Paperback) 
by Leonard Schatzman, Anselm L. Strauss

Virtual Methods (Paperback)  by Christine Hine (Editor)

Second Life: The Official Guide (Paperback)  by Michael Rymaszewski

Special Considerations

Your attendance for all three hours of class, each evening, is required. Please limit multitasking and focus your attention and energy on class activities. Some of the time will be spent on your own, doing research. I may join you/supervise from time to time during that. Blog work is homework, to be done out of class time. In cases of Second Life failure, iChat audio will be substituted during class.

Our class will be visited, both in world and "over Ed's shoulder" by guests throughout the term. Please remain respectful and focused. Do not invite friends to class. All visitors must be approved by Professor Beliveau. Refer potential guests to me for clearance and scheduling.

We have a class e-mail alias <mm49001-ja@bumail.bradley.edu>. Please check it daily (if you forward your mail out of it, be sure to empty the BU box regularly). I deduct 25 points (I'll notify you) from your score total each time--after the first (I'll warn you of this one)-- that I get bounced mail because your box is full. There is a BlackBoard site for grades.

Protection of Human Subjects Procedures

HSP Procedures:

• Follow Linden Lab procedures for planning and notification. LL has approved our work and practices (signed form on file).
• Linden will announce the research and identify the research class and members to the community.
• Create “Researcher” group identification for all student avatars
  • However, the “casing” portion of “Entering” will be done without this designation, before any data collection takes place.
• Once data collection and class begin, the designation will be displayed prominently.
• Bradley HSP committee, application for exemption and human subject protection procedures .
• Create a HSP handout carried by every student as a notecard offered to any avatar who inquires as to the research work/researcher’s presence.
• Maintain subject confidentiality in data management (coded names, etc).
•  Forbid students from copying and saving transcripts of talk from subjects from whom they have not gotten permission (and who haven’t been given an HSP handout)
• Forbid students from using camera controls to see through objects and into spaces where they are not co-present with the subjects.
• Publish the URL for the student course blogs on the Linden labs blog site.
• Review the student blogs regularly to catch any “beginners’” mistakes that might compromise subject protections.
• Block out avatar names and faces in cases of publishing photos of subjects without their permission.
• Copy of final papers posted to the student blogs.
  • Association of Internet Researchers ethical research document
    www.aoir.org/reports/ethics.pdf
  • Sample class FAQ (Aaron Delwiche at Trinity) http://www.trinity.edu/adelwich/mmo/faq.html
  • Bradley CUHSR materials
    http://cuhsr.bradley.edu/
• Class Research Ethics FAQ

Policy regarding student absence due to an illness:
When missing classes and related assignments due to an illness, it is the student's responsibility to provide a document issued by a medical authority to verify the student's absence due to illness, unless the Office of the Associate Provost for Student Affairs informs an instructor of the basis for the student's absence. Instructors will not call the Health Center or any other source to verify the student's reason for absence. Verification does not excuse the student from assigned work.

Policy regarding e-mail communication about grades:
As a matter of the Multimedia Program policy to protect student privacy and in accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, questions and concerns regarding grades must be presented in person or in a written letter. Instructors will not respond to questions and concerns communicated through e-mail or telephone calls regarding grades.

Flexible Schedule [assignments/exercises in planning stages]
January

Remember: DO NOT COLLECT ANY DATA FROM HUMAN SUBJECTS until after class, January 4.

2 "Normal" v. "qualitative" science. Complete assignment one for tomorrow.
3 Fields and communities of practice (S&S chapter 1). Complete assignment two for tomorrow.
4 Methods in virtual research (Hine, p. 1-13); subject protections. Complete assignment three for tomorrow.
5 Field Research, Ethnography, and Ethnography of speaking (S&S ch. 2). Collect information for assignment four. Presentations for assignment 4 will be on Jan. 8 and 9.
6 film (optional)

8 Casing, presenting self, and entering (Hine, ch. 2 & 6) (assignment 5 due 1-10)
9 Research roles S&S ch. 4; Hine, ch. 10
10 Mapping a scene & Sampling (S&S ch. 3; Hine,p. 109-112; ch. 8) (assignment 6 due 1-15)
11 Data recording, S&S ch. 6 (assignment 7 due 1-12)
12 Interviewing. pt. 1 (S&S ch. 5); Hine, ch. 3
13 film (optional) (assignment 8 due 1-16)

15 Cases illustrating practice: Hine, Ch. 5 & Ch. 9. Dates/times for assignment 9 field supervision.
16 Analysis, pt. 1. S&S ch. 7
17 Analysis, pt. 2. Hine, ch. 7
18 Write ups. S&S ch. 8. Field notes and rendered notes for assignment 9 due.
19 First drafts of papers due, start of class or earlier

22 Course evaluations. Final papers due.

Assignments

1. Identify the community of practice in which you are interested.
2. Present a visual image that represents the location for a representative example of the community of practice in which you were interested.
3. Complete revision of Human Subjects Protection handout; implement its use if asked
4. Observe and describe, in detail and natural language, an event that is typical of the kind in which you might be interested. Do not collect or record subject names or take pictures that might identify subjects. keep a written record of your observations.
5. Complete the HSP handout with the <land-owner/group owner/proprietor> of the <land/group/place> you are going to study.
6. Read "Visualizing the Spatial and Temporal Distribution of User Interaction Data Collected in Three-Dimensional Virtual Worlds", by Katy Börner, William R. Hazlewood and Sy-Miaw Lin. Adapt one of their protocols for mapping interaction in virtual spaces to your site/community of practice and render a preliminary version of the map, Jan. 15. Render a final version with your completed paper/report.
7. Engage and get permissions from an enformant. For assignment 7, identify with details and justify via explanations who this person is in the community of practice and why they can serve as useful informant. Additionally, prepare a draft question schedule for your interview of the informant.
8. Complete a detailed interview with your informant about the community of practice. Write full report of the interview, complete with illustrative Q&A with regard to the points you pursued.
9.Determine two field session days and times between Jan. 13th and 18th that are most likely to result in viewable behaviors. Notify me of the days, times, and SL coordinates for the events. Briefly summarize what sorts of event you (roughly) expect to take place at that time. Let me know if I need special permission to enter the area; if so, let me know from whom I get that permission. You will do field research during the event; I will observe and supervise. You may or may not know that I am present (depending on the circumstances, I may use an "ALT" that is unknown to you and all present). Within 24 hours after each event, turn in to me data files (a) with the rough field notes that you take at the event and (b) the rendered field notes (ON/TN/MN/Packages/analytic memos) that you develop from each of the events.
© Ed Lamoureux