Month: February 2019

S5.2: Accessibility

Course Organisation

  • Only five of you have completed the Ethics Check. This is worrying. Everyone who works with human participants MUST complete the questionnaire, linked on LEARN.
  • I will offer TopHat office hours while I am away where I will answer questions about the quiz and the usability assessment. I will try to check the TopHat threads daily.

 

Starter

A database of video and audio content was shut down because it was not accessible. Is that justified?

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/06/u-california-berkeley-delete-publicly-available-educational-content

Themes from the Questions and Comments

Misconception 1: Accessibility means simplifying things

That’s not true. Inclusive design makes it very clear that accessible designs make life easer for everyone. Think of barrier free public transport.

Misconception 2: Accessible designs are ugly

This is because specialist designs address a small, captive audience.

Compare this wheelchair fashion site to this article, which clearly takes people’s desire for nice clothes into account.

Misconception 3: Accessibility is only for people who are blind, deaf, or otherwise significantly impaired

Every disability exists on a scale, and it’s beneficial to think of those who have trouble seeing, for those who are hard of hearing, and for those who can’t move very well.

S5.1: Social Aspects

Course Organisation

  • For the Quiz, look at the “Remember” sections of the first four weeks, including Session 5.2 (tomorrow), write down the concepts, and make sure that you understand the definitions.
  • You can only go forward through the Quiz
  • We expect to have all Tutorial Presences entered into Top Hat by the end of Reading Week
  • The Tutorial Presences are registered in TopHat in a weird way, because the only way we can mark attendance manually is to create a “manual attendance” column, which shows all 155 students on TopHat automatically as present, and there is no way for us to automatically switch that to a default of “absent” for all 155 students. So we have agreed the following rule with the ITO:
    • Students who were present at a Tutorial are marked as “excused”
    • Students who were absent at all of the Tutorials are left as “present”

Starting Point: Online Games as Social Networks

Examples of networks and network-like elements in Games:

  1. Farmville (RIP)
  2. World of Warcraft

How the World of Warcraft community discusses cyberbullying

A long read on cyberbullying in World of Warcraft

Themes from Last Year’s Questions and Comments

Race and socioeconomic status

One student pointed out in the questions and comments – quite rightly! – that it appears rude and unthoughtful to say that race is correlated with socioeconomic status.

Race does not determine socioeconomic status; in the current century, you will find people of all races and skin colours at all levels of society. However, in some societies, people of some races are much more likely to be disadvantaged and feel disadvantaged.

Here are some resources:

Activity 1: Definition of Race

If you look at the definitions of race in the US versus the UK, what are the main differences? Why do you think some ethnic groups are highlighted?

Tip: For the US, look at the Wage Gaps data; for the UK, look at the Government definition.

What are the relevant Ethnic groups in your home country?

What is socioeconomic status?

Going back to the two UK resources, you will see that they highlight several areas of inequality. The Race Report talks about Employment, Education, Living Standards, Crime, and Health and Care. All of these contribute to socioeconomic status. Each of these areas is made up of separate statistics.

Activity 2: Aspects of Socioeconomic Status

What aspects are discussed in the UK Government statistics? How might each of the six areas (Education, Crime, Housing, Health, Work, Culture) contribute to the likelihood that

  • a person has a cheap smartphone
  • a person has a laptop
  • a person has a high-end smartphone (Galaxy S8, iPhone X)

 

 

S4.2: CSCW Questions and Errors

Course Organisation

  • Start studying for the Quiz! A practice quiz will be up soon. To prepare, make a list of all the concepts that are in the “Remember” section of the Learning outcomes, see whether you know their definition, and check by talking to classmates whether you understand them
  • You do not need participant consent for studying posts from a social media web site, but you should still be careful with the data you handle.

Starter

If you can’t find information about the coursework structure, and are confused about the DPT, who is at fault? If we want to solve the problem, how can we go about it? Do we blame people or do we change the system?

Some Themes from Questions and Comments

Here’s a clear explanation of why attribution error matters – is it the user’s fault? Is it the technology’s fault? Or is this just a complex system?

CREAM and THEA are two possible frameworks for analysing sources of error early – CREAM is obsolete now, see why in the linked blog post. For THEA, see this paper with worked examples and why it matters. The THEA paper emphasises just how important it is to have an accurate understanding of the context of use and the user themselves.