Senior Project Philosophy

The practice of senior projects has its origins in small programs with studio and cross-curricular emphases. For a long time, art and film students have used such a capstone course to demonstrate what they learned over four years. Senior projects are opportunities for CIT students to design their own projects in consulatation with a faculty member of their choosing. Traditionally, a senior project is creative in its conception and medium and also demonstrates intellectual rigor in terms of research and writing. The Communications and Information Technology Program sees the project as “a bridge between the humanities curriculum and the information technology course work” (MSC Catalog).

English/ Humanities 4483

Students will complete work on their senior projects during spring semester of their graduation year. Seniors take English 4483 (New Media Track) or Humanities 4483 (Cross Cultural Track) as the course in which the projects are monitored and completed. The CIT Coordinator generally teaches this course and offers a timeline for completing stages of the project, as well as information about research methods and MLA documentation. Further, students select a Senior Project Advisor to work with them individually on their projects. The Senior Project Advisor is the primary resource for students who need help developing a topic, constructing a reading list, finding research sources, and providing advice about other aspects of the project.

General Timeline for Working on and Completing Project

For specific due dates for the current academic year, see “Senior Project Guidelines” below. Generally, however, in his or her senior year of the CIT program, the student should:

• in late August or early September of fall semester, submit to Dr. Berke your first two choices for the CIT professor who will serve as your Senior Project Advisor. Dr. Berke will respond to all requests.
• by late September of fall semester, working with your Senior Project Advisor, decide on a topic for the senior project
• by early November of fall semester, submit a proposal to the CIT Coordinator (Dr. Berke) for review and acceptance by a panel of CIT faculty (see “Guidelines for Completing the Senior Project” below)
• by end of fall semester, receive feedback from Senior Project Advisor about project proposal and modify the proposal as necessary
• by beginning of spring semester, sign up for ENGL or HUMN 4483 The Senior Project Course
• follow course guidelines for completing various stages of the project according to due dates in spring semester senior project course
• plan to present the finalized project to the Humanities faculty and campus visitors by mid-April of spring semester

Choosing a Topic

“What should I do for a senior project?” This question is best explored through individual student interests. The point is for students to come up with ideas and not for instructors to dictate projects or project ideas. Students should start thinking very early on about what they might do for a project, periodically meeting with a CIT faculty member to discuss ideas. Students should write down ideas, revisit the ideas, talk with fellow CIT students, and talk with recent graduates. This process should begin in earnest no later than the end of the third year. By the end of September of the senior year, students should begin the paper work for their project, which includes starting a graduation audit at the Registrar’s Office, arranging for a project advisor, writing a proposal, and conducting some preliminary research. For complete guidelines, students should see below “Guidelines for the Senior Project.” There students will find a calendar of due dates and some forms to download. Students should visit this site early in their studies, especially at the beginning of their senior years.

Since CIT is a hybrid curriculum with two overlapping tracks, there is wide opportunity to choose from topics and applications. Instead of providing a specific list of topics to choose from, which would immediately limit choices, we expect students to come up with their own ideas. In the past, students have explored the structure and cultural consequences of machine translation in web design; analyzed how the definition of “newsworthy” has been affected by for-profit cable news networks; explored how a global cultural economy is established by “flows” of movement of capital, information, images, ideas, technology and people; and examined the impact of the digital age on the radio broadcast industry. Ideally, each student should do something significantly different from other students. Students should also avoid repeating what another student did the previous year. This is a highly creative process and global modifications of the project in the early stages is not an unhealthy part of the process. Students may also choose to revisit a project or paper they completed in a previous CIT course. If you already have done significant work on a project in a previous class, you may want to build on those ideas in the Senior Project.

Major Components of the Project

There are three components of the project: the research paper, the creation of a technology component, and the oral presentation of the student’s work.

The Paper

Students will write an extended research paper that explores the topic in depth. All projects should have a theoretical basis (communication theory, feminist theory, gender theory, media theory, etc.) and should demonstrate good scholarly practices in research and writing using MLA documentation. The number of sources and the exact length of the paper will be arranged with the Project Advisor, but twenty pages with twelve or more sources is average. Finally, the students at the end of spring semester will orally present their work to Humanities faculty, other students, and visitors from the campus at large. As one can see, the project allows students to showcase skills that eventually will be important in the workplace: the ability to think, research, write, communicate and apply specific technology skills. Students can arrange to film their senior project presentations and use the edited footage as part of their professional portfolio.

The Technology Project

In terms of demonstrating technology skills, students should design a technology component that augments, illustrates, or complements in some way the research conducted. Ideally we want students with strong digital skills to apply them as a major element in their project, but not every student has to be able to do high tech applications on his or her own. Both selected IT and CIT faculty are able to help with putting together Web sites, creating and editing a short film, and other applications. The Senior Project Advisor will help students in identifying faculty with particular technology skills.

The Oral Presentation

Finally, all students will make an oral presentation near the end of spring semester on a day when all senior projects will be presented. Students should plan to speak extemporaneously following a clear organizational pattern. Students may choose to read very brief sections or quotations from their papers but should not read for extended periods. In the oral presentation, the student should communicate the theoretical framework of the project, cover the research conducted, and showcase the technology project, explaining its connection to the topic researched. The presentation is not an opportunity to be grilled in public, but for students to explain — with enthusiasm we hope — the project. We will ask some questions afterwards, but the aim is to celebrate your achievement as a soon-to-be graduate.

Senior Project Guidelines: 2008-2009

Fall semester in the academic year that the student plans to graduate, the student begins work on the Senior Project and continues work through the entire academic year. The Senior Project is completed during spring semester of the year that the student plans to graduate. Students should know that we offer senior projects classes only in the spring; this means that no student should plan on a fall or summer senior project.

STEPS TO FOLLOW:

1. SELECT A SENIOR PROJECT ADVISOR DURING FALL SEMESTER

During fall semester of the academic year that the student plans to graduate, students will be paired with Senior Project Advisors per their requests.

Students should meet with their advisors by the last day of September 2008. The project advisor helps the student formulate a topic and works closely with the student during the course of the academic year to assist the student in preparing the senior project proposal and the resulting paper and to help students compile reading lists/ research sources, define the scope of the technical component of the project, and prepare the oral presentation of the project.

Normally, the Project Advisor teaches in the CIT program, but if a student wants to work with someone else, the student can contact Dr. Robert Kelly, Chair of the Humanities Division, to seek permission to make other arrangements.

2. PREPARE AND SUBMIT SENIOR PROJECT PROPOSAL DURING FALL SEMESTER

Each student must submit a Senior Project Proposal package by 7 November 2008 (4:30pm at the latest).The proposal should be submitted in hard copy to Dr. Amy Berke in the Humanities Division AND TO YOUR SENIOR PROJECT ADVISOR according to the following guidelines:

The proposal will have four parts and should be assembled in the following order, then stapled and turned in by the deadline:

• A Senior Project Cover Sheet (will be sent over CIT listserv) that includes a 50-word abstract of the project. Before the Senior Project Proposal package is turned in, the student must have his/her Project Advisor and the Registrar’s Office sign this cover sheet. Students must have these signatures completed by 5 November 2008, the date that the proposal package is due. Students should also request at the Registrar’s office a degree audit the fall semester before graduation to ensure that all graduation requirements will be met in the current or spring semester.
• A two-page paper that offers in greater detail than the abstract the scope of the project (what the student wants to explore), the theoretical underpinning or critical framework of the ideas at hand, a brief discussion of material read to date or the texts that will be consulted, and the scope/ type of the technical component (e.g., a website, a hypertext narrative, digital video, etc.). The paper should be followed by an annotated bibliography (see #3 below). The paper should be typed and double-spaced. The student’s name, the Project Advisor’s name, the phrase “Senior Project Proposal,” and the current date in British notation should appear in the upper left-hand corner of the first page, each on a separate line. The title of the project should then be centered above the first paragraph. All paragraphs should be indented 5 spaces. Each page, including the annotated bibliography, should be numbered in the right upper corner, according to MLA guidelines. If research material is referenced (paraphrased or quoted directly) within the narrative, the student must cite it appropriately using MLA guidelines. Dr. Berke has copies of previous senior project proposals in her office if you would like to see one as a sample.
• An annotated bibliography of at least five texts read to date. The bibliography should be listed as the Annotated Bibliography page and should appear after the two-page narrative as the last numbered page(s) of the narrative. Consult a writer’s handbook for current MLA standards for writing and formatting an annotated bibliography.
• The Senior Project New Proposal Questionnaire. The student should fill out the questionnaire (will be sent over the CIT listserv). Include the completed questionnaire with your other materials.

3. SIGN UP FOR ENGLISH OR HUMANITIES 4483 FOR SPRING SEMESTER

During fall semester pre-registration, each student planning a spring 2009 graduation should sign up for The Senior Project Class, English 4483 (New Media Track) or Humanities 4483 (Cross Cultural Track) for spring 2008. Contact Dr. Amy Berke for a sample syllabus.

Students working on the Senior Project will attend English/ Humanities 4483 in the spring and will also meet with respective Project Advisors as the projects come to a conclusion. The date of the Senior Project Presentations is TBA. On this day, students will showcase their projects to faculty, students, and others during formal oral presentations. Dr.Berke, the instructor of record for English/ Humanities 4483, will be responsible (with input from your Senior Project Advisor) for determining the grade of each student’s senior project (which is the course grade for the semester).