Use of AI-content generators for assignments in this class
When I taught Advanced Writing for the Social Sciences here at UMD, for over twenty-five years, my rule of thumb advice to students was to plan to spend 60% or more of their time and effort revising drafts (for academic type writing).
In 2001 Wikipedia appeared on the scene and very quickly became a useful tool asa starting point for many academic projects even though as an open-source resource the Wikipedia entries are not checked and verified in the same manner as other traditional reference materials.
Spelling and grammar checkers arrived on the general scene and helped with spelling and grammar checking, but, as you no doubt have discovered, they continue to require human editing.
And, of course, before that we had a selection of excellent Encyclopedia offering good starting points for many projects, the most popular being The Encyclopedia Brittanica.
And long before that there were libraries--since at least the days of Alexandria in Egypt, in the third century B.C.
The bottom line . . .
Today the evolution of research resources and aids continues with the relatively rapid appearance of ChatGPT and other automated content generators.
As many folks have already found out, they can be very useful as starting points, much like their predecessors. But, from the academic point of view, they are still only starting points.
Professors nationwide are for the most part advised, and even encouraged, to experiment with the potentials of ChatGPT and similar apps.
In this class it is fine to experiment, with the caveat that all of your written academic work demonstrates that your personal efforts—including content development and revision—reflect your personal originality, exploration, analysis, explanation, integrating and synthesizing of ideas, organizational skills, evaluation, and overall learning and critical thinking efforts.
That is to say you may experiment with the AI tool to do tasks such as e.g, brainstorming, narrowing topics, writing first drafts, editing text, and the like. AI-generated works should in no case be more than that.
In the end you need to become familiar enough with the various subjects, peoples, and places discussed in this class to research a topic and problem-solve on your own, and carry on an intelligent conversation about them in modern-day society . . . a conversation that goes byond your voicing an unsupported opinion.
For the record, what follows is the official UMD Academic Integrity Policy. Note that "unless otherwise noted by the faculty
member" this is the default policy.
"UMD’s Academic Integrity policy covers any work done by automated content generators such as ChatGPT or other generative artificial intelligence tools unless otherwise noted by the faculty
member. These tools present new challenges and opportunities."
"Within the confines of this
class The use of AI-content generators is strictly prohibited for any stage of homework/assignment
(e.g., draft or final product). The primary purposes of college are developing your thinking skills,
being creative with ideas, and expanding your understanding on a wide variety of topics. Using
these content generating AI tools thwarts the goal of homework/assignments to provide
students opportunities to achieve these purposes. Please make the most of this time that you
have committed to a college education and learn these skills now, so that you can employ them
throughout your life." -- Jennifer Mencl, UMD Associate Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, 10 May 2023
As far as the assignments go, the Presentation and the Term Paper are not repititions or duplications.
They aredifferent ways to present the results of your research to different audiences for different purposes.
It is the goal of this pair of assignments combined to give you experience presenting (a) your information to (b) two different audiences for (c) two different purposes.
If you are one who thinks the Term Paper and the formal audience should be first, and the Presentation and the informal audience second, that is a legitimate point of view. But since both can not be first, the model used here is the real-life situation one where a student presents a paper (or poster or whatever) to a student session of a regional meeting of their major (the informal audience), gets feedback from their regional peers, and then develops the project into a formal print version submitted to the regional organization (the formal project to a formal audience).
If you happen to have a major that doesn't have a regional organiztion or a student section, or have not declared a major, then your idea of having the the Term Paper first and Presentation last makes a lot more sense. If that is the case, pretend you have a major-related student section of a regional organization.
Unfortunately, with a class this size, it is not feasible to offer you the option to switch the order of the two.
Student Colleagues in a Regional Professional Organization (i.e., a student paper presented at a regional meeting)
(finished version)
Purpose:
To inform classmates what you have been working on and what you have found interesting, and possibly what you would like to find out more about in the future.
Purpose:
To present the results of personal research to members in a professional forum. (i.e., or, if you prefer, your audience can be the members of a task force of which you are a member, in a company or organization like you would like to work for in the future.)
Style:
Informal
Style:
Formal, following the specific syle and content guidelines of the organization.
(The default guidelines are those commonly accepted for academic college-level term papers in the style format most commonly used by people in your major.)
For further information see your respective
Presentation and Term Paper WebPages.
One of the goals of the Presentation is to give you some practice informally presenting something you are interested in to a small group. Think giving a brief presentation to a UMD student organization (e.g., MPIRG) or campus interest group (e.g., Donut Connoisseurs of Duluth), or to a community organization that you belong to (e.g.s, The Superior Hiking Trail Association, Duluth Community Garden Program), or something like a student presentation at a state/regional convention of your major (e.g., The Central Sates Anthropological Society), or something like that.
Another e.g.: If you are thinking about something like a PowerPoint type of Presentation, consider doing the kind of presentation you would do for an organization you are a member of, for something like a "tabling" event at a fundraiser or at something like a recruitment fair.
The audience should be a group like your classmates.
Another goal of the Project, an hence the Presentation, is to give you practice taking something you have been working on and are interested in and presenting it to two different audiences, one informal (the Presentation) and one formal (the term paper).
During Week 15 review 3-5 or more of your colleagues' Presentations, and be prepared to answer the following question which will be in the Final Exam Question pool:
Compare and Contrast your Presentation with the Presentations of three others in class. If, in your opinion, your presentation was not the best in class, what would it take to make it the best?
As part of your discussion explain what units of analysis you and the others used, how they were used, and why you chose to use those exact ones you did.
You do not need to submit any information on your reviews of your classmates' Presentations, just review them before Final Exam week and be prepared to answer the above question if you receive it on your exam from the Final Exam pool of questions.
Your Presentation is an informal [style] on-line preliminary report [purpose] to your classmates [audience] onwhat you have found (and found to be interesting) in your research on your Project this semester [content].
Audience
Your Presentation is an on-line preliminary report of your Term Paper,
to a different audience (your classmates), and with a different style (informal).
(By contrast, your Term Paper will be a "formal style" document.)
Classmates (not the professor)
Think of your presentation as a TED talk for your classmates, if you are familiar with TED talks,
without having to pay the $3,500-$15,000 fee to give your talk at a TED conference.
Or something like a "brown bag" luncheon presentation at your library to a mixed-group of curious individuals who normally attend more informal public lectures
Or students at the Student Presentations sections of the Central States Anthropological Society Annual Convention, or the annual regional convention of your major(s) [for example, Sociologists of Minnesota, Central States Anthropological Society]
Purpose
One of the main reasons for your Presentation, apart from sharing your findings, is to give you experience at presenting to a small group—a skill that is increasingly necessary in "the real world".
To let your audience know what you were working on, and what you found out that was interesting and important, and what might be interesting to look at in the future
To get feedback on your Presentation that might be useful in preparing your final Term Paper
NOTE: This is a presentation of a work in progress
A YouTube or slide deck type Presentation should basicaly be the eqivalent of a 12-15 minute preliminary report
on your Semester Research Project, with about 3-5 minutes of the time devoted to questions and answers.
(If you are not having live questions and answers, then your Presentation should be about ten minutes.)
A Web Site should be such that it can be explored in about 15-20 minutes.
On-line Blogs will vary in length, by their very nature.
With some real-life poster presentations the creator of the poster is present and gives a short "elevator speech" to viewers. The "elevator speech" should be no longer than 30-60 seconds, and it should cover the main points you are trying to make with your poster presentation.
In other real-life poster presentations the basic contents of the "elevator speech" are included on the poster itself, and the creator of the poster may not be present.
You may do either a version which includes a (taped) "elevator speech", or a version where you include that information on the poster itself.
Sometimes when you go to a convention, or a meeting, or a job fair, or a sports show or something like that and you see a display or two that are set up with programs running on their own. Those can be short Slide Decks or videos that are looped to continually run on their own. The messages can be written out, with the text included as part of the program, or the messages can be added with audio as a "voice-over".
with a "voice-over" the narration is not accompanied by the image of the speaker; the message is in the background explaining what the viewer is seeing on the screen
with "textual" only, all of the information is provided by the words on the screen(along with the images); there is no one in the background explaining what the viewer is seeing on the screen.
by contrast, with a YouTube or other "video" presentation, the speaker is, commonly in front of the camera speaking directly to the viewer(s)
You may do any of these types for your class Presentation.
If you were to attend a regional or national conference in a professional organization related to your major, or if you attend a conference or exposition related to something like an Undergraduate Research Opportunites Program (UROP)
project, you would most likely see that there is a "Poster Session" as part of that conference or exposition.
So another option for your class presentation would be to create a professional poster presentation explaining your project to others interested in the topic.
If you choose to do a poster it should be a poster like you would present at a Student exhibition at UMD at the end of the semester. And it should be available for others in the class to see; which means you need to upload the link to the Canvas Week 13 File titled "PRESENTATIONS DROPBOX [SUBMIT AND REVIEW PRESENTATIONS HERE] (Project Part 3)".
With some real-life poster presentations the creator of the poster is present and gives a short "elevator speech" to viewers. The "elevator speech" should be no longer than 30-60 seconds, and it should cover the main points you are trying to make with your poster presentation.
In other real-life poster presentations the basic contents of the "elevator speech" are included on the poster itself, and the creator of the poster may not be present.
You may do either a version which includes a (taped) "elevator speech", or a version where you include that information on the poster itself.
Saying "I don't like PowerPoint lectures" is like saying
"I don't like chalkboard lectures," or
"I don't like overhead projector lectures," or
"I don't like 8 mm movies".
It misses the point.
Likewise to assume that your lecture is good just because it uses PowerPoint
also misses the point.
As with any presentation, it is good to have a beginning, middle, and an end. Usually the beginning contains what in writing they call a "thesis statement."
PowerPoint projects for this course should be well-crafted and professional, and about 25-30 slides&* in length, with narration or narrative text as part of the program itself (and not simply presented, for e.g., as presenter's notes in a powerpoint presentation).
The "narration" can be pretty straightforward. It is the "story" that links the slides together
If you look at any of the slide sets from the first part of the semester, there is a set of word slides linking together the various images
(Note, as mentioned above written "narration" should be part of the program itself and not simply presented as off-slide notes in a PowerPoint presentation. That is, the PowerPoint "show" itself should be self-contained. The same priciple is also true as it might apply to a web page presentation.)
To see what the presenter's notes are all about, if you go to your PowerPoint program and click on the "View" tab at the top (usually at the top) you will have the options . . .
Normal
Slide Sorter
Notes Page
Reading View
Some people sometimes put the "narrative" (the story that links the slides together) on the "Notes Page." But when one does that they can not see the slides and the notes at the same time.
So don't put your "narrative" there
The minimum format should be slides with information on your project, with relevant illustrations. You may, of course, experiment. (But avoid items flying around and appearing randomly.)
QUESTION: "When you put pictures in PowerPoint slides do you have cite them?"
The basic rule is that one needs to cite everything used that is not of their own creation. There are different ways to do that.
For a presentation you can list the sources of the images on one or more slide (if you are using slides) at the end; that is, all of the references can be at the end; they do not necessarily have to be with each picture (that is, in a Presentation; in the Term Paper, each image must be identified, and the source given).
If you are doing a web site, it is acceptable to link the picture to its source (which is the system I use on most of the images for the class web pages).
You can also add a link an image in a PowerPoint slide, but, in the end, that can be very confusing when a viewer or presenter clicks on an image accidentally and is taken away from the Presentation to the web site (or other source) of the picture.
Have a look at the information below, and if you have any questions, please let me know.
images
The use of images is one of the great strengths of using WebPages. Images help explain your point, and they allow you to present information quickly, clearly and concisely. And they generally make your work look more interesting.
Identify your images with concise headings.
When you include an image, place it as close as possible to the part of the text that it illustrates. Place images in the most appropriate locations; do not simply add them at the beginning or the end of your paper.
At the bottom of each image, include the source of information and any other relevant notes. Make sure each image has an accurate title.
images
In your Presentation make sure each image has an accurate title. And at the bottom of each image, include the source of information and any other relevant notes, but do that part in tiny fonts.
Images help explain your point, and they allow you to present information quickly, clearly and concisely. And they generally make your work look more interesting. Number your images and include concise headings. And you must have at least one reference to each illustration . . . in the text.
When you include an image in your Term Paper, place it as close as possible to the part of the text that it illustrates. Place images in the most appropriate locations; do not simply add them at the beginning or the end of your paper. If your image is bigger or longer than fits on the page where it should ideally go, indicate its position with instructions set off by lines above and below and place each image on a separate page immediately following the inserted instructions as with the following example.
Insert Image 1 about here
At the bottom of each image, include the source of information and any other relevant notes. Do not number these notes in the same series as the content notes. Make sure each image has an accurate title.
Number your images consecutively, in the order mentioned in the text. Number figures, diagrams, and illustrations similarly, but separately.
In the text, refer to images, tables, figures, illustrations ... by their number. For example:
"Image 1 illustrates the relationship between the femur and its attached muscles.@
". . . these correlations support the hypothesis (see Figure 1)."
credits
Somewhere in your paper you should include an identification of and credits for your cover image. You can do this on the “Works Cites” or “References” page. This information is usually not included on the cover page.
"Presentation Reviews" are your reviews of other's Presentations.
You should review 3-5 of your classmates' presentations in preparation for the Final Exam.
(You do not need to submit anything specific pertaining to your reviews before the Final Exam, but it might help if you take a few notes--in the even that you get the following question from the Final Exam question pool.)
The following will be the question about class presentations reviews that will be in the Final Exam Pool:
"Compare and Contrast your Presentation with the Presentations of three others in class. If, in your opinion, your presentation was not the best in class, what would it take to make it the best?"
"As part of your discussion explain what units of analysis you and the others used, how they were used, and why you chose to use those exact ones you did."
(In this case T1, etc., can equal scenes in a video, for example)
Space Sequence
S1 ---> S2 ---> S3 ---> S4 ---> . . .
(In this case S1, etc., could equal the spacial scenes in the video)
(In other cases -- but not so easy to do with the information provided in this film -- with S1, etc., you could describe situations East to West, for example)
N number of items
"Ten itms define the importance of. . . .
First, . . . .
Second, . . . .
Third, . . . .
Finally, . . . .
Most Important ---> Least Important:
"The most important partition of . . . between Kypseli men and women is. . . ."
"Next in importantance to the men is . . . while women. . . ."
"The least importantant to the men in Kypseli is . . . while women. . . ."
Comparison / Contrast
Note how things are the same and how they are different. For e.g. . . .
Women
Men
Item # 1
similar
different
similar
different
Item # 2
similar
different
similar
different
Item # 3
similar
different
similar
different
Item # 4
similar
different
similar
different
Item # N
similar
different
similar
different
Points of View
And don't forget that there can be basically two points of view . . .
emic
viewing a culture from the inside
the term "emic" comes from linguistics: phonemics
the study of basic sounds
etic
viewing a culture from the outside
the term "etic" comes from from linguistics: phonetics
When relevant to your topic be sure to work in what is happening now; that is, where appropriate, relate it to current affairs.
And with both your Presentation and your Term Paper be sure to relate your Project materials to the materials considered in class.
For e.g., if you are doing a project on the role of fire/cooking in prehistoric times include relevant items fromEating Culture, 2nd Edition, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and/or The Language of Food . . .
and from the relevant class slides, for e.g., from Diet and Human Evolution: Introduction
slides: (.pptx)
and from the relevant class film(s), for e.g., from Did Cooking Make Us Human?
UMD offers free writing support from graduate student or faculty writing consultants to all members of the campus community at the Writers’ Workshop. The consultants will work with you on any writing project at any stage in the writing process.
To make an appointment, visit <d.umn.edu/writwork> or stop by the Workshop’s front desk; walk-ins are also welcome if a consultant is available. The Workshop is located in the Learning Commons on the second floor of the Kathryn A. Martin Library. Look for the wall covered with quotations about writing.
Students in this class have permission to see a Writers’ Workshop consultant for all take-home exams.
Kaltura is known for its multitude of capabilities such as video, audio and screen capture. It is also known for powerful search functions, video quizzes, deep analytics, and for its auto-captioning and accessibility workflows.
Kaltura can be accessed and utilized through Canvas, Kaltura MediaSpace, and through its Kaltura Capture tool.
Screencast-O-Matic is an application for Mac and Windows computers that records screen activity and/or your webcam. You can record a PowerPoint or Google Slides presentation, or demonstrate a tool directly from your computer. When you’re finished, you can save the recording to your desktop, then publish the video on your YouTube channel, in a textbox using Kaltura within Canvas, in Google Drive, or on another video publishing site.
YouTube is available to all students, faculty, staff and departments through the Google Apps suite of tools. Upload a video and share it with your class or create a shared account to promote your organization.
Use of AI-content generators for assignments in this class
When I taught Advanced Writing for the Social Sciences here at UMD, for over twenty-five years, my rule of thumb advice to students was to plan to spend 60% or more of their time and effort revising drafts (for academic type writing).
In 2001 Wikipedia appeared on the scene and very quickly became a useful tool asa starting point for many academic projects even though as an open-source resource the Wikipedia entries are not checked and verified in the same manner as other traditional reference materials.
Spelling and grammar checkers arrived on the general scene and helped with spelling and grammar checking, but, as you no doubt have discovered, they continue to require human editing.
And, of course, before that we had a selection of excellent Encyclopedia offering good starting points for many projects, the most popular being The Encyclopedia Brittanica.
And long before that there were libraries--since at least the days of Alexandria in Egypt, in the third century B.C.
The bottom line . . .
Today the evolution of research resources and aids continues with the relatively rapid appearance of ChatGPT and other automated content generators.
As many folks have already found out, they can be very useful as starting points, much like their predecessors. But, from the academic point of view, they are still only starting points.
Professors nationwide are for the most part advised, and even encouraged, to experiment with the potentials of ChatGPT and similar apps.
In this class it is fine to experiment, with the caveat that all of your written academic work demonstrates that your personal efforts—including content development and revision—reflect your personal originality, exploration, analysis, explanation, integrating and synthesizing of ideas, organizational skills, evaluation, and overall learning and critical thinking efforts.
That is to say you may experiment with the AI tool to do tasks such as e.g, brainstorming, narrowing topics, writing first drafts, editing text, and the like. AI-generated works should in no case be more than that.
In the end you need to become familiar enough with the various subjects, peoples, and places discussed in this class to research a topic and problem-solve on your own, and carry on an intelligent conversation about them in modern-day society . . . a conversation that goes byond your voicing an unsupported opinion.
For the record, what follows is the official UMD Academic Integrity Policy. Note that "unless otherwise noted by the faculty
member" this is the default policy.
"UMD’s Academic Integrity policy covers any work done by automated content generators such as ChatGPT or other generative artificial intelligence tools unless otherwise noted by the faculty
member. These tools present new challenges and opportunities."
"Within the confines of this
class The use of AI-content generators is strictly prohibited for any stage of homework/assignment
(e.g., draft or final product). The primary purposes of college are developing your thinking skills,
being creative with ideas, and expanding your understanding on a wide variety of topics. Using
these content generating AI tools thwarts the goal of homework/assignments to provide
students opportunities to achieve these purposes. Please make the most of this time that you
have committed to a college education and learn these skills now, so that you can employ them
throughout your life." -- Jennifer Mencl, UMD Associate Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, 10 May 2023
. "Academic dishonesty
tarnishes UMD's reputation and discredits the accomplishments of
students. UMD is committed to providing students every possible
opportunity to grow in mind and spirit. This pledge can only be
redeemed in an environment of trust, honesty, and fairness. As a
result, academic dishonesty is regarded as a serious offense by all
members of the academic community. In keeping with this ideal, this
course will adhere to UMD's Student Academic Integrity Policy, which
can be found at [http://www.d.umn.edu/conduct/integrity/Academic_Integrity_Policy.htm].
This policy sanctions students engaging in academic dishonesty with
penalties up to and including expulsion from the university for repeat
offenders."
— UMD Educational Policy Committee, Jill Jensen, Chair
(08/16/2007)
The instructor will enforce and students are expected to follow the University's Student Conduct Code [http://www1.umn.edu/regents/policies/academic/Student_Conduct_Code.html].
Appropriate classroom conduct promotes an environment of academic
achievement and integrity. Disruptive classroom behavior that
substantially or repeatedly interrupts either the instructor's ability
to teach, or student learning, is prohibited. Disruptive behavior
includes inappropriate use of technology in the classroom. Examples
include ringing cell phones, text-messaging, watching videos, playing
computer games, doing email, or surfing the Internet on your computer
instead of note-taking or other instructor-sanctioned activities."
— UMD Educational Policy Committee, Jill Jensen, Chair
(08/16/2007)
Failure to comply with the above
codes and standards when submitting an Extra Credit paper will result in
a penalty commensurate with the lapse, up to and including an F final grade for the course, and, at a minimum, a reduction in total
points no fewer than the points available for the Extra Credit project.
The penalty will not simply be a zero for the project, and the
incident will be reported to the UMD Academic Integrity Officer in the
Office of Student and Community Standards.
A Note on "Cutting and Pasting" without the Use of Quotation Marks (EVEN IF you have a citation to the source somewhere in your paper)
If you use others' words and/or works you MUST so indicate that with the use of quotation marks. Failure to use quotation marks to indicate that the materials are not of your authorship constitutes plagiarism—even if you have a citation to the source elsewhere in your paper/work.
Patterned failure to so indicate that the materials are not of your own authorship will result in an F grade for the course.
Other instances of improper attribution will result in a 0 (zero) for the assignment (or a reduction in points equal to the value of an Extra Credit paper), and a reduction of one grade in the final grade of the course.
All incidents will be reported to the UMD Academic Integrity Officer in the
Office of Student and Community Standards as is required by University Policy.
) 
