Negotiating the web science curriculum through shared educational artefacts

Abstract

The far-reaching impact of the Web on society is widely recognised. The interdisciplinary study of this impact has crystallised in the field of study known as Web Science. However, defining an agreed, shared understanding of what constitutes web science requires complex negotiation and translations of understandings across component disciplines, national cultures and educational traditions. Some individual institutions have already established particular curricula, and discussions in the Web Science Curriculum Workshop series have marked the territory to some extent. This paper reports on a process being adopted across a consortium of partners to systematically create a shared understanding of what constitutes web science. It records and critiques the processes instantiated to agree a common curriculum, and presents a framework for future discussion and development.

Evolving a web science curriculum

“…This study conducts a bottom up examination of these current Web Science related curriculums and resources with the future aim of building a picture of Web Science according to what is taught as Web Science worldwide, in a 'bottom up', reverse engineering fashion. [5] Instead of the curriculum guidelines shaping the curricula, the curricula will be used to shape and develop a set of Web Science curriculum guidelines, which will ultimately be presented in the form of a taxonomy of key topics which are typically taught as part of Web Science programmes.…”

Web Science: Expanding the Notion of Computer Science

“…For the purposes of the survey, categories A (general) and F (teaching) were excluded although it is recognized that both are relevant to broader discussions of the curriculum. Interim analysis of the responses to the survey were reported to the 2011 Web Science conference [26]. The survey used the WSCC as a starting point for the body of knowledge.…”

“…Perspectives and understandings of Web Science have also been integrated into established courses, typically as a perspective which demonstrates current theoretical advances and furnishes examples of contemporary practice. A Web Science curriculum categorization exercise has been undertaken [24,25] (Table 1) and collaborations have been formed to define and agree a Web Science curriculum [26].…”

“…A community wiki was used in IS (http://blogsandwikis.bentley.edu/iscurriculum/) to help develop the curriculum dynamically [22] . A detailed account of a project to dynamically create and establish a Web Science curriculum were presented to the Web Science conference in 2011 [26]. The Web Science Curriculum Development project proposes a bottom up approach to drive curriculum definition, using the actual teaching materials collected in a community repository as the basis to iteratively negotiate and refine the definition of the curriculum.…”

The web science curriculum at work

“…This was addressed early by contributions such as Riera's [10] and other participants at the first curriculum workshop. A developed structure of the Web Science Subject Categorization was proposed by Vafopoulos in 2011 [16], along with a milestone paper by White et al [18], describing the negotiation of a Web Science curriculum and explaining that "the curriculum itself is the natural manifestation of Web Science, serving to systemize knowledge and share approaches, current trends and future vision, to become the visible and practical part of the deep work in understanding and enhance Web Science". Building on these works, the experience presented here creates an example of a tentative to fragment some fundamental aspects of Web science relevant for a discipline and use them as background for an original pedagogic design.…”