Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree, equivalent to a Swedish Kandidatexamen, from an internationally recognised university. The main field of study must be within the humanities. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

Learning outcomes

After completing the course, the student is expected to have achieved the following knowledge and skills:

• Knowledge of the historical development of user perspectives and user needs in digital information systems.
• Knowledge of the epistemological prerequisites for studying information structures and functions in various digital platforms and interconnected systems and how these platforms and systems affect the mediation of information.
• Knowledge of participatory culture in digital contexts and various models for understanding and analysing participatory culture and its forms of production.
• Skill in critically describing and analysing digitally linked platforms and systems taking account of user and information-mediation perspectives.

Content

The purpose of this course is to provide a better understanding of information-mediating digital platforms that contain material of relevance to the digital humanities. The course provides a historical perspective on the central role occupied by users in modern digital environments. The course also focuses on those elements and factors that affect how users use information and digital infrastructure. The importance of linked content and network ecology is discussed, specifically with regard to functionality and algorithms. The course is also intended to provide knowledge of participatory culture and practices relevant to the digital humanities.

Instruction

Instruction will take place in the form of lectures, seminars, laboratory elements and group exercises. All elements of tuition that involve some form of examination are compulsory. Absence will need to be compensated for by performing supplementary tasks. We recommend that course participants bring a laptop for use during classes, however this is not necessary.

Assessment

Examination will be by written individual written examination, oral and written seminar exercises and the presentation of assignments and exercises conducted individually or in groups.

Active participation in the examined seminars is a requirement fulfiling the course requirements. Any student who misses a single compulsory teaching element will be required to submit a supplementary assignment, the scope of which will reflect the workload that would have been required to actively participate in the teaching element in question.

Generally speaking, the course will include one ordinary examination opportunity plus one retake. The date of the retake will also be the deadline for submitting supplementary assignments. Thereafter, students will be referred to the next occasion on which the course is held, which as a rule will be during the following academic year.

Students who wish to complete supplementary assignments from a previous course will preferably be given an assignment based on current course content. All elements of the course will be assessed with one of the grades fail, pass or pass with distinction.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.