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University of Michigan School of Information

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Courses

106 - Programs, Information and People

Programs, Information and People --- Introduction to programming with a focus on applications in informatics. Covers the fundamental elements of a modern programming language and how to access data on the internet. Explores how humans and technology complement one another, including techniques used to coordinate groups of people working together on software development.

110 - Introduction to Information Studies

Introduction to Information Studies --- This course will provide the foundational knowledge necessary to begin to address the key issues associated with the Information Revolution. Issues will range from the theoretical (what is information and how do humans construct it?), to the cultural (is life on the screen a qualitatively different phenomenon from experiences with earlier distance-shrinking and knowledge-building technologies such as telephones?), to the practical (what are the basic architecture of computing networks?). Successful completion of this "gateway" course will give you the conceptual tools for an initial understanding of the politics, economics, and culture of the Information Age, providing a foundation for later study in Information or any number of other disciplines. You will be more thoughtful about thorny information issues, and more "information literate" than you were before.

206 - Data-Oriented Programming

Data-Oriented Programming --- Students develop their core programming and software development skills, to build competency and literacy in important areas that includes basic data structures, debugging and testing, using distributed code repositories, pattern matching, and programmatic gathering and processing of data. Applications in assignments and labs are oriented around data manipulation.

207 - Introduction to UX Design for Non-Majors

Introduction to UX Design for Non-Majors --- User Experience Design is a discipline that revolves around enhancing the interaction between users and digital products or services. It encompasses a broad range of elements, including usability, accessibility, visual aesthetics, and overall user satisfaction. In this course, we'll delve into the fundamental principles of UX design, exploring topics such as user research, information architecture, interaction design, prototyping, and usability testing. We'll examine the importance of understanding user needs, behavior and preferences, and how to apply this knowledge to create intuitive designs.

301 - Models of Social Information Processing

Models of Social Information Processing --- This course focuses on how social groups form, interact, and change. We look at the technical structures of social networks and explore how individual actions are combined to produce collective effects. The techniques learned in this course can be applied to understanding friend systems like Facebook, recommender systems such as Digg, auction systems such as Ebay, and information webs used by search engines such as Google. This course introduces two conceptual models, networks and games, for how information flows and is used in multi-person settings. Networks or graph representations describe the structure of connections among people and documents. They permit mathematical analysis and meaningful visualizations that highlight different roles played by different people or documents, as well as features of the collection as a whole. Game representations describe, in situations of interdependence, the actions available to different people and how each person's outcomes are contingent on the choices of other people. It permits analysis of stable sets of choices by all the people (equilibrium's). It also provides a framework for analysis of the likely effects of alternative designs for markets and information elicitation mechanisms, based on their abstract game representations. Assignments in the course include problem sets exploring the mechanics of the models and essays applying them to current applications in social computing.

302 - Introduction to Information Ethics

Introduction to Information Ethics --- This course will introduce interdisciplinary ethics theories and frameworks and apply them to current issues in artificial intelligence, social media, cryptocurrency, and more. Students will learn to think critically about how to ethically plan, design, and evaluate new technologies when there are often no simple solutions.

305 - Introduction to Information Analysis

Introduction to Information Analysis --- In this course students will work with real-world data to practice core principles of information analysis. They will work on a structured project to learn how to draw insights from data, and how the field of information analysis works.

307 - Introduction to User Experience Design

Introduction to User Experience Design --- In this class students will be learning the basics of User Experience Design. This will include important theories behind UX practice, common tools for assessment and presentation, and practices common in UX work. Students will implement the principles of UX in the context of problem-solving.

310 - Information Environments and Work

Information Environments and Work --- This course looks at information's role in organizations, including psychological, economic, management and sociocultural perspectives. Explores sense-making and effective communication, including the importance of "story-telling." Covers key humanistic perspectives and ethical issues related to information. Goes into the nature of requirements and helps students learn to "swim in a sea of data" in organizations. The course focuses on the importance of working at the frontier.

315 - Interpersonal and Psychological Implications of Social Media

Interpersonal and Psychological Implications of Social Media --- This course provides students with a strong theoretical foundation for approaching the ways in which new social media platforms can shape how interpersonal relationships are initiated, maintained, and developed as well as the implications of these tools for psychological processes.