University of Toronto Requirements

Course description

Are you interested in hands-on professional practices as well as theory-based learning about how people and organizations work in the culture sector and media industries? This course examines the creative ecosystem by looking at how specific creative business models and practices operate (including creative hubs, media companies, and performing/visual arts organizations). While the ecosystem is made up of a broad and sometimes baffling array of for-profit, non-profit and hybrid ways of doing things, this course will provide insights into the professional practices at an organization of your choice. In this course, students will undertake an independent research project (singly or in pairs) that might include interviews or focus groups, ethnographic observation, data analyses of websites and social media, physical or virtual site visits (health regulations permitting), or other ways of investigating what actually happens inside your specific institution—or professional area—of interest. Students will meet synchronously on a periodic basis with the whole class or in small groups asynchronously with the professor in alternating sessions to compare readings and notes that contextualize the creative ecosystem and your own project.

To kick the course off in January, students will participate in one or both of the intensive methods experiences on offer (worth 20%). You choose your intensive. If you do both, only one dossier will be marked (your choice, or you can combine content from both to deliver one dossier), but (bonus!) you’ll also earn your 10% participation mark right away.

• Option A is a two-week intensive methods experience that starts before the official start of term (Jan. 4-15), using this website. Students are invited to engage in a globally networked exploration and application of digital ethnography with peers at the New School in New York, USA and with the Digital Ethnography Research Centre at RMIT in Melbourne, AU, with the final dossier due on January 31. This is perfect for people who want to strengthen their international network and who are able to start early.
• Option B will take place between January 18-28. Students are invited to engage in a globally networked exploration and application of autoethnography by responding to a minimum of ten (provided) prompts over a two-week period. The briefing session will take place on January 18 (it will be recorded), with the final dossier due on January 31. This is perfect for people who can only join the course on January 11 or later. **Please see the course Quercus for more details and the prompts.

Both of the above options will provide you with a deep plunge into research practices that will be useful not just in this course but also as you pursue a professional or scholarly career. Another bonus: we will be working with the New School and RMIT periodically throughout the semester, but the first option gives you the opportunity to get to know and build strong relationships with these peers and instructors right away.

Methods Intensive Option A:

Preliminary schedule

See detailed schedules on home page of this website.

Date	UTSC VPAC21; New School; RMIT
Mon., Jan. 4	Meet 5-8 pm ET synchronously (lectures & exercises)
Jan. 5 & 6	Asynchronous activity (2-4 hours)
Thurs., Jan. 7	Meet 3-5 pm ET & 7-8 pm synchronously (lectures & exercises)
Fri., Jan. 8	Meet 5-8 pm ET synchronously (lectures & exercises)
Jan. 9 & 10	Asynchronous activity (3-5 hours)
Mon., Jan. 11	Meet 5-8 pm ET synchronously (lectures & exercises) VPAC21 only: watch/listen to recorded syllabus review
Tues., Jan. 12	Meet 5-8 pm ET synchronously (lectures & exercises)
Jan. 13 & 14	Asynchronous activity (2-4 hours)
Fri., Jan. 15	Meet 5-8 pm ET synchronously (wrap-up discussion) VPAC21 only: Instructions for Proposal Assignment due January 25 and for Methods dossier due January 31
Thurs., Jan. 21	Meet 3-5 p.m. ET synchronously with The New School students & w/ VPAC 21 Methods Option B group
Sun., Jan. 31	Methods dossier due

VPAC21 Course Requirements

Evaluation & Assignments

Essay proposal (5%) due January 26:

600-word essay proposal, including object of study, research question, keywords, six articles

Methods Intensive Dossier (20%) due January 31:

600-word reflection on two exercises including methods used, results, discoveries, relevance to future work, plus a selection of visuals (responses); please blur or redact any privacy-invading material

Literature search and annotations (10%) due February 7:

At least three annotated articles, five additional resources, a short list of potential interviewees

Essay including interviews or focus group (25%) due March 14:

2500-word essay plus interview transcripts & waivers; coding report; bibliography

Group project (20%):

Sign up for March 22, 29, or April 5 to develop and conduct a peer engagement exercise & provide peer feedback

Assignment Notes:

You already know that work in this field relies on time management, self-direction, communication and relationship-building to activate values-based critical thinking and decision-making as well as rewarding forms of collaboration and teamwork. Assignments are designed to stress the development of relevant skills and learning outcomes while providing a theoretical foundation for future professional and scholarly work. Detailed requirements for all assignments will be discussed in class and made available on the course Quercus site. See course and departmental policies on the course Quercus site for details about written and oral submissions, and to understand the penalties for late submissions. Please refer to the University Assessment and Grading Practices Policy for information about how evaluation is conducted at the University of Toronto: http://www.governingcouncil.utoronto.ca/Assets/Governing+Council+Digital+Assets/Policies/PDF/grading.pdf.

Assignment Details

➡WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES + DOSSIER

You’ll be invited to complete a number of exercises – a self-tracking exercise, a media-fast exercise, and a group interview – throughout the two-week intensive January workshop. Because of the pace, intensity, and provisionality of our January work together, we won’t be able to provide formal feedback during the workshop, but you will share some of your work with your classmates, and we’ll reflect on your collective experiences in class. We hope you’ll regard your completion of these exercises as an obligation not only to your classmates – to ensure what we all have something to bring to the table – but also to yourself, since this collaborative work will inform your independent work in the second portion of the class. 

You’ll then be invited to submit a dossier documenting and reflecting upon any two of our three workshop exercises – ideally two that, in your experience, built upon and informed one another. Your documentation could include visual or textual records (e.g., screenshots, videos, notes, etc., with any potentially privacy-invading material blurred or redacted). Your reflection should consist of a 600-word personal statement, structured somewhat like a lab report, in which you…

• Very briefly describe each assignment 
• Describe your own methods: what procedures you followed and what tools you used. You’re invited to incorporate documentation – screenshots, videos, etc.  – where relevant. 
• Describe and discuss your “results”: what did you discover about your own or others’ online activity, and what did you learn from these discoveries? What was surprising, and what was not? You’re welcome to incorporate some of our class readings and discussion topics, if you like. This section should constitute the bulk of your statement
• Discuss the relevance of these exercises for your future work: did these exercises raise any questions you’d like to explore in your independent research for this class, in future classes, or in future professional work or creative projects? 

Your dossier should be submitted to the VPAC21 quercus by 11 pm ET on Sunday, January 31.

➡PROPOSAL

This class is designed to prepare you for, and to support you through, an independent or small-group research project (New School) or essay (U of T) that will allow you to explore personal fascinations, advance your own research agenda, and / or develop insight and skills that would be easily transferable to a range of professional contexts. We ask you to submit a proposal for a number of reasons: (1) so we can ensure that you’re starting off with a feasible plan and heading in a promising direction, (2) so we can support your work as it develops, and (3) so we can connect you with other students who share your interests and methods.

For this research essay proposal, you are invited to identify a particular organization or sphere of activity in the creative ecosystem that you will research. You are aiming to investigate their core business (including how they activate creativity, innovation and/or resilience in their respective field) and to consider impact measurement approaches (e.g. financial; aesthetic/cultural; accessibility/physical spaces; sensemaking and knowledge-sharing). You will include an indication of how you might incorporate a digital ethnographic analysis in your essay as well as interviews (or a focus group). You can also consider whether your “output” will be a classic research essay or if it will incorporate a more creative response.

Your 600-word proposal will include:

• Object of study: A description of the environment, communities, or phenomena you propose to study – the more specific, the better! 
• Research question and keywords: A discussion of the critical issue(s) and big question(s) you plan to address. What’s at stake here, and why should we care about it? Why do you care about it? 
• A description of the format in which you’ll share your work. Will your essay be produced as a traditional scholarly document? Or will you produce a research-creation output that could incorporate photos, video, audio, and/or interactive features? Or will you adopt another format? Why?
• A list of six potential references, at least half of which should be scholarly sources. We ask for this so you can begin familiarizing yourself with the relevant research that should inform your own work, and so we can help to direct your future reading. 

Due: Monday, January 26 on the class quercus. 

**Note: U of T peer support respondents will also add their 150-word response to the google drive folder (e.g. Louie_ResponseFromFrank)

➡ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

We want to make sure our fieldwork is informed by the work that others have done before us. While you should read about your research subject as broadly as possible, we’re asking you to annotate a few resources early in your fieldwork period. This assignment serves two functions: to hold you accountable for engaging with relevant prior work early in your own research process, and to give us one additional opportunity to weigh in on your critical framework before you immerse yourself in your primary research. 

Please choose at least three scholarly articles that seem relevant, inspiring, and provocative, i.e., your choice should be determined by utility, not by what’s shortest or easiest 🙂 and provide a ~150-word annotation for each. Briefly describe (in your own words) the source’s subject matter, argument, scope, and methods, and discuss its relevance / value to your project. What you’re creating here are the building blocks for an annotated bibliography, a form that will likely prove useful in future projects. 

Please submit your collection of annotated resources due on the course quercus by 11 pm ET on Sunday, February 7.

➡ ESSAY (U of T)

While some details about the essay length, format and goals are described in the proposal assignment above, additional details will be provided in the class quercus. Our primary goal from February 8 through March 14 will be supporting your own independent or collaborative projects. (For the New School students, most weeks will be dedicated to short, synchronous, one-on-one discussions between each student and their professor.) For both New School and U of T students, many weeks will be dedicated to small-group workshops with other students (from both institutions) who share your research interests and methods; and a few weeks will involve plenary meetings with our classmates at our respective institutions, or in joint-session combining New School and University of Toronto students. Independently, on your own time, you’ll complete readings, screenings, and listening exercises that pertain to your own interests; and for several hours each week, you’ll engage in fieldwork. All of this work will support your completion of an independent or collaborative final project or essay (respectively)!

U of T students: your essay will be due on Sunday, March 14 by 11 p.m. ET, uploaded to the appropriate Quercus assignment page.

➡ FINAL GROUP PROJECT (U of T)

Details concerning the U of T final group project (due March 22, 29 or April 5) will be available to the U of T students via the class Quercus.