User:Jrradney/DS4OER Project/Course Description

Course description
This course investigates the societies that emerge due to social media. Among the influences, students will consider the formation of peer groups, educational innovations, and online business identities and relations, especially as these are transforming our relationships within the non-mediated world. This course will engage students in both a synchronous and asynchronous online environment.

Course metrics

 * Total study hours: 120 to 150 hours
 * Duration: 12 weeks, 10 hours per week
 * Assessment: 10 hours
 * Formal credit option: No
 * Course: Advance program elective
 * Credential: In Process
 * Level: 4th year Bachelor Degree or graduate

What's it about?
Social media is transforming the way societies interact. Individual identities and relationships are being affected in ways that must be understood and planned. This course introduces students to the operations of social media and gives them skills to become more proactive in the way social media is influencing them.

What will I learn?
In this course you will learn how to:


 * 1) 	Identify and use major social media tools;
 * 2) 	Recognize and use various tools for social, recreational, educational, and business purposes;
 * 3) 	Recognize and negotiate identities within mediated and non-mediated environments;
 * 4) 	Document emergent practices in the mediated world; and
 * 5) 	Propose new uses for existing tools in the areas of recreation, education, and business/professional practice.

What’s involved?
Learners will join an online community of people interested in understanding the ways societies and individuals interact using social media.

The course will be offered as a open online course involving a number of activities, readings, discussions, and designated learning challenges leading students to a textual or mediated articulation of their increased understanding of social media and a strategy for increased satisfaction with the use of social media.

What prerequisites should I have?
An internet connection and basic web browsing skills are required, along with the ability to create a blog and microblog account (instructions and self-study tutorials provided). Students also need to be familiar with the use of common social media tools (some examples would be such things as Facebook and Twitter) before attempting the course.

This course has been designed for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in communications and media studies. Students without a minimum of 90 undergraduate credits (i.e. lacking fourth-year undergraduate standing in university studies) should not attempt the course. Students need to be prepared to discuss advanced communication and media topics with their peers and course instructors in order to complete the course.