During the semester you will continue to develop your topics and focus your research as you work collaboratively and individually. The website assignment allows you the opportunity to work as a group to publish your collective and individual findings and writings in an international forum; in other words, you join a community of scholars and experts. Although your immediate evaluators and readers are your peers, your instructor and your librarian, your audience also includes a far greater number of people. Admittedly, recognizing this kind of readership can be intimidating. But most students, many of whom have never constructed web pages before, have found immense satisfaction in seeing their work on the World Wide Web.

Description - The form and scope of your group web site will depend on the ways in which your group decides to focus your topic. The finished web site should provide a scholarly resource with bibliographic references to related web sites as well as print resources. Each member's individual contribution to the site should be the equivalent in effort, thought, and time, of a ten-page research paper, although it need not take that form. If you've never designed a web page, you'll have the opportunity to learn now. Cathy Larson, our librarian expert, will arrange for a session in the library to familiarize everyone who needs it with Netscape Communicator, a program which will allow you to build a web site with a fair amount of ease. When the due date for the website comes closer, some class time will be set aside for group work in a computer lab on campus. Your 5-page research paper provides you the opportunity to work out your writing and research for the website before you actually input your contribution to your group's website. [Note: Take care not to violate copyright laws with material you transcribe for your site. Written material over 150 years old is part of the public domain (not under copyright), but images (like paintings and photos) tend to remain the property of the owner. Many web sites are copyrighted, so be sure you follow the rules for citing sources. If you want to use a copyrighted image, most sites have image credits, notes on whether any of the images might be used, and directions for obtaining permission to use the images.)

Your group web site in its final form is due Monday, April 27. Each website must include the names of group members as well as credits for each person's contribution (in other words, be sure to detail who did what). It is critical that groups avoid relying on any members who are tech experts. Group members who are not so computer literate or who might be computer phobic, please don't dump the tech work on the experts. And techies, don't take on the work. This situation leads to the computer illiterate staying that way and the techies getting lousy grades, because they don't have any time to do their research and writing.

Evaluation - Your web site will be evaluated using the following criteria:

Effectiveness and internal logic of the concept: Does it make sense? This usually translates to: Is there a clear thesis for the entire web page? Do the various units seem compatible or appropriate to each other? Or does the site look like half a dozen loosely related essays slapped together? Does your site replicate existing web sites, or is it a needed contribution?

Thoroughness of research, including bibliography and links to related web sites.

Excellence of argumentation and organization. Your contribution should demonstrate critical thinking based on thorough grounding in the literature of your particular topic.

Mechanics of English usage, spelling, punctuation and html.

Visual appeal. Although this is an important criterion for a visual medium such as the World Wide Web, it is in fact much less important than the organization of your site, the writing, your arguments, and your research.

Peer assessment of your contribution to the cooperative effort by your fellow group members. Near the end of the semester you will evaluate each other's contribution to the project using a specially designed evaluation form.

The bulk of the grade you receive will depend on your individual contributions to the web site. An excellent site that shows the results of effective communication, cooperation, and group planning will raise the grade of everyone in the group. Sites that display a failure to communicate and cooperate may lower the grade of all group members.