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Managing Expectations

In 2012, near the end of the semester that challenged students to work with a community partner, students were asked several simple yes or no questions:

• Do you feel that you have developed a tool that would help the community partner, and
• Are you proud of the work you’ve accomplished?

Surprisingly, 63% of students felt that their work was not going to help the community, and almost half of the class were not proud of the work they had accomplished.

When queried why they felt this way, students indicated that they had expected to complete the entire project by the end of the semester. Despite many accolades from the community, students felt that they had failed.

Clearly, the expectations that students had for themselves were beyond what could reasonably be completed within the 12 weeks of the course.

To that end, it is important to recognize what is and is not expected of each actor involved in CIS4020.

Expectations Of The Student

Students are expected to:

• attend and actively contribute to the classroom and labs.
• master the learning outcomes of the course while working with a community partner on a broad social challenge.
• be respectful of our community partners, the teaching assistants, and the professor.
• work with the community partner to develop communication protocols using tools that are amenable and familiar to the community partner.
• communicate clearly and professionally whenever they interact with the community partner, the teaching assistants, or the professor.
• recognize that our community partners are working full-time jobs and that they might not be able to respond to our requests in a time period that makes sense to us. That is, students are expected to be flexible.
• recognize the expertise of our community partners, and be open to their ability to contribute through lived experience and first-hand knowledge of the application area.
• develop an understanding of the specific area of application of the community partner’s challenge.
• conduct themselves according to the Wil Wheaton Law.

Students are not expected to:

• become domain experts in the specific area of application of the community partner’s challenge. That is, you are not expected to become an expert in, for example, food insecurity, poverty, or any other area that is the focus of the work of our community partner.
• develop solutions that will generate income for the community partner (although students may volunteer time to help fundraise for any not-for-profit or charitable community partner on their own time).

Expectations Of The Community Partner

Community partners are expected to:

• understand that the education of the student comes first. That is, while every effort will be made by the professor to achieve the outcomes relevant to the community partner, the priority is ensuring that the students are able to meet the learning outcomes of the course.
• be respectful of the students, the teaching assistants, and the professor.
• provide timely feedback to student queries, and in particular, work with students to establish a communication pathway.
• understand that the professor might need to make executive decisions regarding software design to achieve a learning outcome, or in the event that they are unable to provide feedback in a timely manner.
• understand that there is a risk that students will not want to continue working on the project beyond CIS4020; and that their project will effectively die when the last student finishes the semester.
• satisfy their responsibilities to the best of their ability, including attending all scheduled classroom visits, providing timely delivery of requested data (where feasible), and taking part in feedback activities.

Community partners are not expected to:

• know anything about data science, or have any technical skills whatsoever.
• provide students with funding to continue working on the project beyond the end of the course (although sometimes this does happen).

Expectations Of The Teaching Assistant

Teaching assistants are expected to:

• be respectful of the students, our community partners, and the professor.
• communicate with students, the community partner, or the professor in a timely manner.
• communicate with students through the platforms established and set up by the professor, or as determined through discussion in the classroom or lab.
• facilitate a space that fosters learning.
• help to facilitate communication between the students, and the community partner or the professor.
• conduct themselves according to the Wil Wheaton Law.

The teaching assistants are not expected to:

• be domain experts in the specific area of application of the community partner’s challenge.

Expectations Of The Professor

The professor is expected to:

• manage the relationship between the community partner and the students, both during the semester in which the course runs, and any follow-up activities outside of the classroom.
• be respectful of the students, our community partners, and the teaching assistants.
• ensure that students are provided with the opportunity to master the learning outcomes of the course. This may require the professor to make executive decisions about the project which affects the data or methods used, especially in the case where the community partner might not be able to provide feedback in a timely manner or achieve a particular learning outcome.
• provide students with an alternative project should they have an issue with intellectual property rights, or fundamentally (for whatever reason) oppose the challenge provided by the community partner.
• conduct themselves according to the Wil Wheaton Law.

The professor is not expected to:

• be a domain expert in the specific area of application of the community partner’s challenge.