#bsocials16 semester-long project team assignment

Assignment Overview

This multi-part semester-long assignment is going to provide you with the opportunity to begin to learn what it is like to work for an organization that helps non-profits while working with a non-profit organization as they seek to improve their online communications. That is, your project team will exist as subsection of the larger Beautiful Social enterprise, and will create your own division title, Code of Values, assigned roles, social media strategy, and hashtag (what could we do without one?). The assignment will challenge you to improve your knowledge, skills, and comfort levels in each of the five course objectives: collaboration, effective communication, engaged citizenship, reflection, and risk-taking.

While working as part of your subsection — or team — you will complete various readings and projects that will lead you up to the final deliverable for your client and, importantly, help you better understand the work that goes into being part of an organization that values collaboration, online engagement, open access to information, and education. That is, an organization like Beautiful Social.

The following sections may be completed concurrently, depending on the due date. The concurrence is designed to simulate real-world projects, which more often than not overlap. The sections are:

Developing an Identity

The first step is for your project team to develop an identity that will guide you through the work you complete over the course of the semester. To develop your identity, complete the following:

  • create a name for your division of Beautiful Social
  • identify the why, how, and what of your project team using the ideas in Sinek’s TED talk on the Golden Circle
  • based on your Golden Circle realizations, come up with a Code of Values that will guide your collaborations this semester, both in your group and with your client
  • design a social media strategy for your team informed by the Aaker and Smith’s Characteristics of Highly Engaging Campaigns (pp. 80-81) that includes at least the following social media: Twitter, Instagram, the course WordPress site, and Storify (see below for the Storify assignment)
  • designate roles for each of your team members
  • create a team-specific hashtag to be used across social media spaces

By establishing the above, my hope is your team will have a cohesive identity which will afford the collaboration necessary to succeed during the semester.

Post all of the above to the course WordPress site under your own static page (not a blog post).

Due date
2/11 by 4:00pm on the course WordPress site

Telling Your Project Team’s Story

Too often when we create we only pay attention to the final project despite the fact that a considerable amount of work was put in over the course of however many weeks we worked on it—either individually or collaboratively.

In this course, we are going to pull away the curtain and expose our work process as a way to tell the story of your project. The goal is to show the importance of process and reflection when completing your work.

To complete this work, each project team will

  1. Create a public Storify story designed to illuminate what your team completed from week to week.
  2. Assign one person on your team each week to update the Storify by Saturday evening every week starting week 3 and ending week 14
  3. The person updating the Storify should rotate, so everyone is contributing.

When updating your Storify, include the following:

  • a summary of what your group has completed that week
  • a selection of Instagram posts, tweets, and other social media that you create specifically for your project work
  • links to any relevant work that is online, such as required blog posts or links to best practices, etc. These links should be placed in context so any reader can understand what is written.

Some weeks will have more material and some weeks will have less. That’s okay. The key is to document what your team has done. The more attention you pay to this the easier your final assignment for the course will be.

Due date
First update should be the end of week 3; last update should be end of week 14

Background Research

This part of the assignment will challenge your team to research your client so you have a thorough understanding of their mission and goals, as well as others in the field who are dong similar kinds of work. When considering similar organizations, you may not find organizations that do the exact same thing. For example, you probably won’t find another organization that is bringing classical music into inner city school. That is fine. Look to other organizations that are working with inner city schools for your comparison or for how people are bringing arts into education. In other words, think expansively and not exactly.

Part A: About Your Client

Review client’s mission statement, website, and social media platforms.

  • What is the mission statement? What social media are they using and why? When thinking about social media, include video and audio. Since they are most likely posted to a social media space, like YouTube, video is a form of social media. So, too, are blogs and web sites. Indeed, most public media coming from organizations are social in nature (including email, newsletters, flyers, etc.)
  • Who is the target audience?
  • How did you come to your conclusions? You might consider creating a flow chart that goes from the mission to the audience. Or the social media to the audience. There can be multiple routes to similar audiences.

Part B: Standards and Best Practices

  1. Investigate the industry standards for best practices for the kind of work you are doing. By industry, I don’t mean non-profit. Rather, I mean people who doing web design or social media strategy or video production as their jobs. So, what are best practices in web design  (such as, usability, accessibility, flexible design, mobile-first design, etc.), video production, social media content, etc.—whichever area your team will be covering.
    1. Locate 3 recent (since 2012) books (not web sites) that discuss those best practices and have your team Fellow add them to the Beautiful Social Library wish list. Those groups working on multiple should have 3 books for each area. You will use these books to help design your team’s deliverables.
  2. Investigate what other non-profits doing with similar kinds of work by considering:
    1. Who are the top 3 organizations most similar to your client/organization that are using social media most effectively? Why? How did you determine the top organizations? Based on what evidence/data?
    2. What are the top 3 organizations doing? How are they doing it?
    3. Why do you (or others) think it is effective? (Evidence. Evidence. Evidence.)
    4. Include screenshots, images, etc. to show best practices.

Part C: Using what you have learned

  • Discuss how your client/organization might benefit/borrow from the best practices above and based on your reading of Aaker and Smith’s “Engage.”
  • Include comparison screenshot images, etc. to show best practices.
  • Your recommendations should includes using any research methodologies (such as usability studies) or design practices (such as mobile first design) that you come across.

Compose a detailed aesthetically pleasing blog post that contains all of the above information and post it to the course WordPress site.

Due date
2/18 by 4:00pm on the course WordPress blog

Client-Specific Book Review

On Thursday, 2/25 you will meet with your project teams to discuss your client-specific books. Each team member should come up with 3 questions you hope will engender interesting discussion among your team members. The discussion must last at least one hour.

At the end of the hour, I’d like you to your attention to how you might present a creative, multimedia book review about your book. The specifics should be up to you. It can include video, print, drama, roles, vlogs, social media—anything you think will make for a fun, creative, thoughtful discussion of your book. Think outside the box. Try something new and interesting. Be playful.

Due date
3/1 by 4:00pm on the course WordPress blog

Blogging for the Beautiful Social Web Site

Each project team will be responsible for composing one creative, engaging, thoughtful, and reflective blog post for the Beautiful Social web site.

Details to be added.

Due date
to be determined

The Client Deliverables

to be added

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