CSCE475/875
Multiagent Systems
Collaborative Topic Summary Assignment:
Wiki!
September 04, 2013
Introduction
Collaborative topic summaries are written wikis of topics that we
cover in class. The summary will be
based on my lectures, the textbook, and other papers. Your summary should include at least the
following
·
an overview
of the topic – motivations and underlying principles, etc.,
·
a list of praises: a description of what
you think are the important/useful aspects of the topic,
·
a list of critiques:
a description of what you think are the weaknesses of topic, and
·
its applications:
how the topic relates to real-world applications.
You will use an online wiki tool (http://agora.unl.edu). All of your actions will be tracked and
recorded while you are working on the assignment online.
You are allowed to search online for information to help you write
your topic summary. However, anything
used must be formally cited. That is,
you must have a References section in your summary. Further, you are not allowed to cite web
URLs. Links are not allowed. Furthermore, you are not allowed to cite
Wikipedia pages. You might find,
however, references that are useful on Wikipedia, and may pursue those
references, and then cite those references properly in your summary. Each summary will be submitted to
Blackboard’s SafeAssign tool to check for excessive similarity with other
online texts.
Collaborative Contributions
On the Wiki tool, you
will be allowed to rate and tag essays and participate in threaded forum
discussions. You will be also encouraged
to contribute to other essays. You are also required to start three different
threads of discussions for the forum of your wiki essay. To start each thread, you are required to
ask a meaningful question about the topic of your wiki essay.
How the Assignment Works
There are nine (9) basic
topics:
·
distributed
constraint satisfaction
·
distributed
optimization
·
noncooperative
game
·
learning
and teaching
·
communication
·
social
choice
·
mechanism
design
·
auction
·
coalitional
game theory
You may choose one of
the above topics or a sub-topic of the above to write your summaries. Further, you may choose other MAS topics from
other papers as well. But if you do so,
please inform me ahead of time to make sure that your topic is
appropriate.
Each wiki essay is
required to be at least 1000 words long.
Note also it is possible that multiple students might
end up writing about the same topic.
Every student is
assigned to be responsible for one topic. Note: Since there are more
students than topics, that means some of you will write about the same topic. So, you will be a primary contributor to a topic of
your choice. In addition, every student is required to
contribute to three other topics. The
contributions could be any of the collaborative activities listed below.
There are three
deadlines:
1.
Deadline 1: Primary Contribution (November 18, 2011). This is when every student’s primary topic
will be “snap-shot” and “graded”. Before
this deadline, a student is only allowed to contribute to its own Wiki
essay. After this deadline, your Wiki
essay will be open to all to edit.
Please also make sure that you start your three threaded discussions
prior to this deadline. (Note: The deadline is also our scheduled
Midterm Exam day.)
2.
Deadline 2: Collaborative Contribution (November 27, 2011) . This is when every student’s collaborative
contributions will be “snap-shot” but not graded. I will use this to give feedback and comments
on your collaborative behaviors. These
collaborative activities include actual contributions to the wiki essays,
participation in the threaded discussions, viewing of essays, tagging essays
with keywords, and rating the essays.
3. Deadline
3: More Collaborative Contribution (December
11,
2011). This is when every student’s collaborative
collaborations will be “snap-shot” and “graded”.
Grading
Each student’s primary contribution will be graded in the following
manner:
20% Overview
20%
Praises
20%
Critiques
10%
Applications
10% Threaded Discussions Started (Quality of your
questions)
10%
Grammar and Errors
10% Requirements
Each student’s collaborative contributions will be graded in the
following manner:
60% Wiki Editing (at least three other essays,
and amount and quality)
30%
Threaded Discussions
10% Rating, Tagging,
and Viewing
The total of your Collaborative Wiki Essays
Assignment will be 70% x your primary contribution + 30% x your collaborative
contributions.