gender bias

Submitted by Carolyn Caffrey on December 10th, 2018
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Short Description: 

This assignment was created for a credit bearing course for first year students. It's designed to help students take what they've learned about algorithmic bias from the course lectures and readings and apply it to their own search practices. They also critically analyze search results for advertisements and compare DuckDuckGo to Google. [You could also look at this assignment as an adaptation of Jacob Berg's wonderful, "Googling Google," assignment at https://www.projectcora.org/assignment/googling-google-search-engines-ma... ]

Attachments: 
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analyzingsearchengines_assignment.docxdisplayed 1314 times534.31 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Students will be able to: -identify advertisements within a list of search results -discuss the role advertising plays in how search results are ordered -describe how search results are impacted by human biases in their ranking algorithms

Discipline: 
Multidisciplinary

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 

This assignment occurred early in the semester as we discussed algorithms, bias, and filter bubbles. Students were asked to draw on class discussions and lectures on page rank, the history of search engines, and filter bubbles. Other assigned material going into this assignment the IRL podcast episode "Social Bubble Bath" and Eli Pariser's TED talk on filter bubbles. Students commented that they enjoyed this assignment, weren't aware that Google was an advertising company, and were unfamiliar with DuckDuckGo. The course itself was designed and taught by me (a librarian) as part of our first year seminar program.

Assessment or Criteria for Success
Assessment Short Description: 
Assignments were evaluated using the rubric from the attached assignment sheet. In general, students had difficulty identifying all of the advertisements. While students had no difficulty analyzing gender bias or racism in the image results, they did struggle with the phrase "god" in identifying how the results may privilege particular narratives and identities over others.
Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

Be careful with the choose your own image search --- several students picked topics such as our institution name or vague concepts like "music" which didn't as clearly illustrate the course concepts. In the future I would remove the choose your own option for the image component. This assignment was designed with first year students in mind.

Suggested Citation: 
Caffrey, Carolyn . "Analyzing search engines: What narrative is told through the algorithm." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2018. https://projectcora.org/assignment/analyzing-search-engines-what-narrative-told-through-algorithm.
Submitted by Elisa Acosta on March 20th, 2017
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Short Description: 

Students in an introductory Women's and Gender Studies course are required to critically analyze and edit an article in Wikipedia. Through class discussion and an active learning exercise, students begin to understand how and why women and many racial groups and individuals are underrepresented or systematically marginalized in Wikipedia. Students learn how to use the "Talk" tab to evaluate Wikipedia articles and learn about authority and power structures within that community.

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Lesson Plandisplayed 968 times28.96 KB
Worksheet #1 displayed 901 times14.86 KB
Worksheet #2 displayed 787 times14.79 KB
Worksheet #3 displayed 804 times15.01 KB
Worksheet #1 (short version)displayed 846 times14.48 KB
Worksheet #2 (short version)displayed 856 times14.42 KB
Worksheet #3 (short version)displayed 776 times14.67 KB
Learning Outcomes: 

Identify voices missing or marginalized in Wikipedia Define "notability" Define "reliable sources" Explain how Wikipedia's policies and guidelines contribute to its gender gap in knowledge

Individual or Group:

Course Context (e.g. how it was implemented or integrated): 

One-shot library instruction. This exercise is a "warm up" for the Wikipedia edit-a-thon co-sponsored by the Women's and Gender Studies Department. http://librarynews.lmu.edu/2017/03/wikipedia-edit-thon-gender-race-sexua...

Additional Instructor Resources (e.g. in-class activities, worksheets, scaffolding applications, supplemental modules, further readings, etc.): 

Jackson, J. (2016, July 28). Building on Millions of Tiny Shoulders: Tips for Hosting a Wikipedia Edit-a-thon. [Blog article]. Retrieved from http://programminglibrarian.org/blog/building-millions-tiny-shoulders-ti...

Potential Pitfalls and Teaching Tips: 

If taught Fall Semester, most first year students don't know what peer-review is yet.

Suggested Citation: 
Acosta, Elisa. "The Gender Gap in Wikipedia." CORA (Community of Online Research Assignments), 2017. https://projectcora.org/assignment/gender-gap-wikipedia.