Web Science: Mapping the Curriculum

Coskun, Elisabeth and White, Su (2017) Web Science: Mapping the Curriculum. In WebSci '17 Proceedings of the 2017 ACM on Web Science Conference. Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 241-245 . (doi:10.1145/3091478.3091511).

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Web Science is an emerging subject, which was formally
defined in 2006. Since the inception of Web Science, a number of
Web Science taught programs have emerged across the world.
Despite the increasing popularity of Web Science, there are still
currently very few attempts to provide a formal curriculum
definition for Web Science. This paper outlines plans and some
initial results of a study which seeks to explore the scope of Web
Science in a bottom-up fashion, by examining what is taught as
part of Web Science MSc and Undergraduate programs
worldwide. This paper presents some early results of the
analysis, including the most frequently occurring ‘key topics’
found from an evaluation of Web Science taught modules. Plans
for future work are then outlined; the ultimate aim of the study
being to present a view of Web Science as it is taught across the
world. A proposed outcome will include a taxonomy of key
topics for Web Science, potentially hosted in a wiki, or similar
format, which will facilitate both access and contributions from
the wider worldwide Web Science community.