Outcomes & Expectations

Outcomes

When you complete this course, it is expected that you will be able to:

  1. Describe and explain the early uses of distributed ledger technology and the design of current blockchain systems.
  2. Recognize the differences and similarities among various decentralized systems, and determine the most appropriate blockchain applications.
  3. Compare and evaluate the advantages/disadvantages of using blockchain or other types of technologies for different applications.
  4. Identify ways blockchain could be applied in the information industries.

Course Design

Every Monday and Wednesday of the course a new Module will be unlocked, starting with the first day of the class on March 11. Each week will have a similar structure; Monday's module will contain a short video lecture by the course instructor Jason Griffey, followed by a series of readings and/or video resources that help explain the topic for the week. Wednesday's module will contain more readings and videos that expand on the topic. After each set of readings, there will be a Weekly Discussion that everyone will be expected to participate in through asking and answering questions. On Thursday of each week, the quiz for the week will be available, and should be completed before the end of the week (Sunday at midnight). 

The instruction team for this course will be active in the Discussion forums for each week, answering questions and directing learners towards additional resources. In addition to the course instructor Jason Griffey, there will also be four current LIS students involved in making the course a success. All of us will use the discussion forums as a point of contact with participants. 

If you need help with the Canvas platform itself, please use the Help forum. 

Course Expectations

As a participant in this MOOC, you are expected to watch and read the content for each of the weekly Modules, and to complete the readings and quizzes on schedule. In order for the Course to be maximally educational for everyone, regardless of the level of knowledge they come to the Course with, should try and participate in the Weekly Discussion. This course is about becoming familiar and comfortable in a general knowledge of Blockchain and Decentralized technologies, not necessarily about a deep dive into the obscure parts of the tech. Discussions will help everyone. 

Every participant is expected to read, understand, and follow the Code of Conduct for this course, especially the section relating to treating every member of this course (participant, teaching assistant, and instructor) with respect and kindness. Any type of harassment from or to members of the course will not be tolerated, and any report of such will result in actions up to and including removal from the course. 

If you go by a different name or set of pronouns than the one under which you are officially enrolled, please inform us. Likewise, if an instructor or a classmate mispronounces your name, please let them know so they can correct it. Students are expected to respectfully refer to each other by preferred, correctly pronounced names and pronouns during discussions.*

If you complete the lecture, readings, and discussion and pass the quiz for each week, you'll earn a Badge for that set of content. Complete the whole course and pass the final, and you'll get both a Blockchain Proof of Work badge and a Certificate of Completion from SJSU. You can check your "Badges" tab to see your awards as you progress through the course.

*wording adapted from a syllabus by Kendra Albert at Harvard University

TagTeam - Bibliography & Resource List

All of the various resources for this course have been collected using a system called TagTeam, which can be found here Links to an external site.. These have been categorized and tagged in order to help you dive deeper into the information if you desire, although that isn't necessary in order to do well in this course. If you would like to reuse these resources, TagTeam makes it extremely easy to pull things out by metadata, and instructions for a variety of those abilities can be found here Links to an external site.. 

We have provided an "additional resources" links at the end of each of the course modules, with relevant resources for that week's topic already tagged.