Introduction to Doing Research in Media Arts and Sciences
MIT's Media Lab offers this course for students beginning research projects within its labs. Lessons cover the Lab's major research areas, how to document research progress, and the ethical issues that come up in lab work, including patents, copyrights, and intellectual property. Students practice giving oral, written, and online presentations of results, culminating in a required final oral presentation. The course is aimed at students in the Media Arts and Sciences freshman program, and materials are available through MIT OpenCourseWare under a Creative Commons license. It functions less as a lecture course and more as a structured orientation to lab research practice, useful for anyone wanting to see how a working research group organizes documentation, ethics training, and presentation skills.