Assessment: Reinventing Recommendations

Tell students that now that they know how to train the algorithms that their apps already use, it’s time to think about how those algorithms should work.

Go through the instructions in the Reinventing Recommendation student chapter.

Have students use the interactive tool to choose either a type of app (for example, a video app, a social network, or a search engine) or an app that already exists (YouTube, Instagram, Google, etc.) and design how they think its algorithm should work.

Their assignment should include:

At least three optimization goals they think the algorithm should have. Make sure students understand that they are not limited to the optimization goals discussed in class, and remind them of some of the alternate optimization goals they brainstormed. They should rank these optimization goals by weight (how important they are to the algorithm’s ranking) and explain why they chose each one and why they gave it that rank.

At least three inputs they think the algorithm should pay attention to. These also are not limited to the ones discussed in class; students can use any way that users could send information to platforms. For each one, they should identify whether it is an explicit or an implicit input and explain why they think the algorithm should pay attention to it. To define the optimization goals and three inputs, go to the “Done” page and click or tap “Create document.”

When they have finished, they can click or tap Select to copy it and paste it into an email or a Google Doc, or click or tap Export to make a Word document that they can download.

Use the Assessment Rubric for Redesigning Recommendations Assignment to assess their work.