Unit information: Dialogue and Narrative in 2020/21

Unit name	Dialogue and Narrative
Unit code	COMSM0023
Credit points	10
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Simpson
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Engineering Mathematics and Technology
Faculty	Faculty of Engineering

Description including Unit Aims

This unit presents the theoretical foundations for interactions that are narratively structured, reflecting the human bias towards organising our experiences as (language, logical and visual) narratives. Understanding the narrative structure requires a deep understanding of Natural Language Processing (NLP) components going from low-level text mining and segmentation to discourse-level analysis and summarisation. The unit builds upon these to teach core concepts in dialogue management, argumentation theory, and computational modelling of narratives.

Intended Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit students will be able to:

1. identify and describe the main computational approaches to natural language processing;
2. identify and describe the main components of a computational system for argumentation;
3. employ these techniques for computational modelling of narratives;
4. design and implement a practical human-computer dialogue system involving natural language, argumentation and narratives.

Teaching Information

Teaching will be delivered through a series of mostly synchronous sessions, including lectures, seminars, practical activities, discussion groups and self-directed exercises.

Assessment Information

1 Summative Assessment, 100% - Coursework. This will assess all ILOs.

Reading and References

Selected literature, references and online material will be provided at the start of the unit.