Purpose
Each week, you will be required to complete one (1) exercise in which you apply or evaluate the concepts presented in that week’s readings. The prompt/description for this exercise will be posted by a fellow student to the “Blog” section of the course website, and you are required both to complete this exercise and to comment on the postings of at least 2 other members of the class. Additionally, you are encouraged to share (post) their ideas, opinions, and perspectives related to a particular weekly exercise as well as discussion those opinions with others in the class.
In some cases, you may require the classmates to do a review of or a critique of a particular concept, approach, or issue. In other cases, these activities may require classmates to apply ideas or concepts to a particular situation. The length of activity-related responses should be between 2-5 paragraphs per exercise.
The conversation leader is expected to post the first post with the exercise by class of his or her assigned week. Because classmates have only one week to respond, individuals will need to check the discussion of class activities on a regular basis (e.g., every other day).
Directions
1. Use the comments feature to select a week during which you would like to be the note-taker and/or conversation leader. Check the Due Dates section for availability.
2. If you are the note-taker for that week, post your notes in the Google document titled “ENGL3850 Lecture Notes”.
3. If you are the conversation leader for that week, post the weekly activity you would like the class to engage in on Wednesday of that very week.
Posted messages should be significant – helping thinking and the discussion to move forward. There are a variety of ways to do this, including (generally in some combination over the course of the week or within a posting):
Providing concrete examples, perhaps from your own experience
Describing possible consequences or implications
Challenging something that has been posted in the discussion – perhaps by playing “devil’s advocate”
Posing a clarifying question
Suggesting a different perspective or interpretation
Synthesizing ideas and pulling in related information from other sources – books, articles, websites, other courses, etc.
4. Perform your classmate’s assigned weekly activity and participate in the conversation.
Style Guidelines
The conversation may have a semi-informal tone in order to meet the blog format of the conversation.
Due Dates
Week 6 - Feb 23
Note-taker:
Conversation leader:
Week 7 - Mar 02
Note-taker:
Conversation leader:
Week 8 - Mar 09
Note-taker:
Conversation leader:
Week 9 - Mar 16
Note-taker:
Conversation leader:
Week 11 - Mar 30
Note-taker:
Conversation leader:
Week 12 - Apr 06
Note-taker:
Conversation leader:
Week 13 - Apr 13
Note-taker:
Conversation leader:
Week 14 - Apr 20
Note-taker:
Conversation leader:
Week 15 - Apr 27
Note-taker:
Conversation leader:
Grading Rubric/Scale
Should participants have questions related to a particular weekly activity, you are encouraged to contact/email the instructor BEFORE that activity’s due date. While the instructor will respond to activity-related questions sent after a particular due date, participants will not receive credit for any exercise not completed by that deadline.
At the end of the semester, the instructor will assign a grade from 0 to 100 points that reflects the quality of the exercise you assigned for the class and a grade from 0 to 100 points for overall postings’ quality and frequency with colleagues. The grade will NOT be based solely on the number of posts individuals make. Rather, it will be a subjective but a fair assessment of each person’s completion of the assigned task and that person’s contributions to the ongoing conversation related to these activities.
Your participation score will be based on the quality and frequency of messages you post to that discussion. Participation will be evaluated in terms of quality as well as number of postings, based on the following scale:
Criteria | Exemplary | Proficient | Developing | Beginning or Not Evident |
Timeliness and number of discussion responses | 3-4 or more postings; well distributed throughout the week | 2-3 postings distributed throughout the week. | 2-3 postings; postings not distributed throughout the week | 1-2 postings; postings not distributed throughout the week |
Responsiveness to discussion topic and demonstration of knowledge and understanding from assigned readings. Ability of postings to move discussion forward. Postings suggest analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of ideas. Respects and includes different perspectives. | Readings were understood and incorporated into discussion as relates to topic. Two or more responses add significantly to the discussions, meaning, perspective-taking, and learning (e.g. identifying important relationships, offering a fresh perspective or critique of a point; offers supporting evidence). | Readings were understood and incorporated into discussion as relates to topic. At least one posting adds significantly to the discussion, meaning, perspective-taking, and learning. | Little use made of readings. At least two postings supplement or add moderately to the discussion and learning. | Little or no use made of readings. Postings have questionable relationship to discussion question and/or readings; they are non-substantive. Postings do little to move discussion and meaning forward |
POINTS | 100-90 | 89-80 | 79-70 | >69 |
*adapted from a rubric developed by Peg Ertmer.and Krista Simons
Samples of Significant Comments
Examples of "significant" comments. These comments add to the conversation by identifying important relationships, putting ideas together in some unique way, or offering a critique as a point of discussion.
Example 1 – “I believe that learning is more effective if we allow learners to create their own behavioral objectives. Like Driscoll, I believe that "Learners are not empty vessels waiting to be filled, but rather active organisms seeking meaning." Bearing in mind that we are all products of our own experiences; be it socioeconomic, gender specific, cultural and/or family related, I firmly believe that the learning needs of learners should always be the force which guides the instructional development process and the crafting of meaningful behavioral objectives. Therefore, differentiated instruction is of paramount importance if we are to provide meaningful learning environments, which emulate challenge, variety, creativity and innovation. Consequently, a synergistic blend between Bloom's Taxonomy and Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences must be found if learning is to be truly effective.
Example 1 is a "significant" message because the student is combining ideas learned from various resources into a new thought.
Example 2 – “I agree with the statement "learning is generally less effective when only the learners create the objectives", However, I would not wish to lump ALL learners into this category, whether they are intellectually gifted or not. I believe that in much instruction the student is an integral part of defining the objective, especially in skills training, or efficiency of operations. If a company has been producing X product in the same manner for an extended time, it is reasonable to believe that new employees have been trained in that "tried and proven" method of production. However, as times and markets change, production techniques must also change. The student (employee) who is being taught the same "old" method would invariably attempt to modify the technique to increase efficiency of the production. If the student is stifled by being held only to the objectives stated in the training, no improvement will be made and the company will ultimately suffer.
Example 2 is a "significant" message because the student is disagreeing and making a contrary argument, based on an evaluation of the idea expressed in a previous message.
Example 3 – “I’m a Thomas Gilbert fan and I saw a parallel here with Gilbert’s Behavioral Engineering Model and what Rossett is calling barriers. Barriers, of course, could include anything, including supervisor resistance (data and incentives), lack of alignment between training and actual work (knowledge), lack of tools (information), lack of information (data).”
Example 3 is a "significant" message because the student is identifying relationships between ideas presented by Gilbert and Rossett. Another thing to notice here is that messages don’t have to be long to be "significant", but they do have to show a level of analysis, synthesis, or evaluation of the material.
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