Assignment Overview
Non-profit Communications strives to replicate as much as possible what it will be like for you to be an integral part of real-world organization. Each section of the semester-long team project is designed afford that experience. So, too, is this assignment.
In many if not most organizations, you will be required to keep apprised of the work you have completed, and in an annual report present what you have done in terms of the goals of the organization, reflect on that work, and make plans for the future. (Indeed, faculty at SJU have their annual reports due on Feb 15, where they discuss and reflect on their teaching, advising, scholarship, and service to the university and scholarly communities.)
To help you learn what it feels like to do this kind of work, you will be creating a semester-long Story of Learning in which you will keep track of your weekly activities, reflect on what you have learned, make plans for the future, and at midterm and final, make recommendations on what grade you believe you deserve using your own work as evidence.
Assignment Specifics
Your Story of Learning will consist of the following sections in a GoogleDoc that only you, your team Fellow, and BW have access to:
- My Story Up Till this Moment
In this section, you will write about your educational and learning experiences in terms of the Five Course Objectives: Collaboration, Effective Communication, Engaged Citizenship, Reflection, and Risk-taking, as well as your experiences using social media and whatever you are to be creating for your clients (so, if you are doing video, write about your video experience; content and layout design, write about that). This section gives us a starting point for the semester, so we can see where improvement comes throughout the semester. (500 words) - Weekly Updates
In this section, you will compose short updates on what you have accomplished week to week, as well as statements about what you learned by completing that work, which of the Five Course Objectives were impacted by your work, what you learned about yourself, questions you have, and your plans for the following week. By completing these updates, you will be able to go back and see all you have accomplished when it is time to complete your midterm and final assessments. (word count will vary by week, but no more than 300 words per entry) - My Story of Learning at Midterm; My Story of Learning at the End of the Semester
In these sections, you will discuss your learning in terms of the Five Course Objectives using work you have completed as evidence. You will also discuss plans for the future and estimate what grade you think you deserve using the below grading criteria. (word count: 400 – 500 words per Objective; 200 for Plans for the Future; 200 to explain the grade you estimate)
Please create a folder on your computer and where you can keep copies of all work you complete for the class as well as a place where you have save links to what you have completed online.
Due Dates
- My Story Up Till This Moment: 2/5 by 11:00pm
- Weekly Updates: Every week by Saturday 11:00pm starting Week 3, ending Week 15
- My Story of Learning at Midterm: Friday, 3/4
- My Story of Learning at the End of the Semester: Monday, 5/2
Grading Criteria
A, A-
Represents outstanding participation in all course activities; all assigned work completed, with very high quality in all work produced for the course. Evidence of significant development across the five course objectives. The Story of Learning at this level demonstrates activity that goes significantly beyond the required course work in one or more course objectives.
B+, B, B-
Represents excellent participation in all course activities; all assigned work completed, with consistently high quality in course work. Evidence of marked development across the five course objectives.
C+, C, C-
Represents good participation in all course activities; all assigned work completed, with generally good quality overall in course work. Evidence of some development across the five course objectives.
D+, D
Represents uneven participation in course activities; some gaps in assigned work completed, with inconsistent quality in course work. Evidence of development across the five course objectives is partial or unclear.
F
Represents minimal participation in course activities; serious gaps in assigned work completed, or very low quality in course work. Evidence of development is not available.
IN
Work for the course is incomplete and the instructor will allow the student additional time to complete it. The amount of time allowed is at the discretion of the instructor.
Acknowledgement
Portions of this assignment are borrowed from and inspired by The Learning Record assessment system.