Important Dates
- Jan 14: Exam due by 11:59 PM (No grace period).
- Jan 17: Final grades due to the registrar.
The Project Assignment
For your final exam, you will write a completion report that provides a self-evaluation of your participation in the course. You will propose the grade you should receive and then use information from your participation log and discussions in Piazza to provide data to support your recommendation. In the workplace, this report would be similar to a self-evaluation for a performance review.
Note: there is no grace period for this assignment. If you do not submit your report on time (or do not submit it at all), you earn a zero for participation in the course.
Step-by-Step Details
Step 1: Review your work and gather your data.
You need to collect the data on your participation in the class. Be sure that you examine your overall participation in Piazza. Look for evidence of the following:
- What have you done to participate consistently during the entire term?
- Have you completed all work by the end of the grace period?
- Which posts demonstrate that you have contributed high quality work?
- What posts show your best interaction and support for classmates?
- Did you provide health services or Dean of Students documentation for any issues that came up that harmed your participation?
- Did you invest your best effort in the course?
You should gather the relevant numbers, links to examples, and pull out quotations or other evidence from your work. Remember that you are focusing on your participation, not on your quizzes or major projects.
If you have been tracking your work, you should find most of what you need in your Participation Log. For instance, you might demonstrate why you think a post you made is the best by linking to it, summarizing its content, and providing a quotation from it that shows its effectiveness.
Step 2: Compare your findings to the course expectations.
Once you have gathered your findings about your participation in the course, compare them to the expectations and conclude how well you did. The following areas contribute to your participation:
-
Contributions: Ask thoughtful questions, offer specific suggestions, and graciously accept feedback.
-
Timeliness: Submit your posts on time or early, so that there is time for classmates to read and respond to them.
-
Consistency: Participate regularly throughout the course from the first day to the last.
-
Effort: Participating isn’t simply about writing a post, but putting in the effort to explain your ideas fully. Replies to classmates should go beyond simple responses as well.
-
Collegiality: Be supportive of everyone in the classroom and uphold the Principles of Community. In general, be kind and helpful to one another. Help create the kind of community online that makes you happy to participate.
Be sure that you consider your participation in the entire course, and if relevant, be honest about where you fell short.
Step 3: Pay attention to the expectations for the final exam.
To meet the requirements of the assignment, your report should include the following sections and information:
- details on your overall participation, which addresses the following:
- your contributions
- your timeliness
- your consistency
- your effort
- your collegiality
- a comparison of your accomplishments to the course expectations
- a conclusion of the grade you should receive for the participation portion of your course grade
If your report is not specific and detailed, you will harm your participation grade in the course, rather than help yourself. Likewise, if your report has 7 or more errors, you will harm your participation grade, no matter how well it meets the other criteria.
Step 4: Review the examples.
Here are some examples of basic reports from my Technical Writing course. They were focused on participation via the online forums in the course, similar to Piazza. All names have been changed in these examples:
Step 5: Compose your final exam.
Once you have gathered all of your information and drawn conclusions about your performance in the course, write your report in your word processor. Explain your findings, present your evidence, and include an indication of how your participation in the course compare to the expectations. Your report should be professional, and avoid any whining, begging, or the like.
Use what you know about designing documents (see Markel, Chapter 7) to create a report that is clear and easy to read. If it’s also fun and interesting, that’s great too.
Since the report focuses on your grade in the course, asking you to share details about your grade would be a FERPA violation. As a result, there is no peer review for the final exam.
Step 6: Submit your work in Canvas.
When you are finished with your completion report (no cover memo necessary), you will turn in your work in Canvas, following the submission instructions.