Unit One assessment process

Good Day 301;

As we come to the end of our first Unit, I want to review and clarify my assessment process for you all. First, just as I asked you to describe  your learning philosophies, I want to detail my teaching philosophy; otherwise known as pedagogy:

• Learning is a process
• Writing is a complex art requiring a range of specialized techniques
  • analytical strategies
  • composition skills
  • creative thinking
  • aesthetic techniques
  • critical thinking
  • digital literacy

• Students of writing need time to develop these skills and learn how to weave these skills together with confidence.
• Writing is a voice; an individual voice, each student needs to discover her or his voice [identity] within the perimeters of genre.
• Practice is the key to developing a writing voice
• Learning to write is a life long occupation

With this in mind, I design my evaluation process with a focus on encouraging practice, as much as possible. One of the ways I encourage you to practice is by allowing you to edit your blogs whenever you like. Remember, I have pdf files of the originals, and nothing makes me happier than to witness students self-editing and improving as the course proceeds.

To be as clear as I can be:

• Every three weeks, at the end of each unit I begin the individual evaluation process for that unit
• It will take me at least ten days to read and comment on all of your work
• You are always free to edit your blog positing – not the work on your team forum
• Indeed, you want the work on your blog to make it perfect by the end of term; this is when you are seriously graded because your blog will transform into your web folio worth 18 %.

These are my evaluation criteria;

• For Unit One:
  • Completeness: all assignments are complete
  • Timeliness: assignments are on time
  • Thoughtfulness: assignments are completed with thoughtful attention to instructions and readings

• Point distribution for Unit One:
  • Memorandums: 1
  • Blog: 3
  • Peer Review & Team Forum: 5

As you can see, with this round of evaluations, I am not including criteria concerned with writing skills. This is to provide you with an opportunity to practice. It is my expectation, that once you have received my evaluative comments, if necessary, you will return to your blog and self-edit. For future Units the criteria for evaluation begin to include specific writing skills.  I am still finishing the details for Unit 4, and I will go back and include more specific details for evaluation criteria for each Unit. Thank you all for your patience.

Please note that I have changed the arrangements of assignment due date so that you have no assignments due for lesson 3:2. This is to give you breathing and thinking time for preparing your formal reports.

Please do post any question on our group Facebook page, thank you.