Posts on Individual Blogs

YES THIS IS LONG. YES IT’S IMPORTANT TO READ THE WHOLE THING 🙂

Assignment Overview

A successful blog post gets people thinking about an issue, a document, an object, an event in more depth and/or in new ways. 

Your task IS to write between one and four blog posts inspired by and engaging the course materials this semester on your own personal website you created using OU Create. (See Grading below for more on how many.) By Midterm (Week 8), one or two of those posts are due. Each post should focus on one unit in the course. (So for Midterm, Units A, B, and C.) Post the link to your blog post in the Canvas assignment so I know how to find it.

Repeat: this is an assignment for the public on your own personal website you created using OU Create. Don’t remember your website URL? Login at create.ou.edu, and you should see your “primary domain” in a sidebar on the right.

Having a hard time thinking of something to write about? Reread the student blog and see what sparks interest.

Also check out this list of academic websites (and there are so many more I’m sure you can Google) for examples of academic blogs.

Please do not quote or use anything specific from the private blog on your own blog without permission. It is ok to say that in class discussions, your fellow students raised X issue, but please don’t quote or name anyone without their permission.

A successful post will have:

  • A key question, issue, dilemma driving the post (this is its focus!)
  • Analysis *of course materials* (readings, project websites, lecture videos) that engages & inspires the reader to consider what’s important about your topic and brings your own ideas in conversation with the course materials
  • Specific details from *the course materials* to support claims and questions being made.  
  • Clear writing free from grammatical errors so that the we all can understand the ideas
  • Good organization (1 paragraph per idea/topic)
  • Media: one or more images, videos, audio clips related to your topic(s), which are documented (where did you get this from? Document and link back) and not licensed in a way that prevents your use (is there copyright on the media? Is there a license that allows sharing? Be sure to add credit+license info on your blog!)
  • Uses tags and categories to organize the posts for readers & has an engaging title
  • Each post must be on a subdomain dedicated to this course OR use a category dedicated to this course. (We will have an online blog roll, and I’ll need to be able to grab your posts.)
  • at least 600-750 words NOT INCLUDING the reference list at the bottom
  • Abides by the guidelines for discussion we established for the class at the beginning of the semester.

You are welcome to provide links to outside resources/websites/articles/etc related to your topic(s).  Be sure:

  1. to explain how they connect to our course material, how they make you think about the topic in a new way/raise questions/clarify/etc. 
  2. the outside links abide by our own class guidelines we established
  3. the additional materials are from a reliable source

Documentation

What kind of documentation do you need for sources?

  • Quotes around direct quotes
  • In text citations for anything paraphrased OR referenced OR quoted directly
  • In text citations look like Author + page number for anything with page #s and/or a link for anything online with a link. Link can be in text (As Gallon argues, …) or in a parenthetical citation ((Gallon, “Making a Case”)). Some citations might have BOTH a link and a p #.
  • A list of references at the bottom of your post in whatever format you like as long as it’s consistent

Consider Enabling Comments on your Posts

Since one part of this module is to comment on each other’s blog posts, it will help if you enable comments on your website. Here is a video to walk you through it. In your dashboard go to Settings > Discussion. It’s totally up to you; you can require your own approval before any comment appears, and other options. My recommendation is to require approval for someone’s first post. That way you can see if they’re in the class or not; if not you can ignore or send it to trash or spam; if they’re in the class you can approve, and then they’ll have permission in the future too.

Grading/Evaluation

All posts will be evaluated Incomplete/Satisfactory/Excellent based on the attached rubric.

  • Incomplete = Assignment submitted but does not meet requirements for Satisfactory
  • Satisfactory = Proficient or higher for criteria 1, 2, & 3; Proficient or higher for 5 of the remaining 6 criteria, with the remaining one being at Working toward Proficiency.
  • Excellent = Shows originality/complexity/excellence in at least 1 area and Proficient in the remaining.  

Incomplete (but submitted!) assignments may be revised using the Token system up to two times per post. (See the syllabus on the Token System.)  OR you can write an entirely new blog post on a different unit by the end of the semester and submit that one.

How many blog posts do you need?

I am assigning ONE due at midterm; the rest (if you choose/need to do them) are due at the end of the semester. If you *know* you’re not doing a final project, consider doing TWO at midterm. Here are the details:

  • For an A in the class: Undergrads and grads write one post on Units A, B, or C + 1 on Units D, E, or F at a Satisfactory or higher level (along with the other required assignments for an A in the course)
  • For a B in the class: Undergrads write 2 on Units A, B, C + 2 on Units D, E, F at a Satisfactory or higher level (along with the other required assignments for an B in the course) OR write one each and complete a lot but not all of the project. Grads write 1 one post on Units A, B, or C + 1 on Units D, E, or F at a Satisfactory or higher level (along with the other required assignments for an B in the course); if you don’t complete the project write 2 on A, B, or C + 2 on D, E, or F
  • For a C in the class: Undergrads write 3 total—1 or 2 on Units A, B, C + 1 or 2on Units D, E, F at a Satisfactory or higher level (along with the other required assignments for an C in the course). Grads write 1 one post on Units A, B, or C + 1 on Units D, E, or F at a Satisfactory or higher level (along with the other required assignments for a C in the course); if you don’t make progress on the project, write 3 total
  • For a D in the class: consult with Dr. S on the combination of posts and other assignments necessary to pass the course.

Excellent posts will earn Tokens and will be featured somehow on the course site & blog roll.

2 Comments


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    […] like. Here are some examples. Keep in mind — some of them have content that would fulfill the criteria for the assignment, but not all do. So be sure to do the assignment! These are for […]

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