Since it’s the middle of the term, I want to invite you to tell me how you feel about the course so far. Here are three ways to respond:
- Add a comment that tells me how you feel about the course so far.
- Reply to a comment someone else has made. It’s useful to know if a lot of you are interested in the same thing.
- Send me an email or a private message in Canvas if you want to say something but don’t want to say it in public.
Possible Questions
I will share some questions you can answer if you like; however, you are free to comment in whatever way you like. Don’t feel limited by the questions.
- What do you love about the course?
- What do you hate about the course?
- How can I help you learn better?
- What can you do to do better in the course?
- What is most helpful to you about the course?
- Is there anything you wish the course would cover? What?
- “Stop, Start, Continue”:
- What do you want to stop in the course?
- What would you like to start?
- What would you like to continue?
Please Be Honest
I will not use your comments against you, nor will your comments help you. Just be honest, and give me some details to support what you say. Here’s an example:
Not Very Helpful
This class sucks! [This response doesn’ let me know what I need to do to improve.]Helpful
This class sucks because I prefer multiple choice quizzes to writing projects.
Naturally, I cannot make every change you might like. I can’t eliminate writing projects, for example, since this is a writing course. I will take your suggestions seriously and make changes that the majority of people want if possible however.
41 Comments
Honestly, I’m pretty content about this course. I think it was a little overwhelming at first with everything being online and having so many resources to go to. With that being said, I think having a home page that has the drop down bar on the top is useful because you know where to go if you have a question about a specific project. I wish there was a way to see which posts you have commented on. I know we know how many comments we made, but I don’t know if I accidentally forgot to respond to a post, so some way to be able to know when you responded would be helpful.
I like that when we are presented with projects there are multiple posts about how to do it, and there are real world examples. For the professional bio statements, I thought it was very helpful to see how other companies had their professional bio statements done. I think the writing projects are fine because they are teaching us more in-depth about our particular major/what we want to do as a career, but maybe in the future there can be more of a mix. Maybe have 3 projects and 2 multiple choice quizzes that are only 10/15 questions pertaining to the course and can have multiple submissions. That way people understand more about the details of technical writing and aren’t just focused on their projects.
Overall, I haven’t had many complaints about the course because it’s been helpful/informative about writing in our field of study. I think having a group to help you with feedback for the projects has been one of the best parts because I think feedback is really important for any work that people do in order for them to know what to fix for later.
Thanks for your comments, Mariel. I’ll see if I can find a plugin that will let you see the posts that you have commented on. I agree that it would be a handy feature. I just have to see if it’s possible.
Regarding quizzes, since it’s a writing course, quizzes don’t really seem right to me. The department requirements for the course call for writing several different kinds of projects. Even if I added quizzes, I couldn’t drop projects.
Mariel, I’m trying out a new plugin to that gives you a list of all your comments. Try clicking the little i link (between the share button and the link button) to the right at the top of a comment. I’ll post some instructions on the new system later this week. Still in Raleigh with the sick dog, so it’s a little hard to do the documentation from here (need my other computer).
At first, I found the course to be a bit overwhelming and “busy.” When I say busy, I am referring the many moving parts to the course. Over the course of the semester, I have found that the course seemed busy because there are so many resources to aid us in our writing development. I have learned to like this structure of the course and am working well with it now. I believe everyone’s goal is to achieve the highest grade possible in the course, but this can be kind of vague. Having the structure of “do this minimum and you get a B, but do more and you will get a higher grade,” can be a bit confusing. My approach to this has been do the highest quality work on those mandatory assignments and shoot for about two comments a week on these daily discussion posts. Furthermore, I try to give productive feedback in hopes that will influence my final grade. When it all boil down, I believe that final self-evaluation will determine how well we do in the course. You must have completed enough work at a high enough quality in order to make your argument for an A.
I am interested to hear, what are some of the approaches each of you are taking to the course? Are you commenting more than twice a week? Producing higher quality work? Let me know!
Thanks for the feedback, Tyler. You understand how the final exam works from what you’re saying. I know the course seems like there is a lot of content. I’m trying to find a way to make that smoother in the future — Like perhaps creating a kind of textbook of my own where all the daily posts are collected and I just assign certain ones as they relate to whatever is going on that week. I thought that maybe if they were in a textbookish collection it would seem more like a traditional course and maybe a bit less confusing. Let me know what you think about the idea.
A textbook of readings might be a good idea but I personally like how I can go to the home webpage and scroll through my feed to see both the discussion posts and the weekly assignments. I think the course already has a lot of different sources and websites so adding a textbook might be even more confusing. Plus, sometimes Ill read the discussion prompt and comments to get ideas/advice but don’t actually comment myself. For this reason I like that the prompt and comments are together and I think it would be confusing if there was a discussion but no question with it. Im not sure how you were planning on incorporating the textbook though so I may be confused.
Tyler,
I try and comment every day but that is so I am motivated to check on the posts every day and to actually read them. I also try to produce the highest quality work I can through continually cross-checking against resources, assignment criteria, and peer reviews.
I love how the class is formatted in regard to assignments either being a complete or incomplete. This is nice because if we do get an incomplete you give us a chance to fix any mistakes that we might have made in order for us to get a complete. In other words, I like how you give us a second chance to fix problems if there are any with assignments that we submit.
I wouldn’t say that I hate this, but something that I dislike about this course is that discussions boards are very frequent. Don’t get me wrong, I find many of them helpful at learning various of material. I know that responding to them is not a requirement, but in order to get a better grade above a B you have to respond to some discussion boards. So in a way I feel like I have to respond to every single one in order to get a better grade. I feel that responding to discussion boards should not have an impact on your grade.
I find it very helpful at how you give feedback. I liked that for the professional biographies you had a video of you pointing out various things that you would recommend that we change. Because this is an online class it was nice to be able to put a voice to the professor who is teaching the class. I feel like with video feedback you were able to give us a better explanation with what was wrong instead of us just having to read comments that you might have made if you didn’t create a video.
I also find it helpful that we have writing groups. I feel like getting feedback from others is what can really help you improve on your writing. I know some other professors who teach this class make it so you and your group have to write papers together. I don’t like that idea because everyone has different writing styles, so trying to combine different writing styles into one paper would make the paper not flow well. Therefore, I really like how you do things because we can get feedback from other people, but we don’t have to write an essay all together.
Danielle, thanks for the helpful feedback. Regarding the discussion posts, the idea is that I have extra resources that can help you with your projects, and I’m using those posts to share them with you. They’re sort of like what we would discuss in the classroom if we met in one.
What might help with the frequency is knowing that I don’t expect anyone to reply to every single one. That would be crazy. You’d get nothing else done—and it would become busywork. I’m not a fan of busywork. Comment when you have something you want to say, but don’t worry about trying to reply to every one of the posts.
I really enjoyed the live feedback as well. Besides getting better feedback, it also made it seem more “real.” It felt like an employer was looking over my resume and pointing out mistakes. I was more embarrassed when a mistake was caught, but at the same time, I felt even more pride when praise was given. The thought of live feedback was definitely in my mind on the writing analysis project and I think it made me put more effort into it (not saying I wouldn’t have tried hard if I did not get live feedback!)
One thing I’ve really enjoyed about this course is that all of the major project assignments were released from day one. There was no uncertainty about what I would be working on throughout the semester or when those things would be due. This even gave me the opportunity to work ahead at the beginning of the semester when my other classes were relatively calm.
I also really enjoyed the video feedback on the professional biographies, and I think this will be the most helpful feedback method for the rest of our projects. I think this medium provided a kind of ‘office hours’ feel which is rare to have in an online course.
Lastly, I’m a little daunted by our largest project, the Genre Analysis Report. I’m not sure about a solution for this, but I guess I wish there was something incorporated into the course to make this feel like a few smaller milestones instead of one big report.
Katya, I can definitely add more suggested milestones for the Genre Analysis Report. That’s a good idea.
I can’t lie. I was intimidated and overwhelmed the first day of classes when I reviewed the course structure. I had never taken an online course this extensive before, especially not while taking 15 other credits in person. I initially worried about the course load in addition to my other classes. Thankfully, it wasn’t too difficult to find a rhythm but every time I familiarize myself with the next project, that worry returns.
Katya mentioned being daunted by the Genre Analysis Report and I too feel that, especially as the second semester kicks into high gear. I know there probably isn’t a solution to this but I thought it was worth commenting on.
My biggest issue with the course is that I feel like I am continually trying to one up my peers in order to prove that I am putting in the work for an A. I easily understand the minimum requirements to get a B in this class. However, I do not understand how to make my work stand out enough to get an A. Is it based on my individual effort in the class or will be graded on a bell curve? I sometimes feel that I am in constant competition with my peers which I do not enjoy as I appreciate their insight and work.
Overall, I do enjoy these course. My initial major did not require this course but I planned on taking it anyway because I felt it would help me refine important skills needed in the modern workforce. While I now am taking it as a requirement to graduate, I have gained useful knowledge that I hope to use in the workforce, especially with my first real job occurring this upcoming summer.
Mackenzie, Thanks for the feedback. As I mentioned above, I’ll definitely add some milestones for the Genre Analysis Report.
In terms of competition, please try to let that feeling go. I don’t compare students that way. Honestly, with 88 of your, it would be complicated to rank you all anyway. I’d do nothing else. For commenting on the discussion posts, remember the average number of comments for students in the fall was 18. During a 15 week semester, that’s one or two posts a week.
The “bell curve” thing seems to always get me in trouble. What I intended there was/is a way to explain that some students will simply be stronger than others, and I wanted a way to explain that there will be differences that result in an A versus an A-. I’ll think on a better way than “bell curve” to explain it in the future.
Like Katya said, I like that all of the major assignments were posted ahead of time. I also think that the video review for the projects was helpful to hear the feedback from the project and what could be improved. I would prefer having additional grades other than the major projects and the labor logs. I think having weekly quizzes would help to understand the material better. I think it would also be helpful if there was a separate link on the course website for the daily discussions so that it is easier to go back and review the material.
Hi, Rachel, Glad you liked the video feedback. Quizzes are harder in a writing course, but I understand the desire for smaller tasks. I’ll think about what I can do.
For the discussion posts, the By Category link in the menus at the top of the page takes you to a list of all the discussion posts arranged by category. Is that what you were looking for? It’s here: https://3764s18.tracigardner.com/discussion-by-category/
Thank you, I had never clicked through the Category tab before!
I like that the course is laid out in full from start to finish. It makes it easy to see what you’re going to have to do and being able to see what the projects entail makes it easier to determine how much time you may need to set aside.
I feel like sometimes it does almost seem like a competition between everyone to one up each other but I think that’s just the unfortunate effect of how the course is set up. It constantly feels like you aren’t doing enough when you see the same people commenting on every post or posting things on facebook when you are doing the most that you can do at that time.
I think if we could get feedback on our drafts that it would be helpful in easing worries about if we’re on the right track. I wouldn’t expect full feedback like the videos for the professional bios, but if someone is off track or maybe doing too much it would be helpful to know that and that could alleviate any pressure from people who feel uncomfortable asking for feedback.
I do like the peer feedback, though I think that a lot of times it’s watered down to avoid possibly offending someone. I think if there was an example of constructive comments that people could use for reference as opposed to just a video telling you what you should do would make it easier for people to say all the suggestions they have in a way that is constructive.
I agree with Katya in wanting the Genre Analysis to somehow be broken into smaller milestones, but I think that everyone has come to the consensus that it may not be possible to do that. I also agree with Rachel about having a link to the discussion posts because sometimes I find it tedious to have to search through all of the posts just to find the one discussion post that I want to look at.
Ashleigh, Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Some of these issues I addressed above, but I’ll answer briefly here too. Check the comments above for more info.
As I said up there somewhere, I don’t want it to be a competition, and I’m quite sorry about you all are feeling that way. I’m going to try to find a better way to improve things. It’s kind of ironic because one of the researchers who supports the gradeless, incomplete/complete kind of grading systems (Alfie Kohn) is very specific about the great problems that competition-style assessment creates. I’m going to work on fixing it.
Giving everyone feedback on drafts is hard from a time management position. Perhaps I can come up with another way to give a little more feedback. I appreciate your comments on the peer feedback. The longer video on the Writing Groups page (No One Writes Alone) does have some examples of giving honest feedback. I’ll look for more examples though.
On the last points, I will add some milestones for the Genre Analysis Report, and there is a page with all the discussion posts (linked up in the reply to Rachel).
I have never taken an online class before, so I share a lot of similar feelings to my classmates in that all of the different websites and resources were overwhelming in the beginning. I am now used to the format but I often feel like I have to keep up with a lot of busywork. Keeping up with the daily posts, while they do offer tips for the larger assignments, can sometimes feel like it is taking time away from me working on the actual assignment. I feel that they can be a little repetitive by the end of the week in terms of content.
After reading through the other comments I have a better idea of how the grading of the course works which makes me feel better; but I echo others’ feelings that it feels like we have to do everything possible in order to receive an A and the fact that even then it couldn’t be guaranteed can be a source of anxiety.
I also really appreciate how open you are to our suggestions, it makes it feel like it’s a much more collaborative atmosphere and not just us doing exactly as we’re asked.
I must say that I have really enjoyed the class so far. I have no complaints about how the class is formatted. I see the class setup as being very structured and organized. Each of the Monday posts help give a rough outline of the expectations and due dates for that corresponding week, which definitely allows me to manage and stay on top of tasks that need to be completed. Each of the daily posts throughout the week also provide me with useful information that I have taken into consideration when working on the past projects, as well as for the three future remaining projects.
I also appreciate how on top of things you are Professor Gardner. You have been very considerate about communicating any information and news to the class in a timely manner. I have also very much appreciated how much you have helped me with personal concerns and questions that I have had about the class.
I do understand that each of the writing projects are a creative way to engage us with the writing that we will do in our future career field; however, I think that I would get more out of the course if there were daily posts or additional assignments centered around the formatting of resumes, cover letters, personal statements, etc. Since most of us students are in the process of either applying for internship/job opportunities, I strongly believe that these topics would be most advantageous for our current situation.
Kristina,
I can certainly add some info on job application materials. The reason I stopped was that most students already had what they needed, from an internship or job search. Given that there are a LOT of seniors in the course, it’s a little late for resumes for them — they already have them (and many already have jobs). I’ll look for a place to add some suggestions, even if they are optional.
Hello!
Like others have said I also really enjoy the structure of this course. I think online courses can potentially be ineffective but the course website, daily posts, and overall organization as well as both group and instructor feedback is really well executed.
Similar to others as well I think the thing I least like about the course is the ambiguity of what it takes to earn a grade greater than a B, I have mentioned this concern in some of the reflective portions of my labor logs and obviously things you can do to earn an A are listed but it still seems like a subjective determination, I am generally very on top of my work and am kinda neurotic about ensuring I do well in my courses but I don’t want to be that person that overkills it and comments on every discussion post. I try an be choosy and have some substance when I contribute. as well as really spend a decent effort on each assignment doing a little bit each day. I just am curious how that grade decision process goes. and am concerned how accurately it will reflect actual time spent putting in work on the course.
I think the most helpful thing that I really enjoyed was the video of you reading and providing feedback to our reports. It felt very personal and was cool to hear immediate thoughts on the work we submitted. I also like much of the course resources and info-graphics.. I think overall the course is generally extremely effective and valuable as each assignment allows for tailoring to that student’s discipline so it remains relevant to them.
Thanks a bunch and happy spring break!
Caed
Thanks for the feedback, Caed. I’m going to work during break to find a way to make the difference between a B and an A clearer.
Overall, I don’t believe this class is too overly difficult. There is a lot of information thrown at you every day, and it can be hard to keep up with things sometimes just because I have never had an online class like this before, and haven’t had an online class set-up the way this class is with a homepage.
One thing I’ve liked about this class is that the assignments have had real-world applications, and are very applicable to each individual and their prospective career path. Having assignments that focus on different tasks and projects within our career fields makes the work a little more enjoyable to do since we are working on things that pertain to the careers we all are pursuing, and hopefully enjoy.
My only problem with this class is the grading system. Having grading based on completion can be stressful when all you see is a check mark beside an assignment and not an actual grade. It is just kind of stressful because I don’t really know what my grade actually is, and I don’t know If the amount of work I’m currently putting in is enough to deserve an A.
Just to be safe, in the second half of this class I plan on being more involved, and either commenting on more posts or providing more feedback to more individuals in my group just to make sure I’m doing enough to get the grade I want for this class.
Thanks for the notes on how the activities have real-world applications. That’s how I planned it, and it’s good to see that you noticed it too!
I’m not very good at taking online classes, but I like that this one has grace periods. I don’t really like that most of the work we are supposed to do just seems like busy work. I like that the class is structured around group discussion, but I feel like everyone is just repeating what everyone else has already said just so they can get the participation points or are able to put it on their Labor Log. One small thing is that every time you post on the website, I get two emails about the post, and when I go to Canvas to change my notification settings, there’s nothing I can tell that would allow for me to only get one notification.
I hate busy work too, so I’ll see if there’s a way to make things less redundant. I wish there were an easy way to make the system more like Reddit, where there are up/down votes and clearer connections among the discussions.
Regarding the two notifications: I get two also. I thought I had something quirky set up, but if you’re seeing it too, maybe there’s something wrong. I’ll investigate.
I have liked this course so far. I would say I was a little behind the ball at the start of the class. It took me a week or so to figure out all the different websites and sources of information, but once I looked through it all, I knew where to find things. I like the flexibility with online classes. I’m able to fit the work for this class in and around my work for other classes. I do like the grace period and have used it to my benefit a couple of times. I usually dread writing, but I like the major projects we do. They are relevant to school and our future careers which makes them more enjoyable to write. I wasn’t a fan of the labor based grading system at the beginning of the class, but I now see the benefits of it and like the system.
Sounds like things are working to your benefit, Ben. Let me know if that changes!
I’m not at school this semester, so the daily discussions have been interesting to try to keep up with. I’m tend to sit down and do all of my work in one fell swoop. But because you are posting every single day, I’m never sure if that’s okay. I also sometimes miss things, just by virtue of having to look through many posts all at once. I would prefer fewer, longer posts than something every day, just because it’s easier for me to keep track of personally.
I do like the video feedback you’ve given. There was a technical issue with mine, but if you hadn’t found it and fixed it, I would’ve never known why I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped. It’s a really good way for me to understand exactly what you’re thinking as you go through my work, even if I get a little embarrassed when the flaws in my work are put under a microscope.
I do echo the thoughts of most people on here about grades. I have absolutely no idea if what I’m doing is enough to get an A. I’m the kind of person who needs some sort of firm goal to work towards, whether it is getting to a certain point total or whatever. But the way this course is structured is highly stressful in terms of grading. While I do want to learn and become a better writer, I can’t lie and say what grade I get in this course doesn’t matter to me.
Lastly, I feel like the group discussions are sometimes helpful, but another source of anxiety. The dates you give us to turn things in by and the use of the grace period I feel doesn’t mesh well with the group work. I have everything done by the deadlines you impose for posting drafts and feedback, but I find it difficult to edit my work as my schedule allows when my group members use the grace period for that work.
Overall though, I am enjoying this class and what it’s teaching me!
Dates for the group peer review are always tough to figure out. Obviously they have to come in before the piece is due if they are going to help you improve; but it means you have extra work to do. I think part of the complication is the online nature of things. If this were a class in a classroom, you’d all bring your drafts to class and share them in 50 minutes or so. Boom. Done. But online it can’t work that way since everyone has a different schedule. If you have suggestions for making it work better (or if anyone else does) I would love to hear them.
I think my favorite part of the course structure is that we have a lot of flexibility about when we can work on assignments. There’s not a lot of interim deadlines so I’m able to front-end or back-end my work. My biggest issue currently with the course is the new commenting layout; I really don’t like it, and it no longer shows the number of comments we’ve made, so I don’t know how many comments I’ve made anymore or how I’m doing in comparison to others in terms of number of comments. Personally, I think I could improve my course performance by simply dedicating more time to the course. I sometimes feel like I shortchange this course in comparison to my other courses. But overall, I do feel like a good amount of the information that we’re learning in this course will be useful in the future.
Thanks for the comments on the new system. You can see how many comments you’ve made by clicking the lowercase i on the right side of your comment (across from your name). It pops up a box that lets you see the number of comments. If you click on the Activity tab in that box, you can get to links and excerpts for all your comments.
I changed the system in response to someone who asked about a way to see all of the comments she’d made, so she could easily tell if she had already commented on something. I’m testing this plug-in out for now. I’ll see if there’s a way to make the number visual after your name again.
Okay, my php isn’t nearly good enough to change things. I managed to kill the entire plugin (go me!) Thank goodness for backups.
I do have a way to create a list of all people and their number of comments, but I fear that would just increase the competition anxiety that so many people talked about. I’ll keep the issue on my to-do list and maybe I can come up with something.
New solution. I found that if I turn on gravatars, you can get a pop-up with the number of comments for each person when you hover over the avatar. It’s a little slow (blame Ajax) but at least you don’t have to click and get that popup box every time.
I’ll share info on how to create your own gravatar after break so that anyone who wants to can customize the image that shows.
Overall I think that the course has been going well. I agree with some of the other people that have written that at first the course seems overwhelming. There’s lots of information to figure out, and it seems like it’s spread across multiple pages. One thing that might make the beginning easier would be to have an introduction video of some sort. I think that that would be useful because it would collect a lot of the information about the course into a single video, and also add more human engagement in the course, like the video feedback on the Bio did.
Once the initial barrier is climbed, I feel like the course makes sense. I just had to get acclimated to a system that I hadn’t really used before. I feel like the assignments are all worthwhile and worth doing, and I don’t really have any complaints about the course. My only real feedback is that the beginning could be made easier to ease into.
Thus far, I like how the course is going. The work load is pretty fair, and there are no surprises. The objectives for each project are clear and the direction of the course is pretty easy to understand. I like how the grades are determined by how much effort you put into the course work rather than how well you can write, and I love the video feedback system. I wish I was able to spend more time focusing on work for this class because, though it is challenging, the work tends to be more relaxing than other classes (mainly due to the fact that you can really work at your own pace). I enjoy the format of the posts throughout the week and I think the discussions are productive and worthwhile. There is truly nothing to complain about in my opinion. I look forward to the rest of the semester!
At first, I was hesitant to take this course online. But after receiving recommendations from my peers, I decided to give it a try. So far, I have been impressed with the course’s ability to keep me engaged in discussion posts and peer reviews. The discussion posts so far have been interesting enough to where it does not feel like a chore to leave a reply in one. I also think that the peer reviews make both parties feel like they have accomplished something. I thoroughly enjoyed the first project as it not only served a nice ice-breaker, but was a good way to express myself in a professional manner. However, I did not enjoy the second project. I did not find it as helpful as others have. I also think that it was very difficult to provide feedback on the second project. Another critique is that the grade scale could be altered slightly. I think that every assignment should be graded 50% on participation and %50 on accuracy. This would avoid a bell curve scale final grade.
I do love this course since it’s really helpful with my writing skills and Ms. Traci is a very nice teacher with her own way of teaching. I love her way that how she grade the work. She uses pass or fail as the grade scale which I really like and students can always resubmit their works as many times as they want until they pass the project.
What I don’t like the course is that I sometimes miss the posts online which is an important way to gain a grade higher than B. Sometimes I just can’t find them and sometimes I forget to o it. This is actually not really about the course, since it’s my own fault. But still I feel like it’s a little bit mess for me.
About how to make me learn better I think professor already did this pretty well since I really like the video feedback, it’s very clear and helpful.
The most helpful about this course is that professor provided so many things about how to write and I really learned so many things from the weekly posts.
All by all, I love this course so far. And I hope I can get a good grade with it.