If you are lucky, when you begin a new job, you will find a continuity folder on the desk or on the computer to help you complete your work. The exact name of this folder will depend on your workplace. It can be called a continuity folder, binder, portfolio, or book; standard (or standing) operating procedures; or a transition book.
Inside this folder, you will find documents and information that will help you complete your work. The contents can include:
- mission statements and goals
- position responsibilities
- system and social media login information
- advice and tips
- schedules, timelines, and calendars
- instructions, protocols, and procedures
- templates and examples
- checklists
- budget and funding information
- inspection reports
- organization charts and info on personnel
You will use this folder to guide your daily work, and one of your on-going tasks will be to keep the contents of the folder up to date. In the event that you are not available, the person filling in for you will use the folder to determine what to do and how to do it. When you move to another position, the next person in the position will use the information that you leave in the folder.
The Writing Activity
If you were contributing to a Continuity Folder for students taking this course in the future, what would you include and why? You can share the advice you would include in the folder, or you can describe whatever you would add to the folder. You are not limited to a single thing. If you want to mention more than one item or piece of advice, that’s fine.
Image credit: folder by Christian Guthier on Flickr, used under a CC-BY 2.0 license
8 Comments
If I were to provide a future student of this course a continuity folder to prepare them for the class, the folder would probably resemble the Google Drive folder that I created for this course. In my folder, I have all of my notes from the course readings, my labor logs, and my writing projects. In the continuity folder, I would include the notes that I took and provide templates of the labor logs and templates of the formatting I used for the professional biography, analysis table, short proposal, progress report, and genre analysis report. I would provide these because they give an example of the formatting and the reading style for the course.
In general, most of the instructions for assignments and examples are already provided on the course website. I would add a template of a schedule that the user could modify to ensure that they get their class-participation work completed because these aren’t actual assignments and tend to be pushed to the side. This would include reminders to read and comment on discussion posts, to look out for transcripts to make, to post in class group feedback discussions, and to find and share articles.
I completely agree with this. I think this course was very straight forward however I wish there was template that we could have used from the start to judge how we are doing. I realize that Ms. Gardner used the optional surveys on Canvas, however she started them midway through the semester and I think it could have helped if we had them from the start. I think the labor logs and projects were easy to keep on track as they were on canvas and reminders, but the work to get above a B was not as clear (to me at least). I think that many students at Tech are not content with just a B so I think that showing exactly when and how you can do assignments to get an A would be useful
One of the things I found to be really nice about this course was that I never felt like there was a “continuity folder” that was missing. For every assignment and project there was usually a well laid out explanation of the assignment, along with resources to aid with completing the assignment, and even examples of finished products from past students. All of these materials made seemingly daunting assignments much more manageable. I suppose if there were one piece of documentation missing that I wish the students next semester would have is a clearly laid out syllabus. While I think at this point the expectations from us in this course are clear, I feel like having it nicely laid out in one brief document would be extremely helpful for future students.
I would first write a little message about my experience in the course as far as handling the deadline and different types of work. I would just want to let them know that it seems overwhelming at first but it isn’t that difficult once you get the swing of things. I like what people have said about deadline and schedules. I think its a good idea to include a timeline or schedule that has what is due and when so you know exactly what you need to do. I would also try and make a road map visual that shows where to begin (read the course syllabus) and then read the home page on the course website and that tells you what to do each week, and then do discussion posts/readings, then labor logs, then assignments, etc. I think visuals are very helpful!
And as everyone else said, i would include examples of work to reference since those are always good guides when you are trying to figure out how to approach a project.
I definitely agree with what you said about it potentially seeming overwhelming at first. I think you’re absolutely right in that it gets much more easy to tackle once you find your own groove and figure out what works best for you/your schedule. Giving that as a disclaimer before advocating for a timeline or weekly personal scheduling process as well is something I would certainly want to share with future students.
There are a few things that I would want to include in my continuity folder. Although most questions about this course can be answered by the course website, I would want to create a continuity folder that sort of condenses all the information found on the website. This way someone wouldn’t have to go searching through the website every time they have a question. This could by done by including a short summary of what every assignment requires, and an example of each assignment. I would chose the example from the website that I found the most helpful. Additionally, I would try and provide a general template that can be followed for each assignment. The final item I would include is a general calendar of when all the assignments are due. This calendar could me modified by the user as well if the course changes at all.
If I was going contribute to a continuity folder for taking this course in the future I would include information regarding what exactly needs to be included in the major assignments and a clear list of what is exactly required to get an A in this course. It was difficult to keep track of whether or not you had an A for the course during the majority of the semester, so if work that is required to get an A is clearly defined in a completion checklist then it would be easier to predict your grade in the course.