Class Notes

Course Grades Posted

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I have finished grading all the work for the course and submitted course grades in HokieSpa. Thank you so much for your hard work this term. I tried to set the bar high, and you all did an excellent job of meeting or exceeding my expectations. Take care of yourselves, and if you’re in Shanks, drop by and say hi.

Job Application Feedback
I included feedback on Google Docs and in Scholar for your job application materials, since I know most of you will be using these documents to search for jobs and internships this fall. Use the How do I find feedback on my Assignments in Scholar? FAQ if you need help finding the details in Scholar.

Unsubscribing from the Course Website
If you subscribed to the course website at the beginning of the term, you probably want to unsubscribe now. Look for an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email message that you get from the course website.

Moving Forum Posts
I’ve moved the forum posts to a private location, so that my students this fall won’t find your work and get confused. I’ve also set the permissions so that only people who were in the course can see those messages. They are no longer available to the general public.

Have a great fall semester!

Class Notes

Submitting Project 6

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This is the post for the August 15, 2014 final exam.

Today is the due date for Project 6, the final exam. Submit your work by midnight in your timezone. There is no grace period for the final exam, since I must get the work graded immediately to turn in course grades.

Final Exam Work for August 15

These are the tasks to complete for today’s work:

  • Go over the requirements for Project 6.
  • Review the location of the FAQs for using Google Drive.
  • Review the LinkedIn permissions settings.
  • Discuss the reflection memo and how to submit Project 6 in Scholar.

Requirements for Project 6

You need to turn in a reflection memo as well as a share link to your job application materials. Use the project assignment to check your work. Make sure that you include all the elements that you proposed in your Project 4 Proposal. Also remember to check your spelling and proofread for grammar and punctuation.

Google Drive FAQs

Note: this is the same information you followed in Project 1. I’m including it as a reference in case you need a reminder.

To make sure that you can submit your project smoothly, pay attention to the following FAQs:

Set Permissions for LinkedIn Projects

For me to see and grade your work on LinkedIn, I either need you to connect with me on LinkedIn or for you to make sure your privacy setting will let the public see your profile. Check the What permissions do I need on LinkedIn? FAQ for more details.

Writing Your Reflection Memo and Submitting Your Project

Your reflection memo is your chance to tell me anything you want me to know before I read your project. For this project, your reflection memo will give me the link to your spreadsheet on Google Drive and the link to your analysis memo if you created one. You will also tell me about what you have written. Follow these instructions to submit your work:

  1. Go to the Assignments tab on the left menu in Scholar.
  2. Choose “P6: Job Application Materials.”
  3. Scroll down to the text box below the headings Submission and Assignment Text. You will write your memo in this box. (Alternately, you can write in a word processor/Google Doc, and copy/paste your text into this box.)
  4. Add your memo headers (To, From, Subject, and Date). For your reflection memo, you’ll use the following:
    • Address your memo to me (Traci) and from yourself (use your name).
    • Add a subject line that indicates this is your reflection memo and which project it is for.
    • Add the current date.
  5. Insert a horizontal divider line using the button indicated with the red arrow in the image below:
    Insert Horizontal Line button in Scholar
  6. Introduce your project—what are your overall goals, what grade have you aimed for for Project 6, and what documents have you written for the project? Be sure to list all three levels that you outlined for your job application materials in your Project 4 proposal.
  7. If you are using Google Drive for any of your documents, do the following:
    1. Convert your document to Google Drive format if you worked in another word processor.
    2. Add the Share link to the document on your Google Drive. Use the instructions for how to get the Share link on the FAQ site if you are unsure how to share documents. Make sure you set permissions so that I can add comments.
  8. If you are working on other sites (like LinkedIn or GitHub), do the following:
    1. Make sure that your permissions are set so that I can see your work.
    2. Add the link to your profile or website to your reflection memo.
  9. Tell me what I need to know to understand the information you have included in your document.
  10. Tell me anything else you want me to know about the the layout and design.
  11. Add a concluding section that tells me anything else you want me to know about your project.
  12. Agree to the Honor Code by clicking the checkbox at the bottom of the page in Scholar. You cannot finish submitting the project without clicking that checkbox (and it’s easy to miss).
  13. Submit your Project, and save a copy of the confirmation and submission ID. If something goes wrong in Scholar, you can contact 4HELP with that information.
  14. You’re done! Thank you for a wonderful semester. Course grades will be submitted by midnight Monday, August 18.

Class Notes

Peer Review for Project 6

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This is the post for the August 14, 2014 class meeting.

Today is the last class day for the course. Tomorrow you will turn in your final exam (your job application materials). Please pay attention to the details below to make sure you have everything completed and turned in properly.

Class Work for August 14

These are the tasks to complete for today’s work:

  • Overview remaining work in the course.
  • Complete the course evaluation.
  • Set permissions for LinkedIn (if relevant).
  • Refresh yourself on the documentation for the comment system in Google Drive.
  • Post drafts for Project 6 in the forums.
  • Respond to two students on Google Drive and in the forums.
  • Review the comments on your own work.

What’s Left in the Course

We have almost finished the work of the course. To help you keep track of what’s left, I created a to-do list/schedule (below). There will be a blog post each day with details on what you need to do. Here’s an overview:

  • August 14 (today): Post a draft of your job application materials for peer review. Provide feedback to two students in the forums (for your daily forum post grade). Write more if you want to reach a higher number of forum posts. This is the last day to add forum posts that will count toward the overall number for your participation grade. Complete your SPOT feedback by midnight Eastern time.
  • August 15 (Friday): Submit your job application materials (your final exam) with reflection memo by midnight in your timezone. There are no extensions on the final exam.
  • August 18 (Monday): Course grades will be submitted by midnight. You can check what has been graded in the Gradebook in Scholar prior to Monday.

Course Evaluation

Please fill out the Student Perceptions of Teaching (SPOT) survey for this course. Additionally, I have added a short topic in the forums: Feedback: Grade Levels for Projects. Please respond to the one-question, anonymous poll there. If you choose to leave a written comment, that information will NOT be anonymous. I promise, however, that I will not read any comments in that forum until after grades have been submitted.

Set Permissions for LinkedIn Projects

For me to see and grade your work on LinkedIn, I either need you to connect with me on LinkedIn or for you to make sure your privacy setting will let the public see your profile. Check the What permissions do I need on LinkedIn? FAQ for more details.

Refresher on the Google Drive Comment System

If you need a reminder on the comment and sharing systems in Google Drive, use the step-by-step instructions for how to use Google Drive for peer review on the FAQ site, which includes details on how to share your document, how to comment, and how to respond to comments.  If you need a more detailed explanation, be sure to check out the Lynda video on “Commenting on a file.”

Posting Your Drafts for Project 6

You will post the share link to your draft in the forums:

  1. Go to the Project 6 Drafts section of the forums, and create a topic for your draft with your name or your username (e.g., “Traci’s Job App”). [Note I created a subforum to make it a bit easier for you to find one another’s drafts.]

  2. Post a reply in your topic, doing the following:
    • If you do not want to share your last name in the forums, change it in your draft to a pseudonym. You can use a generic last name like Doe or Smith, or you can change it to Lastname.
    • Share the link(s) to your Project 6 drafts in Google Docs, using the FAQ linked in the Refresher section above. If you have links to other documents, like you LinkedIn profile, provide those instead (or as well).

  3. Let your classmates know about any specific concerns that you want them to consider as they comment on your draft.

  4. Be sure to Preview your draft to make sure everything shows up the way you want it to, and then submit your post.

Responding to Your Classmates’ Drafts

Follow these instructions to respond to your classmates’s drafts:

  1. Read and comment on the drafts of at least two of your classmates:

    • Find one post that no other student has replied to (so that we can be sure everyone gets a reply).
    • Find a second post that has only one other student reply.

  2. Either use the Share link to go to your classmate’s draft on Google Drive or visit the page(s) they have submitted.

    If you are working on Google Drive, use the Comment system to add details on the following issues. If you are reviewing a LinkedIn profile or another document outside Google Drive, add a reply in the forums and include answers to the following in your reply:

    • Consider your immediate impression of the document(s), and add a comment to tell your partner your first thoughts. Job application materials can be rejected at a glance, so your first impression matters.
    • If you notice any spelling errors, punctuation errors, or typos, mark them as you read, but please focus more on the content rather than editing.
    • Add comments on the content of the draft. Comment on at least three things your classmate does well and at least three things that your classmate could improve on. It’s fine (excellent, even) to include more than the minimum number of comments.

  3. Once you finish commenting on the document, add an overall comment in the forums that sums up what you thought of the job application materials and gives your partner some encouragement.

Reviewing the Comments You Received

Once you have finished adding comments to your classmates’ projects, return to your own draft, read the comments that your classmates have given you, and add replies as appropriate. For instance, you might thank your partner for catching an error, ask your partner for more detail on feedback you don’t understand, or share a revision and ask your partner if it is an improvement. Your goal is to reply today so that your classmate can respond if you need more information.

Class Notes

Resources for Job App Materials

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This is the post for the August 13, 2014 class meeting.

We are rapidly nearing the end of the course. Just two more daily sessions and then the final exam!

Class Work for August 13

These are the tasks to complete for today’s work:

  • Overview of remaining work
  • Course evaluation
  • Lynda videos on job application materials
  • Résumé resources
  • LinkedIn resources
  • Discussion in the Forums

What’s Left in the Course

We have almost finished the work of the course. To help you keep track of what’s left, I created a to-do list/schedule (below). There will be a blog post each day with details on what you need to do. Here’s an overview:

  • August 13 (today): Write one forum post for your daily forum post grade. Write more if you want to reach a higher number of forum posts.
  • August 14 (Thursday): Post a draft of your job application materials for peer review. Provide feedback to two students in the forums (for your daily forum post grade). Write more if you want to reach a higher number of forum posts. This is the last day to add forum posts that will count toward the overall number for your participation grade. Complete your SPOT feedback by midnight Eastern time.
  • August 15 (Friday): Submit your job application materials (your final exam) with reflection memo by midnight in your timezone. There are no extensions on the final exam.
  • August 18 (Monday): Course grades will be submitted by midnight. You can check what has been graded in the Gradebook in Scholar prior to Monday.

Course Evaluation

Please fill out the Student Perceptions of Teaching (SPOT) survey for this course. The feedback helps the department make important decisions about teaching methods, course content, and faculty promotion. Written comments help me decide what to keep or change the next time I teach the course. In many ways, I find the written comments the most helpful part of the evaluation. I do not see the feedback until after grades have been submitted, and your comments are anonymous.

Additionally, I have added a short topic in the forums: Feedback: Grade Levels for Projects. I am looking for feedback on the option to choose the grade level you were working on for each project. Please, please, go and respond to the anonymous poll there. It’s just one question, but it will help me decide how/if to continue to use the system during fall semester. If you choose to leave a written comment, that information will NOT be anonymous. I promise, however, that I will not read any comments in that forum until after grades have been submitted.

Lynda Videos on Job Application Materials

Remember that you can use your free access to Lynda.com videos to find additional resources that can help as you work on your job application materials. See the list posted on August 1 for resources on résumés, job hunting, LinkedIn, and Git.

Résumé Resources

Your best sources for information on writing résumés are Markel and either the 2013–2014 Career Planning Guide or the 2014–2015 Career Planning Guide. You can also find resources recommended by your classmates in the Recommended Job Application Resources topic on the forum

One of the questions that I get most frequently is about listing job objectives on résumés. The advice on listing objectives varies. I generally tell students that if they do include objectives, they should make sure that they are well-written and appropriate. On the other hand, students are having trouble with space and need to cut something, the job objective is something you can usually cut. Here are some additional resources you can check to help you write your objective:

LinkedIn Resources

You will find some tips on setting up your LinkedIn profile in the 2013–2014 Career Planning Guide or the 2014–2015 Career Planning Guide. You can also use the Lynda video Up and Running with LinkedIn with Brad Batesole.

One of the crucial parts of a LinkedIn profile is the summary. Remember that most of the information on LinkedIn is created by filling in data (like the names of companies you have worked for and the years you worked there). Your summary is one of the places that you can highlight your capabilities and passion. It is similar to the professional biography that you wrote at the beginning of the term, but you can use it to tell a more specific story and demonstrate your capabilities. These three resources can help you make sure your summary catches people’s attention:

Discussion in the Forums

In the Project 6: Job Application Materials section of the forums, you will find the following additional discussion topics:

By midnight in your timezone on Wednesday night, please reply to ONE of the topics above. You may reply to more if you desire.

Class Notes

Submitting Project 5

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This is the post for the August 12, 2014 class meeting.

Today is the due date for Project 5. Aim to submit your work by midnight in your timezone, but remember that you have a 24-hour, grace period if you need it. No excuses needed. If something has gone wrong in your world and 24 hours may not be enough, contact me immediately and let me know what you need.

Class Work for August 12

These are the tasks to complete for today’s work:

  • Go over the requirements for Project 5.
  • Review the location of the FAQs for using Google Drive.
  • Discuss the reflection memo and how to submit Project 5 in Scholar.

Requirements for Project 5

You need to turn in a reflection memo as well as a share link to your Forum Completion Report. Use the project assignment to check your work. In particular, make sure that your report addresses all four areas that fall under the participation portion of your grade: participation, daily work, number of posts, and quality of posts. Also remember to check your spelling and proofread for grammar and punctuation.

Google Drive FAQs

Note: this is the same information you followed in Project 1. I’m including it as a reference in case you need a reminder.

To make sure that you can submit your project smoothly, pay attention to the following FAQs:

Writing Your Reflection Memo and Submitting Your Project

Your reflection memo is your chance to tell me anything you want me to know before I read your project. For this project, your reflection memo will give me the link to your spreadsheet on Google Drive and the link to your analysis memo if you created one. You will also tell me about what you have written. Follow these instructions to submit your work:

  1. Go to the Assignments tab on the left menu in Scholar.
  2. Choose “P5: Forum Report.”
  3. Scroll down to the text box below the headings Submission and Assignment Text. You will write your memo in this box. (Alternately, you can write in a word processor/Google Doc, and copy/paste your text into this box.)
  4. Add your memo headers (To, From, Subject, and Date). For your reflection memo, you’ll use the following:
    • Address your memo to me (Traci) and from yourself (use your name).
    • Add a subject line that indicates this is your reflection memo and which project it is for.
    • Add the current date.
  5. Insert a horizontal divider line using the button indicated with the red arrow in the image below:
    Insert Horizontal Line button in Scholar
  6. Introduce your project—what are your overall goals, what grade have you aimed for for Project 5, and what documents have you written for the project?
  7. Convert your document to Google Drive format if you worked in another word processor.
  8. Add the Share link to the document on your Google Drive. Use the instructions for how to get the Share link on the FAQ site if you are unsure how to share documents. Make sure you set permissions so that I can add comments.
  9. Tell me what I need to know to understand the information you have included in your document.
  10. Tell me anything else you want me to know about the the layout and design..
  11. Add a concluding section that tells me anything else you want me to know about your project.
  12. Agree to the Honor Code by clicking the checkbox at the bottom of the page in Scholar. You cannot finish submitting the project without clicking that checkbox (and it’s easy to miss).
  13. Submit your Project, and save a copy of the confirmation and submission ID. If something goes wrong in Scholar, you can contact 4HELP with that information.
  14. You’re done! Project 6 (the final exam) is the job application materials you proposed in Project 4.

Class Notes

Peer Review for Project 5

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This is the post for the August 11, 2014 class meeting.

Today, we have peer review for Project 5 scheduled. We’ll follow the same process as we have on the other assignments, so this should be routine for you this time. I hope to have feedback on the work you have submitted to you soon.

Class Work for August 11

Today we focus on peer review for Project 5, using Google Drive. The process will be just like the peer review you did last week. Here are the tasks to complete for today’s work:

  • Refresh yourself on the documentation for the comment system in Google Drive.
  • Post drafts for Project 5 in the forums.
  • Respond to two students on Google Drive and in the forums.
  • Review the comments on your own work.

Refresher on the Google Drive Comment System

If you need a reminder on the comment and sharing systems in Google Drive, use the step-by-step instructions for how to use Google Drive for peer review on the FAQ site, which includes details on how to share your document, how to comment, and how to respond to comments.  If you need a more detailed explanation, be sure to check out the Lynda video on “Commenting on a file.”

Posting Your Drafts for Project 5

You will post the share link to your draft in the forums:

  1. Go to the Project 5: Completion Report forum, and create a topic for your draft with your name or your username (e.g., “Traci’s report”).

  2. Post a reply in your topic, doing the following:
    • If you do not want to share your last name in the forums, change it in your draft to a pseudonym. You can use a generic last name like Doe or Smith, or you can change it to Lastname.
    • Share the link(s) to your Project 5 drafts in Google Docs, using the FAQ linked in the Refresher section above.

  3. Let your classmates know about any specific concerns that you want them to consider as they comment on your draft.

  4. Be sure to Preview your draft to make sure everything shows up the way you want it to, and then submit your post.

Responding to Your Classmates’ Drafts

Follow these instructions to respond to your classmates’s drafts:

  1. Read and comment on the drafts of at least two of your classmates:

    • Find one post that no other student has replied to (so that we can be sure everyone gets a reply).
    • Find a second post that has only one other student reply.
    • (Optional)You may offer feedback and comments for more than two students if you like. If you are trying to raise your participation grade, commenting on an additional student’s paper can raise your number of posts.

  2. Use the Share link to go to your classmate’s draft on Google Drive and do the following:

    • Check the title of the document(s), and add a comment to tell your partner if it is clear and effective.
    • If you notice any spelling errors, punctuation errors, or typos, mark them as you read, but please focus more on the content rather than editing.
    • Add comments on the content of the draft. Comment on at least three things your classmate does well and at least three things that your classmate could improve on. It’s fine (excellent, even) to include more than the minimum number of comments.
    • As you check the documents, check that the report addresses all four areas that fall under the participation portion of your grade: participation, daily work, number of posts, and quality of posts. Leave a comment if you notice anything missing or can offer advice on design and layout.

  3. Once you finish commenting on the document, go back to your classmate’s post in the forums and add an overall comment that sums up what you thought of the paper and gives your partner some encouragement.

Reviewing the Comments You Received

Once you have finished adding comments to your classmates’ projects, return to your own draft, read the comments that your classmates have given you, and add replies as appropriate. For instance, you might thank your partner for catching an error, ask your partner for more detail on feedback you don’t understand, or share a revision and ask your partner if it is an improvement. Your goal is to reply today so that your classmate can respond if you need more information.