Assignments
Your grade in this course will be determined by your performance on the following assignments. (Detailed descriptions for the assignments will be added as we discuss them in class.)
Online Identity Analysis (20%)
Before you begin creating your own professional electronic portfolio, you should explore the portfolios of several people you admire professionally. This assignment is designed to help you look closely at how other people in your industry or academic discipline represent themselves online. Once you have identified two exemplars of professional online identity, you will study their online presence and analyze their use of social media and other electronic tools to shape their professional personas. Read more…
Professional Electronic Portfolio (20%)
Ten years ago, having a personal website made you stand out as someone on the cutting edge of technology. Today, a personal website is de rigueur for job seekers, especially in academia. For this assignment, you will develop (or redevelop) a professional electronic portfolio designed to help you achieve your next significant career goal. For some of you, this portfolio will become the first draft of your academic “job market” website; for others, it may be targeted toward admissions committees at PhD programs or potential employers. Your portfolio should be tailored specifically for your intended audience(s) and should serve as your professional calling card on the web. Read more…
Research Design and/or Pilot Study (20%)
Your final assignment in this course is to develop a research project that explores one or more of the topics we have discussed this semester. Due to the limited time we have remaining in the semester, it would be unrealistic to expect that each of you could not only design and execute a research study, but also analyze the data and produce a finished article containing your findings. Hence, I am asking you to (1) identity a research question (or questions) that needs to be answered, (2) explore the academic literature related to your question(s), (3) develop a practical set of methods that will help you answer your question(s), and, if possible, (4) carry out a small pilot study to test the effectiveness of your research design. Read more…
Personal Blog (20%)
Twenty percent of your grade in this course will be determined by your efforts to create and maintain a personal weblog. That percentage might be intimidating, especially for those of you who have never blogged before, but here’s the good news: the guidelines for the blogging assignment are intentionally broad, and I’ve designed them so that everyone in the class can get full credit for their blogging work. Read more…
Class Participation and Short Exercises (20%)
You should come to class each week ready to contribute to our class discussions, and your comments should show that you have completed the weekly reading assignments and done any necessary outside research to understand and apply what you’ve read. In addition, I will occasionally ask you to complete small assignments, such as submitting drafts of papers, writing specific posts for your blog, serving as a “discussion superhero,” or demonstrating a new tool in class. All of these efforts will contribute to your class participation grade. I will assign tentative participation grades at midterm, which will let you know where you stand and, if necessary, give you the opportunity to adjust your class participation efforts before the end of the semester.