Instructor's Notes
To assign individual Additional Writing Assignments, click “Browse More Resources for this Unit,” or go to the Resources panel.
Begin a reflective electronic journal. Add entries daily or several times each week to record ideas, observations, thoughts, and reactions that might enrich your writing. Use your file as a resource as you write assigned essays. Post selections, if you wish, for class or small-group discussion.
Write a comparison-and-contrast essay based on your experiences with face-to-face, online, or hybrid courses. Consider starting with a table with columns to help you systematically compare features of the class formats, the learning requirements or priorities they encourage, any changes in your priorities or activities as a student, or other possible points of comparison.
Blog about your writing experience. Post regular entries as you work on a specific essay or writing project, commenting on the successes, challenges, and surprises that the college writer meets.
Establish a collaborative blog with others in your class about a key course topic or possible sources or ideas for your writing or research projects. Decide on a daily or weekly schedule for blogging.
Start a threaded discussion about resources for your course topic, current assignment, research project, or other class project. Ask contributors to identify a resource, explain how to locate or access it, evaluate its strengths, and describe any limitations.
Set up a small-group or class Wiki, encouraging everyone to identify terms, concepts, strategies, activities, or events of significance to the course, a common academic program, or a shared writing interest. Write and edit collaboratively to arrive at clear, accurate, and useful explanations of these items to help everyone master the course (or program) material.
Set up a class Help Board on your CMS or LMS, a place where a student can post an immediate problem while working on the course reading or writing. Ask participants to respond to at least two or three questions for each that they post. Ask your instructor to add advice as needed.
Working with a small group, use a document-sharing system to draft an essay or other project, giving all group members and your instructor access to the process. Work collaboratively through simultaneous or sequential drafting, using chat or other electronic messaging to discuss your work. When your draft is complete, have all participants (including your instructor, if possible) share reflections about both the process and the outcome.
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Use an available communication system (for example, for a Web-based telephone call, conference call, or video call; for a real-time online meeting; or for an audio chat) for a conversation with a classmate or small group. Set a specific time for the meeting, and circulate any materials ahead of time. The purpose of the conversation might be discussing a reading, responding to each other’s current draft, reviewing material before an exam, or a similar group activity. After the conversation, write an evaluation of the experience, including recommendations for the next time you use the technology.
Source Assignment. Conduct some research using your college’s online catalog. Look up several courses that you must or might take during the next few terms. What formats—face-to-face, online, or hybrid—are available for these courses? In what ways would the courses differ, based on the catalog or a linked description? How might each format appeal to your strengths, learning preferences, and educational circumstances? Write a short report that summarizes what you learn and then uses that information to explain which choices might best suit you.
Visual Assignment. Prepare graphics, take photographs, or identify images (credited appropriately) that contribute to one of the other assignments for this chapter.