Rationale behind developing your daily assignments

It is not a secret that most of you signed up for my class because they either know me or know someone who knows me. And you know that I am not a hard grader and that generally my classes are not very hard. Well, the first part is still valid: I am not a hard grader but this class will be a little more challenging than any class you took with me before. Why? Because it will be easier for me to keen an eye on how much work you accomplish... or don't accomplish... and you will be graded based on it. Online course is more transparent about individual participation. You can't use excuses about your laptop not working or not being able to print your paper because the printer in the lab did not work. Your assignment is either there or not:) 

Before I explain the rationale for deciding on each assignment, I want to say something that I should have done in the first blog. I want to thank Tyler Moody for not letting me give up on developing this course. When I first asked students in the Media Lit class this spring if they will be interested in taking Social Media class, Tyler was the first to say that he will sign up for it. Then... a few weeks later I kind of started thinking... ok... I had never done online course... other professors keep saying it is very time consuming and even more work than a regular class preparation... maybe I should focus on my research and do this class sometimes later... and then Tyler asked me again if I am still doing the class because he wanted to take it as his SGA. It was his excitement that made my mind... And here it is... 

Well, lets get to the point of this blog: why will you have to do what you will be doing for the next few weeks? 

First, you will have to read one or two articles a week. I decided to add articles to this class because they will give you more insight on the broader application of different social media tools. In addition, when answering the discussion questions on blackboard, you will use your critical thinking skills. And believe me, no matter what degree you have, critical thinking skills actually teach you very practical skill: how to evaluate a real life situation from multiple angles. Also, those articles and the following discussions will show how many different points of view there are on the same topic, i.e. you will learn to be more accepting to different points of view by rationally responding to them.


Blogging is the other "big" assignment that will happen every week. Blogs are this middle ground between professional writing (as in academic papers) and more informal, diary-like, writing that allows for a different form of expression. In blogs, your topics will be more or less academic - you will have to blog about your experiences with different social media tools - but you can approach this experience in a more personal, emotional way and this will be perfectly fine:) Blogs will also help you learn to form your thoughts and express better because you will have enough time to reflect in what you learnt during the week. Being able to form clear thoughts and explain things well will make it easier in any professional communication situation, especially for those of you who will be working with people on their job. 


And then, the Wiki Organization's analysis kill two birds with one stone: by working on it you will learn how to use wikis well and you will also fulfill the "social-global" component that SGA courses are expected to have. You will learn about a real organization's way to utilize different social media tools and you will reflect on how effectively they did it (or not). Eventually, wikis are the most helpful tool that you can use in your classes if you work on group projects and I am sure other teachers will be impressed in your knowledge of this social media tool. 

Even though you might not see the relevance of all assignments to your major, this course will teach you how to communicate better through the virtual space. One example, if you graduate in business or pharmacy, blogging about different developments on the market (real estate, financial, sports management market or drug development or community events organized by local pharmacies) you will create a more personal connection with your clients and establish the level of trust that will not be possible without blogs . Eventually, on a long run this trust will be beneficial for both you and your clients. 

Of course, you do not need to stop with the tools you will learn here. The importance of this class is that by taking it you will venture into online places that you might have not considered before and once you become more comfortable with the most popular tools, you can keep expanding to learn more about different sharing tools (delicious.com, stumbleupon.com, reddit.com, etc.) or utilizing podcasts to start your own online radio program and promote events in your community.