As outlined on the syllabus, all work and participation in these courses are governed by the Virginia Tech Principles of Community. You surely read the Principles of Community when you first came to Virginia Tech, but you may not have returned to them for a careful reading since then. Today, I will share how the Principles of Community apply in the course.

To get started, we need to review the Principles. You can read the Principles online or watch the video below (click the CC button if you want to see the subtitles):

These Principles relate particularly to how we, as Hokies, interact with, treat, and think about other people. They are especially pertinent then when you work with your Writing Groups and when you enter into conversations in Discussions, on Slack, on Facebook, and in website comments.

We can narrow the ideas down to some simple guidelines for our interaction in the courses:

• Respect everyone. Listen to what others have to say.
• Allow everyone to state their ideas freely and openly.
• Support diverse ideas and the diversity of those in the courses.
• Commit to following these guidelines in order to support our classroom community.

To sum it up, remember that everyone is welcome, and be nice and supportive to one another. That’s it. If you have any questions about the Principles and how they apply to the course, you can leave a comment below and we’ll work out an answer.

Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.

I use Canvas Grades and respond to work differently from the way most teachers do. As a content manager and writer in the workplace, I never gave anyone a grade on the work they submitted to me. Instead, I gave them feedback on what worked and made suggestions for how to improve. When the work was ready to publish or send out to readers, it was done. Until that point, they revised to improve the work.

I provide grades and feedback in this course based on this experience. Here’s how it works:

• You compose your work and turn it in for feedback.
• I read it and give you feedback.
  • If your work is ready to publish or send out to readers, I mark it Complete in Canvas.
  • If your work is NOT ready to publish or send out to readers, I mark it Incomplete in Canvas and you can revise.

For more details on this system read How Project Feedback Works with accompanying infographic.

What Is Tracked in Canvas Grades

Canvas only tracks what you have finished (Complete) and what you have not finished (Incomplete). It’s not calculating your course grade.

As explained in the Syllabus and on the Requirements page, your grade in this course is based on labor, on the work you put into the course. There are essentially three categories your work can fall into:

• If you complete the required activities, you will earn a B in the course.
• If you do not complete the required activities, you will earn less than a B in the course.
• If you complete additional work, you will earn a grade higher than a B in the course.

Most of the work you do in the course earns either a Complete or an Incomplete. In Quizzes, because of limitations in Canvas, your work earns a 100 (Complete) or a 0 (Incomplete). If you do not attempt an activity at all, your work (or lack thereof) earns a 0. If you do not attempt a project before the end of the grace period, your work earns a 0 (Incomplete) and you cannot revise.

Because Canvas Grades is a computer program, it will provide you a Total calculation at the bottom of the list on your Grades page. Remember that calculation doesn’t matter. Canvas doesn’t have a way to calculate your grade in this labor-based system.

Completes vs. Incompletes

Canvas Grades tracks the Complete and Incomplete status of your work with icons. Here’s a screenshot of the Grades for an Example Student:

As shown under the Score column in the image, a checkmark means that the work is Complete. An X mark in the Score column means that the work is Incomplete. It doesn’t desginate that anything is wrong. It tells you that you need to revise.

How to Tell How You’re Doing

If you have completed all the work that is required, you are on track to earn at least a B in the course. Even if you have an Incomplete on a Major Project or a Labor Log, you are still on track to earn at least a B in the course. As long as you are putting in your best effort, you don’t need to worry.

If you’d like confirmation, look at Grades in Canvas for one of these indications:

• Look at the Score column in the light gray list of activities at the top of the table. If you see 100s, checkmarks, and X marks, you are on track to at least a B in the course.
• Find the categories followed by an asterisk (*) in the medium gray list at the bottom of the table (marked on the Screenshot above). Look at the Score column for those categories, which are required for a B. If you see 100% for those categories, you are on track to at least a B in the course.
• If you do not see 100% for the required categories, look at the Out of column in the medium gray area to tell how far off you are. If you see 200/300, for instance, you’ll know that just one thing is missing (so you are still likely to be on track for at least a B in the course).

If you are working toward a grade higher than a B, pay attention to the optional work that you track in your Labor Logs. Since your optional work is not submitted in Canvas, there is no way to track that work in Canvas.

Photo credit: Grade book by David Mulder on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 license.

Our course has an optional Facebook Group that you can join. This post explains what we’re using it for, how it can influence your grade, and how to participate. You can join the group whether you want to participate or just want to lurk (or don’t join at all, if that’s your preference).

What’s the Goal

Our optional Facebook Group is one of several ways that you can work toward a grade higher than a B in the course. The group isn’t focused on work for work’s sake however. I have several goals for the posts that you make to the Facebook Group:

• to encourage you to research topics related to writing in the workplace.
• to give you the chance to share and discuss what you find with others in the course.
• to build community and interaction in the course.
• to allow you to contribute material that may be shared on the course website.

What About Privacy

If you are already in Facebook Groups, you probably know all of this. I’m explaining it just to be sure everyone knows and is comfortable participating.

I have set up a closed Facebook Group for the course. I approve every request to join the group to ensure only members of the class get in. Only members of the Group can read and post messages and comments in the group.

If a potential employer Googles you, the messages you post to the Group won’t show up in the search results. Posts and comments that you make will not appear in your Timeline, so your friends and family won’t see them. Members of the Group (including me) can only see information on your profile and Timeline that are public—and, of course, anyone can see information that is public.

How Are They Graded

Facebook posts and comments should relate to writing in the workplace, so they can be useful for anyone in the course to read. That said, reading and participating in the Facebook Group is completely optional. Participate or lurk whenever you want to (or not at all). It’s your choice.

If you are working toward a grade higher than a B in the course, you can post and comment in the Group as part of the extra work you do to build community in the course and share ideas. The Facebook Group is just one of several options available to you. If you hate Facebook, there’s nothing to worry about. Just choose another option.

How To Participate

Joining the Group

Whether you want to lurk and read or post and comment in the Group, the first thing you have to do is request to join the Group. Go to the Group on Facebook, and make a request.

Posting to the Group

This Group should function something like a shared bulletin board for the course. As you find interesting resources about writing in the workplace, you can share them with the Group.

Just post advice articles, how-to webpages, relevant images (like infographics or memes), and other resources you find to the group. You can also ask questions or discuss class readings if you like.

In addition to sharing a link or uploading an image, say a bit about why you are passing it along, how you connect to it, and/or why you recommend it.

Commenting and Replying

You already know how to respond on Facebook, so I don’t need to tell you how that works. I do ask that you respond with good comments. Aim to contribute ideas, engage with others, and extend the conversation. You can also Like (or any of the other options) posts. Feel free to use emoji, polls, and any of the other things available to you. Keep things appropriate for the classroom, but otherwise you can be yourself.

Photo credit for the cover image: Torgersen Bridge by MatthewMcClure on WikiMedia, used under a CC SA 3.0 license.

What I Will Post Here

In addition to the post with instructions for current assignments and activities, I post advice articles, how-to webpages, relevant infographics, and other resources. The idea is to share additional readings that will help you in the workplace. These posts meet three goals:

• to give you information that relates directly to projects you are already working on.
• to cover topics important to workplace writing that we are not covering in the major projects.
• to share resources that help with writing generally (such as writing strong sentences or techniques for document design).

I organize these posts around a series of hashtags:

• #Tutorial
  These posts either demonstrate or tell you how to do something. It may be how to write a specific thing (like a memo) or how to revise something you have already written (like revising for concise phrasing).
• #Write
  Each post asks you to consider how you would handle a specific situation in the workplace. As an example, you might consider an ethical scenario and discuss the various options available.
• #Infographic (on Thursdays)
  Every post will present an infographic about communication and writing in the workplace.
• #Fact
  These posts will share a specific fact about writing in the workplace, which you can compare to what you know about your field. Usually these facts have an accompanying article that supports the fact.
• #Watch
  These posts will share a video that presents something relevant to what we are covering in class or something else related to writing in the workplace.

There may be other kinds of posts, of course. Sometimes there will be announcements about something important or something that needs to be clarified or changed, for instance.

How Do These Posts Work With Grades

These additional posts supplement the projects that you are working on. I encourage everyone to read through them, especially when they relate directly to the projects you are working on. They’re short. I believe most of them will take 2 to 3 minutes tops. The one exception is the #Watch posts, which may have videos that take a bit longer to watch.

Reading and responding to these posts is optional. You decide whether to participate and how to participate. If you are working toward a grade higher than a B in the course, you can respond to these messages as part of the extra work you do to build community in the course and share ideas. They are just one of several options.

How To Respond to the Posts

Responding should be relatively easy. If you can comment on YouTube videos or Facebook posts, you will do fine responding to these posts.

What should you write in response? Respond with significant, well-explained comments. This is not the place for “yeah, I agree” or “me too” kinds of comments. Instead, aim to contribute ideas, engage with others, and extend the conversation.

How do you respond? Just use the comment form at the bottom of the posts. You do not have to enter your real name. I understand that you may not want to have your name come up in a Google search. Do, however, use your vt.edu email address so that I can confirm you are a member of the course. Your email address will not appear on the site. Remember to keep track of your comments in your Labor Log.

When will your comment appear? The first time you post, I have to approve your comment before it appears on the website. After that first post, as long as you use the same name and email address, your comments will appear automatically.

Photo credit: Winn Army Community Hospital Pharmacy Stays Online During Power Outage by MC4 Army on Flickr, used under a CC-BY 2.0 license. Retrieved from Wikimedia Commons.

This optional activity focuses on making resources in the course more accessible by providing text versions of videos and images. You can read more about accessibility in this course in  the Accessibility page and the Classroom Access & Support Guide, the latter still a working draft.

What’s the Activity

Ideally, everything in this course should be accessible to everyone. For instance, videos and audio recordings need transcripts, and images need alt attributes that describe what they show.

The goal of this activity is to create transcripts and descriptions that are missing for some of the resources used in the course. Your work will focus on accurately presenting the words from the original as well as applying document design principles to ensure that the transcript is easy to read and navigate.

These resources provide how-to information and tips:

• Creating a Video Transcript, from Colorado State University
• Adding Alt Text to Images in Microsoft PowerPoint, from Colorado State University
• Adobe PDF, Universally Designed, from Colorado State University
• Web Accessibility for Designers (an example of a text transcript for an infographic)

How Are They Graded

The transcript activity is completely optional. If you create a transcript, I’ll check it for accuracy to the original, standard correctness, and good document design. If necessary, you can revise a transcript until it is usable for the course. Your transcript will be graded either Complete (signified by a checkmark in Canvas Grades) or Incomplete (signified by an X in Canvas Grades), meaning you can revise.

If you are working toward a grade higher than a B in the course, you can create a transcript as part of the extra work you do to build community in the course and share ideas. This transcript activity is just one of several options available to you.

How To Participate

Creating a transcript is an independent activity. You won’t interact with anyone other than me. There is very limited availability for this option. Most resources already have transcripts. Here’s the process you’ll follow:

1. Choose a resource that is missing a transcript. They will usually be things that are posted in the Daily Discussion posts. Check the bottom of the post to see if a transcript is needed.
2. Email me with the details on the resource you want to work with. I will check your request to make sure it’s not too big or too small. After I check it, I will send you an approval. Wait for that approval before you begin your work.
3. Use the resources above for tips on how to create your transcript.
4. Use a word processor to type and format the text from the video or image that you have chosen.
5. Submit your transcript in Canvas in the Optional Transcript Assignment once you have finished.
6. If your work is finished, I will mark it Complete in Canvas Grades and add it to the course website and credit you. If it needs to be revised, I’ll mark it Incomplete in Canvas Grades, and you can revise.

Photo credit: Disabled Parking by Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine on Flickr, used under a CC-0 Public Domain license.