Important Dates
Your final is officially due, according to the university timetable, at the following time:
- CRN #83771 (2:30 MW course): Due by 6:25 PM on Wednesday, December 14.
- CRN #83772 (4:00 MW course): Due by 9:45 AM on Wednesday, December 14.
Please be sure that your work is submitted by 7PM on Wednesday, December 14, so that I can calculate final grades. There is no grace period for the final exam.
Overview
For your final exam, you will write a completion report that explains what you have done and provides a self-evaluation of your participation. You will propose the grade you should receive and then use information from your participation log, attendance, and project portfolio to provide data to support your recommendation. In the workplace, this report would be similar to a self-evaluation for a performance review.
Participation is calculated on the default Virginia Tech A/F grade scale with +/-.
Details
Step 1: Review your work and gather your data.
You need to collect the data on your accomplishments in the class. Be sure that you examine your work in-class, your attendance, your Lynda.com and FreeCodeCamp work, and your overall participation. Look for evidence of the following:
- What have you done to participate consistently during the entire term?
- Have you completed all journals and in-class work by the end of the grace period?
- Which Discussion posts demonstrate that you have contributed high quality work?
- What in-class discussion and small group actives demonstrate your best contributions?
- Did you attend all class meetings? Did you provide health services or Dean of Students documentation for any absences?
- Did you invest your best effort in the course?
You should gather the relevant numbers, links to examples, and pull out quotations or other evidence from your work. If you have been tracking your work, you should find most of what you need in your Participation Log. For instance, you might demonstrate why you think a Discussion post you made is the best by linking to it, summarizing its content, and providing a quotation from it that shows its effectiveness.
Step 2: Compare your findings to the course expectations.
Once you have gathered your findings about your work in the course, compare them to the details for Participation on the Assignments page and conclude how well you did. Be sure that you consider your work in the entire course, and if relevant, be honest about where you fell short.
Step 3: Compose your final exam.
Once you have gathered all of your information and drawn conclusions about your performance in the course, write your report. Explain your findings, present your evidence, and include an indication of how your accomplishments in the course compare to the expectations. Your report should be professional, and avoid any whining, begging, or the like.
Use what you know about designing content to be read online to create a report that is clear and easy to read. If it’s also fun and interesting, that’s great too. You can write a traditional report in your word processor, or you can chose a different format, like an infographic, a Prezi, or a BuzzFeed-style article. The format of the report is open. You can check with me if you are worried about your choice.
Prepare to submit your report in whatever way makes sense for the format you have chosen. Most likely, you will simply upload a document in Canvas, but if it is published somewhere else, you can submit a link. If you want to keep your report private, you may use a private Google Doc (shared with me, of course) or something similar.
Step 4: Pay attention to the expectations for the final exam.
The grade for your final exam will be determined by this scale:
| C, D or F | This work is incomplete, has errors, was submitted after the deadline, or was not submitted at all. It may have significant errors in content, design, style, and/or organization. It shows that the writer didn’t put in much effort and wasn’t doing her best work. |
| B | This work is complete and generally error free. It meets the requirement of the assignment fully, and it shows strong effort on the writer’s part and makes a reasonable argument about the participation grade the writer should receive. |
| A | This work meets and goes beyond the requirements of satisfactory work. It is strong, amazing work that dazzles. It makes a compelling argument about the participation grade the writer should receive. |
To meet the requirements of the assignment, a report will include the following:
- details on your overall participation, which addresses the following:
- your attendance
- your timeliness
- your readiness
- your contributions (in class and online)
- your effort
- a comparison of your accomplishments to the course expectations
- a conclusion of the grade you should receive for the participation portion of your course grade
If you fear your participation is lacking, consider writing an exemplary final exam, which uses a unique format or in some other way go beyond the basic requirements for the assignment.
Step 5: Submit your work in Canvas.
When you are ready to submit your work, use the Assignment tool on Canvas to upload or provide the link to your report. The final exam assignment will not open in Canvas until December 1.
Some Examples
Here are some examples of basic reports from my Technical Writing course. They were focused on participation via the online forums in the course, since it was a totally online class. All names have been changed in these examples:
Here is an infographic example from a previous section of Writing and Digital Media. This student is assessing her work in the entire course, not just participation. I replaced her name with ***. Because I had to print a PDF of the infographic, there are awkward page breaks. Realize that the real version is one flowing image.