Important Dates
Your final is due by 11:59 PM on Monday, December 12. There is no grace period for the final exam. If the final exam deadline is a hardship for you, please email me with the details by the last day of classes, Wednesday, December 7.
Overview
For your final exam, you will write a completion report that provides a self-evaluation of your participation. You will propose the grade you should receive and then use information from your participation log and Discussions in Canvas 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 overall participation in Canvas. Look for evidence of the following:
- What have you done to participate consistently during the entire term?
- Have you completed all work by the end of the grace period?
- Which Discussion posts demonstrate that you have contributed high quality work?
- What Discussion posts show your best interaction and support for classmates?
- Did you provide health services or Dean of Students documentation for any issues that came up?
- 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 expectations and conclude how well you did. The following areas contribute to your participation:
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Contributions: Ask thoughtful questions, offer specific suggestions, and graciously accept feedback.
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Timeliness: Submit your Discussion posts on time or early, so that there is time for classmates to read and respond to them.
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Effort: Participating isn’t simply about writing a post, but putting in the effort to explain your ideas fully. Replies to classmates should go beyond simple responses as well.
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Collegiality: Be supportive of everyone in the classroom and uphold the Principles of Community. In general, be kind and helpful to one another. Help create the kind of community online that makes you happy to participate.
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 documents (see Markel, Chapter 7) to create a report that is clear and easy to read. If it’s also fun and interesting, that’s great too.
Write your report in your word processor. You can either upload a *.doc, *.docx, or *.pdf file in Canvas or submit a link to a Google Doc that has been shared with me (tengrrl@vt.edu) so that I can add comments.
Step 4: Pay attention to the expectations for the final exam.
The grade for your final exam will be determined according to 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 his or 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 that 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 contributions
- your timeliness
- your effort
- your collegiality
- 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
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: