Deciding about a final learning reflection

You should begin by looking at your records, making sure you've completed the required work of the course. If you have, but the records don't show it, make sure you email me to have the record corrected. If not, you should consider the fact that it's too late to participate in a Task Force or Editorial Team, and too late to attend a play, and too late to post reflections or responses which will be read by other people in the course. If you have not completed the work of the course, you may apply to the Registrar for permission to drop the course without academic penalty, and let me know you are doing so. I'll support such a request; I do not believe it fair to put an F on someone's transcript because she didn't complete the work of the course (as I've said, I assume people have good reasons).

Next, you should look at the minimum mark generated by participation in the regular work of the course. That will be posted on the main Web site by later this morning. If you're happy with that mark, there is no reason for you to write a final learning reflection. But if you aren't, you'll want to write a final reflection. Here are some suggestions about doing it effectively.

Rereading

Reread as much as you can of the course material -- particularly your own writing, but including going back through prompts and looking at what other people wrote on Forums, as part of task force research and as learning journals. Particularly you should pay attention to what you wrote, or how you remember responding to others' writing, early in the course. If you're going to document change, the best tool you have is contrasting examples ("that was then, this is now").

Organizing

What I might say here has already been said in the documenting your learning page; it is worth rereading that with some care. I'll distribute copies of it this morning.

Saving

There's a page of wikis on Moodle called Final Learning Reflections -- again, linked from the main course Web site. go there, open the link to your page by clicking on the ? next to your name, and post your text. Save it. Check to make sure the formatting hasn't been messed up, and if it has, edit it.

When?

Had we had an examination in this course, it would have been on Tuesday morning, April 19. You need to have completed your final learning reflection by that night.

Evaluating

How I will read the final reflections is explained as fully as I can in the "How I read learning reflections,
and how you can assess your own" page; let me suggest again that you reread that as well, perhaps after you've drafted your reflection.

Providing feedback

You'll have noticed that I did not take the in-class time to fill out the usual "course evaluation" bubble sheet. You probably won't be surprised that I don't do this in the usual way, either. Most of the categories on the sheet don't apply to what I do, and when it's done in class people don't have enough time to think about writing things that might actually help me get a picture of how well, or poorly, the course has worked, and what I can do to make it better when we offer it again.

That's why I do it online. Here's how: There is a feedback form accessible from the main Page and the StageWeb site. On it, I've asked some questions I think will help me improve this course. You do not have to answer all, or any, of the questions (I will have no way to know who said what, or didn't say anything at all ).

But in order to make sure everybody makes a conscious decision -- that people don't say, Oh, yes, giving Russ some real feedback would be a good idea, and then forget about it-- you are required to go to the Page and the Stage Web site, click on the Feedback on the Course link, enter your name at the top, and click "Submit" at the bottom. The departmental assistant who receives the form as email will pull the names off and let me know who has submitted forms, but when I get the responses they will be anonymous. You need to do this by the same time -- Tuesday morning, April 19.

I hope that between the time you enter your name at the top and click "Submit" at the bottom, you will respond to at least some of the questions on the form.