essay 8hrs

COMM 101: ONLINE DISCUSSIONS

Detailed Assignment Outline

Page 1 of 2

ASSIGNMENT GOALS

The study of business is enriched by individual exploration of your views on and observations of the field and its broad

applications. You are encouraged to share your business insights and questions arising from your growing knowledge of

the field through several discussion posts focused on business topics.

In addition to authoring your own discussion post, you will be evaluating posts written by your peers. You will be expected

to review, engage with and judge these posts. This process will require you to engage with diverse points of view and

opinions and will increase your awareness of the strengths and weaknesses of your own postings.

Please read this outline carefully. It is your responsibility to understand the contents of this outline and follow the instructions

within for BOTH authoring your discussion posts and for evaluation of peer posts.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon successful completion of this assignment, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

 Embed links to external sites & multimedia in discussion posts.

 Develop the important skill of regularly reading business media.

 Increase critical thinking skills by commenting on and evaluating others’ posts.

 Apply course concepts to general and current business issues.

 Apply evaluative criteria to peer postings in a critical, responsible and representative manner.

ASSESSMENT SUMMARY

This assignment requires the production of three discussion posts over the course of the term, with the deadlines

indicated on the course site. The content of your posts can be wide-ranging, e.g., topics to which you’ve been introduced

in class and want to investigate further, items that you’ve read in the business media (online, newspapers, magazines, etc.)

to which you want to apply something you’ve learned in the course, or current news stories, etc. that show relevant

applications of course material. The overall grade will include posting all three of your discussions and review of nine of

your peers’ posts (three per each post). This assignment is worth 10% of Final Grade.

Please note, only students that submit their discussion post by the deadline are eligible to peer review others’ posts.

Missing Discussion Post will result in 0 mark!

ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES

 Aim for approximately 500 words per entry – verbosity is not encouraged. Be concise with your comments. Consider

how much you are willing to read on another person’s post. Include the word count at the end of your post.

 Your discussion posts should add value with some interpretation of the article, idea, issues, class discussion that you

are referencing. Don’t just summarize what you’ve read. Add your own analysis.

 You may find it useful to link class concepts to news stories, etc.

 Pictures and hyperlinks should be included to highlight your posts. Cite your sources using APA Citation Style.

 Make sure you properly reference any pictures you use. Use Embed Image tool to include images in your post.

 Hyperlinks are good for automatic referencing and linking of ideas.

NOTE: Do not simply copy and paste from websites. UBC Academic Integrity and Plagiarism policies apply to posts.

The University of British Columbia's general policies on plagiarism and tips for avoiding it can be found at

http://learningcommons.ubc.ca/resource-guides/avoiding-plagiarism/. At a minimum, where language or images are

used that are not your own, you must provide a hyperlink to the source material.

COMM 101: ONLINE DISCUSSIONS

Detailed Assignment Outline

Page 2 of 2

PEER REVIEW GUIDELINES

For each discussion assignment, you will be required to evaluate the discussion posts of three of your peers. Evaluation is

NOT anonymous. The posts that you evaluate will be assigned on a randomized basis.

As part of both your academic career and your business career, you will be required to make independent judgments of

others’ work. Peer evaluation will give you the opportunity to develop and practice this skill. Approach this task with due

responsibility and gravity. Your evaluation should show: (1) that you have critically engaged with the posts you are assigned

to evaluate; and (2) that you understand and can apply the evaluation criteria that you will be provided with.

Students will be given limited time to complete their assigned peer reviews! Please refer to course site for deadlines.

Not following Peer Review guidelines will result in penalties. Which can result in 0 mark for the Discussion!

PEER REVIEW CRITERIA

For each discussion assignment, you will be assigned three of your peers’ discussions to evaluate. You are expected to

review all three posts for each peer and evaluate the posts against the following Criteria:

 Technical Standards: The author has included relevant images. The post is well formatted. All images and/or

paraphrased or quoted ideas of others are cited or linked. Properly used APA citation style.

 Writing Standards: The writing is clear, concise, and easy to understand. Ideas and responses are communicated

clearly and coherently.

 Value Add: The author demonstrates an engagement with the material that adds value for the reader (beyond only

recitation or summarization!). This could be through application of class concepts, critical thinking, and/or personal

examples.

Evaluation must be done using the Discussion Rubric below, with a mix of quantitative Pts (numeric value, out of 10

pts) and qualitative Ratings (written comments, approximately 100 words or more) feedback.

The Pts score is based on the BE/ME/EE guidelines below and Ratings comments should justify your score, indicating

what was done well and what needs improvement. Scores without sufficient comments will not be accepted!

Below Expectations

5-6 pts

Meet Expectations

7-8 pts

Exceed Expectations

9-10 pts

NOTE: You cannot go back and edit your Peer Review, so be very careful when using the Rubric!

Peer Review is NOT considered complete if either numeric score or written comment is missing!

Written comments posted OUTSIDE of the Rubric will not be accepted !!!