A more complete schedule will be part of each week’s overview page on OpenLab. That overview will consist of video lectures, a written walkthrough of all the work for the week, handouts, and assignments with their due dates. This tentative class schedule is meant to be a general guideline and is subject to change as the term progresses.

This schedule is set up by due dates within each week. The Intro Video Lesson and accompanying materials on OpenLab will give you more complete information about each of these assignments.

For each due date, things must be done by the end of that day. For example, if the schedule says Mon 1/31, the assignments are due by 11:59 pm on Monday.

Week One 1/28-2/3

  • Fri 1/28: Intro video lesson is live! Set-up and introductions
  • Mon 1/31:
    • Join OpenLab, Slack, and Perusall.
    • Perusall: Read and annotate two things:
      • What is Technical Writing?
      • Thinking about Writing/Audience (there are two chapters here so be sure to scroll down to the second one)
  • Thur 2/3:
    • Padlet: Introduce yourself using bullet points, and be sure to add a visual element. Once you leave your own introduction, check out other people and leave comments.
    • Email: Introduce yourself to Prof Blain and attach the Individual Assessment to it (we’ll use this for the Team projects).

Week Two 2/4-2/10

  • Fri 2/4: Intro video lesson is live! Introduction to the 500-word summary
  • Mon 2/7:
    • Perusall: Read and annotate “How to Write a Summary”
    • Google Drive folder: Upload your first two annotated bibliographic entries to the folder labeled “500 word summary.”
  • Thur 2/10:
    • Google Drive folder: Upload your last two annotated bibliographic entries to the folder labeled “500 word summary.”

Week Three 2/11-2/17

  • Fri 2/11: Intro video lesson is live! More on the 500 word summary.
  • Mon 2/14:
    • OpenLab: Create a new post and say which article you’re going to do a full summary on and why you chose it.
  • Thur 2/17:
    • Google Drive folder: Upload the draft of your 500 word summary to the folder labeled “500 word summary.”

Week Four 2/18-2/24

  • Fri 2/18: Intro video lesson is live! How to give useful and positive feedback. Introduction to the 750 word Expanded Definition.
  • Mon 2/21:
    • Perusall: Read and annotate DePeter: “Writing Meaningful Peer Response Praise.” Also do the two Activities that are flagged.
    • Google Drive folder: Pick one summary done by one of your classmates, and leave them the kind of meaningful response you practiced in the dePeter article.
  • Thur 2/24:
    • OpenLab: Create a new post where you talk about what you feel you need to do to revise your Summary based on the feedback you got.
    • Perusall: Read and annotate “Definition.”
    • Google Drive folder: Upload a draft of your Introduction for the Expanded Definition assignment to the folder labeled “Expanded Definition.”

Week Five 2/25-3/3

  • Fri 2/25: Intro video lesson is live! More on the Expanded Definition. How to tailor a definition to a specific audience. How to do rhetorical analysis.
  • Mon 2/28:
    • Just for fun… OpenLab: Create a new post and define your term for two different audiences: a 4th grade student, an older non-tech adult.
  • Thur 2/3:
    • Google Drive folder: Upload the Context section of your Expanded Definition to the folder labeled “Expanded Definition.”

Week Six 3/4-3/10

  • Fri 3/4: Intro video lesson is live! Finishing the Expanded Definition. Writing the Conclusion. Pulling the Expanded Definition together into a single document. Onward to the Instruction Manual.
  • Mon 3/7:
    • Google Drive folder: Upload the full draft of your Expanded Definition to the folder labeled “Expanded Definition.”
  • Thur 3/10:
    • Google Drive folder: Pick one other student’s Expanded Definition and leave meaningful feedback.
    • Perusall: Watch and annotate the video “PB&J.” At the end leave a comment about what you learned from watching it.

Week Seven 3/11-3/17

  • Fri 3/11: Intro video lesson is live! More on the Instruction Manual. What makes a good (and bad) instruction manual.
  • Mon 3/14:
    • OpenLab: Create a new post where you talk about what you feel you need to do to revise your Expanded Definition based on the feedback you got.
  • Thur 3/16:
    • Perusall: Read and annotate “Creating Rhetorically Effective Instruction Manuals.”

Week Eight 3/18-3/24

  • Fri 3/18: Intro video lesson is live! More on the Instruction Manual. What makes a good (and bad) instruction manual.
  • Mon 3/21:
    • OpenLab: Post your analyses of two instruction manuals.
    • Padlet: What are you going to teach us about? Put your name in the topic, explain what you’re doing, and who your audience/user is. Feel free to leave a visual.
  • Thur 3/28:
    • Google Drive folder: Post a list of the steps. If you’re collecting images, feel free to upload them to the folder/Google doc as well.

Week Nine 3/25-3/31

  • Fri 3/25: Intro video lesson is live! Pulling the instruction manual together. Usability tests. Introduction to the Collaboration Project.
  • Mon 3/28:
    • Email: Make sure you’ve completed the Individual Assessment from Week One and submitted it via email.
    • Nothing else due but start thinking about problems in your field that your team might tackle.
  • Thur 3/31:
    • Google Drive folder: Upload your Instruction Manual into the folder labeled “Instruction Manual.”

Week Ten 4/1-4/7

  • Fri 4/1: Intro video lesson is live! The Collaboration Project. Collaboration and its place in our virtual world. Choosing projects and assembling teams.
  • Mon 4/4:
    • Padlet: Post an idea about a problem that a team could propose a solution to. Leave comments to indicate which one(s) you’re interested in working on with a group.
    • Perusall: Read and annotate “Proposals.”
  • Thur 4/7: I will post the groups and instructions on how to contact each other. From now on, you should be focused on getting the sections of your project together.

Week Eleven 4/8-4/14

  • Fri 4/8: Intro video lesson is live! Information on how to create an OpenLab Project site. Writing the Research Report for the project.
  • Mon 4/11:
    • Google Drive: Teams post their project preparation materials. Begin working on the project itself.
    • Perusall: Read and annotate “Technical Reports.”
  • Thur 4/14: Keep working on your project. Decide what you want to do about Spring Break which is next week.

SPRING BREAK 4/15-4/22

Week Twelve 4/23-4/28

  • SAT 4/23: Intro video lesson is live! Talking a bit about design principles and presentations.
  • Mon 4/25:
    • Perusall: Read and annotate “Design and Readability.”
  • Thur 4/27:
    • Keep working on your project.
    • OpenLab: Team leaders post a progress report.

Week Thirteen 4/29-5/5

  • Fri 4/29: Intro video lesson is live!
  • Mon 5/2 – Thur 5/5: Nothing due. Continue working on the project.

Week Fourteen 5/6-5/12

  • Fri 5/6: Intro video lesson is live!
  • Mon 5/9 – Thur 5/12: Nothing due. Continue working on the project.

Week Fifteen 5/13 through end of term 5/23

  • Fri 5/13: Final Comments and instructions
  • Fri 5/19: All materials uploaded onto Project site for feedback.
  • Mon 5/23:
    • Final version of project due.
    • Email: Final Collaboration Report and Team Assessments
    • Final Revisions of all course work (summary, expanded definition, instruction manual).
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