Guidelines for Course Blogging [pdf]

In this course you are required to write a minimum of 5 posts of at least 100 words each for our class blog. Our blog will allow us to continue discussions outside of class, and your professors will participate along with you. You can also use your blog posts to explore ideas that you may wish to develop more fully in your team research assignment or final report. Due dates for blog posts will be announced on the course OpenLab site and in class.

You will write several types of blog posts during this course:

Reading response blog posts:
Write a blog post discussing one of the readings assigned for the class. Identify a topic or theme from the reading, briefly summarize it, and analyze it in relation to other readings and themes in the course. Does this reading raise any questions in your mind?

Research journal blog posts:
Write a blog post discussing and documenting your process and progress on the team research assignment for this course. You may write about any aspect of this process, for example: deciding on a research topic, conducting research online and in person to locate primary sources, writing the annotated bibliography/report, etc. What have you found difficult or frustrating about this process? What successful strategies have you used?

Field visit blog posts:
Write a blog post in which you reflect on your experience during the field visit. What did you see and learn about? How did you document the visit? You may wish to write about how you expect participation in the activity to help you complete the final report.

If you include or discuss text, images, or multimedia in your blog posts that are not from the assigned readings, please cite your source. Source title, author, date, and URL (if it’s a website) is sufficient for these posts.

Also, please give each of your blog posts one or more tags. We’ll talk more about tags in class, but for now you can think of them as keywords. Try to pick a few words that describe the topic of your post. Do not assign Categories; use tags instead.

Blog posts need not be written in formal academic style, but please use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation when you blog.

How to Post on the Course Blog:

1. Go to https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu and log in. Go to My OpenLab > My Courses > LIB2205ARCH2205 Learning Places FA15
2. Under Course Site on the right side of the screen, select Dashboard. Once you are in the Dashboard, click Add New under the Posts menu on the left navigation bar to create a new post.
3. On Add New Post, enter a title for your post and then paste or type your blog post into the large field in the middle of the screen.
4. There are two ways to format posts: Visual or text (HTML). If you know HTML feel free to use it. Otherwise you may want to select Visual and use the toolbar buttons along the top of the field to add bold, italics, etc.
5. Give your post one or more tags by entering them into the field under Post Tags on the right side of the Add New Post page.
6. If you’d like to take a look at your post before publishing it on the course blog, click the Preview button on the upper right side of the Add New Post page.
7. When you’re ready to publish your post to the blog for all to see, click the blue Publish button on the right side of the Add New Post page. Be sure to publish each post!
8. To view the blog after publishing your post, click Visit Site under the name of the blog at the top of the Add New Post page.
9. To post a comment on the blog, click the “Leave a Comment” link on any blog post. Be sure to log in to the OpenLab before commenting.

For both blog posts and comments, it’s a good idea to write in a word processor or text editor and paste the finished and spell-checked text into the Add New Post page or comment box.

Please contact your professors if you have any questions or run into any problems; message through the OpenLab or email at jmontgomery@citytech.cuny.edu or aleonard@citytech.cuny.edu

 

Grading:

Blog posts are worth 5% of your total course grade. Each post is worth one point. Each blogging assignment is due BEFORE THE START OF CLASS for which it is assigned.

Each blog post will be graded as follows:[1]

 

Points	Rating	Characteristics of the Blog Post
1	Excellent	·         The blog post is focused and relevant to the topic.·         Post provides examples and explanations or analysis, and reflects in-depth engagement with the topic.·         Sources are cited (if not from course readings). ·         Post is at least 100 words and has been given at least one tag. ·         Post is submitted by the beginning of class (on time).
0.5	Competent	·         The post is mostly description or summary, without consideration of alternative perspectives, and few connections are made between ideas.·         Post reflects passing engagement with the topic.·         Sources (if not from course readings) are not cited. ·         Post is at least 100 words, but has not been given any tags. ·         Post is submitted after the beginning of class, but less than 48 hours late.
0	Insufficient	·         The blog post consists of one or two disconnected sentences, or no post was written for the assignment.·         Post is less than 100 words and has not been given any tags.·         Post is more than two days late (48 hours after start of class for which it was assigned).

 

[1] Sample, M. (2009). Pedagogy and the Class Blog. Retrieved January 27, 2010, from SAMPLE REALITY Web site: http://www.samplereality.com/2009/08/14/pedagogy-and-the-class-blog/; Schmitt, K.M., Behler, A., and E. Rimland. (2009). Blogging: Create an Online Community. In Library Instruction Cookbook, pp. 166-167. Chicago: ACRL.