Assignment
Your first writing assignment will be a persuasive email message. The situation you are responding to in your message is described below.
You are the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Johnson College. As a growing online school, your institution offers hundreds of classes, and thousands of sections, online. Johnson College changed its learning management system (LMS) two years ago. As CTO, you oversaw the change to the new LMS. You adopted LEO as your new LMS at that time. However, in the two years of using LEO, you have found several problems with LEO. You have communicated the concerns with the President of Johnson, the Provost of Johnson, the Dean of The Undergraduate School, and the Dean of the Graduate School. These four individuals have asked you to write an an email message to Mr. Robert Kurzwell at LEO, Inc. in which you propose three changes to the LEO interface and suggest a meeting to discuss your proposed changes.
In writing your message, please come up with the three changes you would like to make to LEO. Some examples could be the following. Keep in mind that these are only examples. You can use them if you would like to, or you may come up with your own issues.
The LEO interface leaves much space at the right and the left of the screen. Significant "real estate" is wasted as a result. This problem makes various aspects of the class difficult to navigate or follow.
The LEO interface allows an instructor to post an audio clip using LEO's functions. However, the audio clip is limited to two minutes. Limiting audio clips to two minutes limits their usefulness in an online class.
The LEO interface does not feature a video function. You feel that the ability for instructors to make short video clips would enhance the classroom, and the LEO interface.
The LEO quiz function does not offer the possibility of making a drag-and-drop quiz.
Please note that your institution is a major customer for LEO, Inc. However, you are not its only customer. You have some negotiating power, but your concerns have to be considered in light of the other 85 institutions to which LEO, Inc. provides its learning management system.
The goal of your email message is to set up a phone meeting with Mr. Kurzwell and perhaps other members of his team to discuss your concerns. It is possible that you will terminate your contract with LEO, Inc. if your concerns are not addressed, at least partially. However, you have not determined whether you will change your LMS or, if you did, what other LMS you will change to.
Strategies to Consider for this Assignment:
For general information on formatting and organizing a business email message of this type, you might explore a wikibook on professional writing.
Consider your audience. Your primary audience is Mr. Kurzwell. However, it is very likely that members of his staff will read your message as well. Moreover, you are representing the President, Provost, and two Deans at your school. Therefore, they can be considered a secondary audience, as you would not want to write an email message that they would not support.
What to submit:
When submitting this assignment, you should post your email message in a Word document.
Please indicate the following:
To: [email protected]
Subject: fill in your subject line
the message itself
Length of your message:
Your message should be 300-450 words in length. A message longer than 450 words would probably lose the audience. However, a message shorter than 300 words would not describe your concerns thoroughly enough to the audience.