Introduction to Digital Communication

Assessment Information Sheet - Learning journal and completed blog sitWhat are you doing?

There will be two sections to the marking of this task: will be for the overall aesthetic of the completed blog site, which includes any adjustments made because of both peer and teacher feedback; and, secondly, students will write six learning journal entries - one for each of Weeks 10, 11, 12 and 13, one week of your choice (out of Weeks 3-8), and a final learning journal entry on the course as a whole.

This Learning Journal assignment provides you the opportunity to reflect critically and practically on the week's topic.

Each week's learning journal entry should discuss the lecture, reading and class activity of the week and should include a connection between the course concepts as well as your use of these concepts in your practice (for example, social and cultural contexts and such ideas as audience, digital branding, narrative theory, etc.). The learning journal entries must be academically sound (e.g. academic sources used, correct referencing, high standard of SPAG, etc.).

In summary:

6 x 400 word journal entries
1 x Week of your choice (from Weeks 3-8)
1 x Week 10
1 x Week 11
1 x Week 12
1 x Week 13
1 x overall learning summary

This assessment task is designed for you to work on as an ongoing task. You may choose to do the entries each week or at the end of semester. You will not be marked down if you do not complete this as a weekly entry but it is highly recommended that you complete each week's learning journal entry as you go - writing about each week's topic on a weekly basis means the ideas you need to include will be fresh. It is possible for the majority of the task to be completed before Week 13, thus allowing you to manage their workload.

Submission

You will upload the learning journal entries to your home page site. Under the ‘CMNS1000' page, generate a sub-page and call it ‘Task 4 - Learning Journal'.
A written version of the learning journal must be uploaded into Turnitin (doc, docx, rtf, pdf). The written content of the assessment task will be marked via Turnitin.

What to include:
- Each journal entry must have a title.
- The mark includes a component for multimedia elements and you can include any multimedia elements (photos, movies, cartoons, sound) but must demonstrate your knowledge of copyright. The use of multimedia elements is marked as part of the assessment.
- Include from a broad range of reading (for example, see the short loans list and other resources on the Blackboard site) to demonstrate your understanding of each week's topic.
- Include a complete and rigorous bibliography for each entry. You are expected to use correct academic conventions in the task.
- Here are some questions to help in the structure of your weekly entry (these are suggestions only):
o I think the key points to remember from this week's readings/lecture/class discussion were ...?
o The week's topic made me think more about digital communication theory/practice in ...
o The week's topic related to previous weeks in that ...
o An example I think this week's topic relates to is ...

Length

2400 words total - 6 x 400 word entries (there is a +/- 10% word count allowance in this assessment)

Marking

You will be marked on the quality of ideas and content in your journal entries as well as the integration and understanding of course concepts. Please note: part of the final mark is the overall aesthetic of your finalised blog site.

Please see the detailed marking criteria sheet on the Blackboard site.

Tips
- Can you relate the week's topic your professional area? This is good.
- Is there anything going on in society that could be used as an example? Use practical examples to demonstrate your points - link to other sites - use media examples.
- Are there pros and cons?
- Are there any recurrent themes? This point is particularly important for the final, overall journal entry

FINAL TIP (AND MOST IMPORTANT) ... ASK YOURSELF ‘IS THIS TRUE?' THAT QUESTION CAN BE USED AS THE BASIS FOR YOUR LEARNING JOURNAL ENTRIES

Course learning objectives of this assessment (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

1. Recognise the basic principles of web page design and apply these to their own practice using designated computer software

2. Demonstrate integrated creative, technical, and computer skills by developing publications at a professional standard for an online environment.

3. Apply knowledge of the social, political and cultural impacts of digital communication to real world situations.

4. Employ narrative and interactive design principles to assess and create professional online publications.

5. Use the Internet and World Wide Web as academic research tools.

A learning journal meets the course objectives of knowledge acquisition by inviting the students to engage in a process of reflection and analysis in order to produce articulate and concise documents that convey evidence-based understanding of the social, political and cultural impacts of digital communication.