Your Assignment for Class Final

Earlier in the term, you identified a social media project that you would engage in during the course of this class/. For those students contracting for an A grade, a paper reflecting on this project and its relationship to course learning must be written and submitted.

PROJECT REVIEW

The description of the project assignment as shown in the course syllabus:

Students will also engage in a social media research project. This project will require them to choose from one of the following two options:

Project Track A: Choose a pre-existing social media community to join and engage in. This should be a community you are not already involved in. This may include one of the following: 

• Follow and engage with a blog that has a robust comments section 

• Join and engage a Facebook page or group

• Join and engage a LinkedIn group 

• Join and engage others on Twitter 

• Propose to the instructors another social media site that you think is worth exploring.

Project Track B: Plan, create, and implement your own social media community, which may include one of the following: 

• Plan and create a blog for a specific purpose 

• Plan and create a Facebook page or group for a specific purpose

• Plan and create a LinkedIn page or group for a specific purpose 

• Plan and create a YouTube channel for a specific purpose 

• Plan and create a Twitter account for a specific purpose

• Combination of some or all of the above 

• Propose something else to the instructors that will best meet your needs for learning and using social media.

Please note: regardless of which track is chosen, students will be graded by their observations and learning from these experiences, as demonstrated in the discussion areas of the course’s Moodle site and/or in the final reflection paper, not on the content the student has created outside of Moodle. Further, we understand that some students will have privacy concerns regarding participation in social media; we encourage but do not require students to utilize their real names in their social media projects. If you have specific privacy concerns, please contact the course instructors and accommodations will be made.

The social media community chosen may be for personal, professional, and/or educational purposes. Students should expect to choose and begin to engage in their social media community in week two, and be prepared to discuss initial observations during week six. Interaction will continue throughout the class. 

PAPER ASSIGNMENT

Deadline. Those contracting for an A grade also need to submit a 5-6 page reflection paper on their learning and observations from this project by 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday, 6/12/12. 

Graded Content. Students will not be graded on the content or extent of their engagement in their chosen social media communities, but rather by demonstration in their reflection papers of their observations and learning during the engagement process.

Style & Etc. In addition, this paper is expected to meet or exceed Marylhurst writing standards, as described in full in the syllabus. Please use whatever academic writing style is used in your major, e.g. MLA, APA, Chicago, etcetera. We are more concerned with the content than with what specific style you write in. Please do cite outside sources if you include any, for example, any specific course browsings you want to mention.

REQUIRED ELEMENTS OF YOUR PAPER

At a minimum, please answer the following questions in your paper:

• What was the project you took on, and why?

• What if any things that you learned during this course directly affected your project?

• If you are going to carry your project forward after the class ends, how do you see it changing over time?

SUGGESTIONS FOR YOUR PAPER

To make this paper easier for you to start, here are some things to keep in mind as you write:

• Consider comparing and contrasting how you felt about Social Media versus how you feel now. Have your feelings changed? Your confidence level? How about your skill level?
• What surprised you about your project? Did anything disappointed you? What were unique challenges that you experienced?
• Were there any course browsings or readings that might relate to what you did? If so, tell us how.

SUBMISSION 

Submit the paper using the Drop Box on Moodle in the Week Ten section. 

If you have problems submitting the paper, please contact one/both of us using the course mail function on Moodle. 

Enjoy!

~Joanne & Alex