What's required this fall, and when

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

1.       Faithful attendance. Grade will drop one level for each two absences after the first two. You may not make up missed in class writing and take a 0. If you miss more than 6 class sessions, you will flunk. NO LATE WORK. Any late work will earn a “0.”

2.       Be on time to class. Three times late equals an absence.  If you’re more than 15 minutes late, it counts as an absence.

3.       Design and creation of a blog.

4.       The ability to write complete, grammatically correct, sentences.

5.       Weekly postings on the blog, including class notes, and speaker stories.

6.       Note: you must post every week, starting with week three, deadline end of class Thursdays. If you miss a week, you lose points for that week. —in other words, you can’t make those points up (at least 15).

7.       You must average more than one post a week to earn a grade higher than C. (Hint—in the past, students with the most posts get higher grades than those with minimal or insufficient ones).

8.       At least 15 blog posts of original content. Every post must have writing. Each post will be graded.

9.       Follow, and check BlogblogUCO, class blog every day.  http://blogblogUCO.blogspot.com There will be weekly assignments on this blog, with deadlines. Missed deadlines mean a 0 for the assignment.

10.    Following a professional blog in your area, with blog report, 15-minute presentation to class, second half of semester.

11.    500-word essay on blogs in today’s world.

12.    Note: Your blog must contain original writing. If it is a photography blog, you must have words with every photo, and the blog must have more than captions.

Required web sites:

• http://blogblogUCO.blogspot.com
• http://www.successfulblogging.com/
• Technorati.com; 

• BlogOklahoma.com;
• Huffingtonpost.com

Recommended web sites:

• Clarkcoffee.blogspot.com

• pioneerwoman.com;
• mashable.com;

 

GRADING SCALE: 100-91--A; 90-81--B; 80-70--C; 60-69--D.

• Creation, design, improvement and maintenance of blog—300 points—30 percent
• Weekly posts—300 points—30 percent (15 posts minimum to be eligible for a “C”; 20 to be eligible for a “B”) More than 20 to be eligible for an “A”). Failure to meet these standards overrides other points.) Each post is graded on quality and quantity:

Blog post grade guide (15 possible points)

Original writing (3)

Grammar/Spelling (1)

Headlines (2)

Visuals (2)

Links (1)

Typography (2)

Design (2)

Creativity (1)

• Blog Essay—100 points—10 percent
• Blog presentation, paper—100 points—10 percent
• Blogblog comments—100 points—10 percent
• Final test, multiple choice—100 points—10 percent
• Total: 1,000 points
• COURSE SCHEDULE
  ·      Week one-- Intros, transformational workshop—student syllabus requirements, organization, syllabus, intros to blogging, course requirements. Quiz over syllabus.  BLOGBLOGUCO
  ·      Week two-- Intro; Designing the blog, vocabulary, selection of blog favorites; professor’s critique of blogs
  ·      Weeks three, four-- Writing for the web, typography, color, blog essay ideas
  ·      Week five—blogger adoption deadlines. Blog essay subjects
  ·      Week six— Mass Comm Week! No class Thursday. Attend sessions and blog about it. Schedule and guidelines to be provided.
  ·      Week seven—Management, blog conferences
  ·      Week eight—Guest speaker
  ·       Week nine— Blog essay due.
  ·      Week ten— Fall Break
  ·      Week eleven—blog conferences; blog reports
  ·      Week twelve—blog reports.
  ·      Week thirteen—blog reports
  ·      Week fourteen—blog reports; Thanksgiving
  ·      Week fifteen— blog reports
  ·      Week sixteen-- blog reports, evaluation
  ·      Final exam—1 p.m., Dec. 13.
  
  
  1)   Blog essay assignment: For this assignment, you must write a 500-word essay in which you describe the current impact of blogging on some aspect of American culture and journalism. You must provide links to your source material. All information about blogging is easily available on the web. You can easily obtain this material through simple Google searches. You might ask yourself these questions as you prepare to write your essay: How do blogs compete with traditional media sources? How important are blogs in politics? Do blogs promote democracy? What are the drawbacks of blogs? Ultimately, you must make a claim, or argument, about the significance of blogs in today's world. More guidelines will be on http://blogbloguco.blogspot.com
  2)   Blog report guidelines: 10-15-minute presentation to class about your professional blog selection, evaluating it for content, effectiveness and design and how it has influenced you. One-page outline to class. Three-page paper professor, due day of presentation. More guidelines, and grading guide  on http://blogbloguco.blogspot.com