![\"Wide](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/focus-morebyless.jpg?resize=300%2C212&ssl=1\")
<\/a>Focus by morebyless on Flickr, used under a CC-BY 2.0 license<\/p><\/div>Yesterday, I finally settled on the general assignments and their connections among one another. There was still one tricky issue however. I needed to figure out the specific focus sites or documents that students would use for their assignments. I left things by pointing out these three general options:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Students focus on their own major\/field\/discipline\/career goals (however it’s defined).<\/li>\n
- Students focus more generally on their college’s area (e.g., Engineering, Science, Agriculture & Life Sciences).<\/li>\n
- Students focus on anything they like (which I fear is too open and could result in analysis of random and likely off-topic sites).<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n
Because the Usability unit in the template asks students to revise User Documentation, whatever I end up with has to include some kind of instructions that students can analyze and rethink.<\/p>\n
I was sitting here tonight not even thinking about the assignments. I was finishing up the online Kroger order for pick-up tomorrow, and suddenly I thought, have them choose any website that a Virginia Tech student might use in their academic work. Exclude academic departments, centers, schools, and colleges. Require that the site includes some kind of user documentation among its features.<\/p>\n
- \n
- Software company sites like Canvas or MatLab.<\/li>\n
- Resource sites on campus like the Counseling Center.<\/li>\n
- Library sites.<\/li>\n
- Various academic support sites like the registrar’s office or the Services for Students with Disabilities site.<\/li>\n
- General software company sites like Microsoft or Adobe.<\/li>\n
- Textbook websites, whether OER or publisher sites.<\/li>\n
- AI sites like ChatGPT.<\/li>\n
- (Probably not a good idea, but…) Sites like Chegg or CourseHero.<\/li>\n
- Communication software like Zoom or Gmail.<\/li>\n
- Video sites like Kaltura or YouTube.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I think this focus will result in choices that students can relate to regardless of major. It can even be a benefit if the group moves on to choose a resource that a group member has never used. Who better to test online instructions and other resources than someone trying to figure out how to use it for the first time?<\/p>\n
Those are all large sites, so I will have to provide some guidance for narrowing the focus to a particular portion of the site. It just might work!<\/p>\n
I still have no idea how to solve the thorny grace period problem, but I think the rest of things are coming together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yesterday, I finally settled on the general assignments and their connections among one another. There was still one tricky issue however. I needed to figure out the specific focus sites or documents that students would use for their assignments. I left things by pointing out these three general options: Students focus on their own major\/field\/discipline\/career […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103,560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-professional-communications","category-technical-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqzI8-5fT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20205"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20209,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20205\/revisions\/20209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}