Purpose

This assignment, adapted from one developed by my colleague Jason B. Jones at Central Connecticut State University, has several purposes. Like most college writing assignments, it should develop your writing ability. It should also enhance your facility with writing technology and collaborative media. But the primary purpose is to help you (and to help you help each other) learn and study the material we are reading and discussing in CMST/WMST 414.

As Dr. Jones says,”class notes are epistemologically weird. On the one hand, they feel quite private, but, on the other, if your understanding of what went on in class is too idiosyncratic, then you’re likely to do poorly on exams. (Also, to whatever extent a class is a shared intellectual enterprise, there should be at least *some* common understanding of what has gone on during our time together.) It can be hard to improve one’s notetaking skills, because it’s traditionally such an individual practice. Enter the wiki.” You’ll work together and individually to prepare class notes that capture what happens in the classroom — synthesizing the discussion, referencing the visuals, highlighting times of confusion and understanding — and then archive it and make it available for the entire class.

I also believe that working together on a writing assignment using this technology is good preparation for future professional collaboration.

Assignment Description

Working in groups, you will be responsible for developing and maintaining a wiki page with notes for each class.

Online notes SHOULD ABSOLUTELY NOT simply transcribe what’s on the board. Instead, you are responsible for the following:

• A 150 to 200 word summary of the day’s activities / whatever the main point of the class seemed to be. How did the assigned readings for that day hold together?
• More detailed notes reflecting two or three highlights of the day.
• Key terms that came up in class, plus a definition.

These three elements are due within three calendar days of the class session you are covering. Over the course of the quarter, you will be responsible for updating the page as concepts recur or develop over time. The group notes should be clearly written and easy to read. Also be sure that the notes are well-edited and formatted before you share them with the class by the deadline. In other words, formatting, grammar, and syntax are important contributions to this wiki and the creation of all knowledge. I will also post my comments about the notes (but not their score) to the page of the wiki, so the whole class can see them.

Having class notes from the whole quarter collected on the wiki will also help you see exactly how much work takes place in a classroom and it will be a useful resource for reviewing material that you might have missed or when preparing for exams. Note that it’s very easy to do this assignment badly. (“Ooh–we’ll divvy up the different required parts, and just slap it all online.”) But the point of a wiki really is to try to collaboratively draft, revise, and rethink material. Change stuff. Use the “Discussion” feature. Link to other days’ notes to extend the conversation. Don’t be afraid of the site: There’s nothing you can break.

Evaluation

Your wiki notes grade will include both a group and an individual component. Note-taking is worth 20% of your final grade. I’ll evaluate each day’s notes according to how well they cover the summary, highlights and key terms described above. In addition to a group grade, a portion of each student’s individual grade will come from my and the rest of your group’s assessment of your individual contributions to the wiki.

This means Wiki Notes grades will be consist of three components:

• One group grade for each set of Wiki Notes, posted within a week of the three-day posting deadline, for the basic criteria above;
• One individual grade, based on your contributions to Wiki Notes throughout the quarter;
• A second group grade for each set of Wiki Notes, assessed at the end of the quarter, evaluating the extent to which the group has truly collaborated on the notes, revised and extended their initial draft, and made connections to other material.