Course Announcements

Yammer Links

Sun, 22 May 2016 07:30:53 -0400

Everyone:

All the Yammer discussions are linked in your course lessons. Also, here is the link to find ALL the discussions (you can use this link and click on the discussion you need or click on the link within a lesson). The link is: https://www.yammer.com/comm409/#/groups/8170603/notes

You must post to the correct page by the weekly deadline to get credit for your post. If you post to another page, I will not see it nor will most of your classmates. You have all the correct links, so if you click a link and it does not take you to the correct page, please contact the Help Desk. There may be issues with your Yammer account or your Internet browser.

If a link is broken for some reason, please let me know immediately so I may contact our course/instructional technicians to work on the link. I cannot fix the links, but the techs can usually resolve the issue within 24 hours.

Stacie

Final Project

Sun, 15 May 2016 11:54:23 -0400

Everyone:

As I mentioned in the first announcement, you should read the instructions for the final project carefully and begin working on it sooner rather than later. This is not a project you can do overnight. There will be mini-deadlines along the way where you will earn points for working on the project, but I STRONGLY encourage you to get started by selecting a topic and an interview source.

The instructions are located in several places in the course. The instructions may be found in the syllabus and Lessons 8, 10 and 12.

Your first deadline is in Lesson 8, at which time you will need to post your topic and interview source. I suggest you start on this much earlier and post your topic and source before Lesson 8. That way, I can approve your topic and/or offer feedback and you can get started.

Your second deadline is Lesson 10, at which time you must post suggestions for the interview and interview questions to two of your classmates' posts.

Finally, your paper is due in Lesson 12 on Monday, Aug. 8 at 7 a.m. No extensions will be granted, so please plan accordingly.

In the past, students have had a few issues. First, some students find it difficult to come up with an appropriate topic and source. This takes time, which is why I suggest you start now. If you wait until the week before the assignment is due, you will already be behind. You need to start your research now.

I encourage you to find several choices and start contacting potential sources. If you choose only one topic and contact only one source, you are putting yourself into a small corner. Not everyone you reach out to will call or email you back; you need to reach out to 8 or 10 sources initially. If more than one source returns your call or email, then you can decide which topic you want to pursue and whom you want to interview.

If the first sources you reach out to do not respond, reach out to more. The bottom line is that you cannot wait weeks for someone to get in touch. If you reach out to 10 people and don't get a response within a few days, reach out to 10 more. The longer you wait, the less time you have to conduct the interview and write the paper.

Don't be afraid to reach out to your local news outlets (newspapers, news radio and TV news operations) but feel free to reach out to large news organizations. I've had students interview sources from The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Network TV news sources are usually the most difficult to reach; I've watched students struggle to get to the right person or get a returned call or email.

Feel free to reach out through social media. I had one student last semester who reached his source through Twitter. Reach out in multiple ways so you can have a better chance of getting a response.

Be sure to select a source who works full time in the professional media. You may not choose a student journalist (even if he or she is working for a news organization while in school or on an internship) or a professor. You must choose a full-time media professional, not a freelancer or former reporter or editor.

Second, students find that sources renege on their commitments. Sometimes a source will tell a student that he or she will be happy to be interviewed and then won't respond to follow up calls or email messages. I suggest that as soon as a source says he or she will help that you call or email the source. Do the interview immediately before he or she forgets or changes his or her mind.

If you reach out to a source who has said he or she will help and then doesn't respond, move on. You cannot wait weeks for the source to get back to you. Go to your back-up plan, which is why I suggested reaching out to many people initially so you have a second person to interview if your first choice fails to get back in touch with you. This happens every semester, so don't think it can't happen to you.

Phone calls are the best way to conduct the interview if you can't do it in person. You may conduct your interview via email if that's what your source prefers, but be aware that you may not get long answers to your questions. Follow-up questions via email are fine but the back and forth may take time. Several previous students have had difficulty getting enough information through email because the source answered very briefly. In-person and telephonic interiews are the best way to get the most information. Your paper must be 3 to 5 pages, so be sure you have enough information to answer all the questions provided in the instructions and meet the length requirement.

Finally, your final paper is due by the deadline. Because we have students graduating, I must have grades turned in quickly so there are no extensions. If you miss the deadline, you will get a zero. If you email me the day before the paper is due and say your source hasn't gotten back to you, then there's not much I can do to help you. Do not wait too long for a source to get in touch; reach out to another source and get that interview finished. If you wait until the night before to start writing the paper and your computer crashes, your Internet goes down or your electricity goes out, there's not much I can do to help. You have ample time to write the paper if you plan ahead.

Your paper must be written as a paper that answers all the questions provided in the instructions. Do not submit it as a Q&A. It is a paper that must have paragraphs; proper grammar, spelling and punctuation; an introduction and a conclusion, etc.

I will keep reminding you to work on this project as we go through the course. You must stay on top of it. I've had students finish the project very early and then not have to worry about it the rest of the semester. Likewise, I've seen students procrastinate, wait too long for responses and delay starting the project and get a very low score or a zero because of a lack of planning.

Please review the instructions and let me know if you have questions. I am here to help you any way I can.

Stacie

Welcome to COMM 409

Sun, 15 May 2016 11:41:47 -0400

Hi, and welcome to COMM 409!

As this course begins, I want to give you what I hope will be helpful information. The first week always seems to bring the most questions, and I hope to answer some of them here.

Lesson Schedules

Remember that each lesson will start on a Monday and finish on Sunday night, although many of your deadlines will be the following Monday morning at 7 a.m. ET. Keep in mind that some of your discussion board posts will be due on Friday, with follow-up posts (responses to classmates) due on Sunday night. No late discussion board posts will be accepted. If you miss a post, you will earn a zero for that post. Please plan accordingly and make note of these deadlines.

Your other assignments (quizzes, media watch, etc.) may be submitted late but with significant penalties. If you consistently submit late assignments, you will hurt your grade. Late submissions will allow you to earn some points (always better than a zero), but you will not be able to earn high scores and a high final grade if you have many late submissions.

Read the Syllabus

Please read the syllabus and the schedule carefully. Take notes. Ask questions now. If you ask a question about an assignment at 11 p.m. the night before it is due, chances are you are not going to get a response from me in time to submit your work before the deadline.

It is imperative that you read the information about the course project, which is due the last week of class. This is not a project on which you can procrastinate; you will have mini-deadlines along the way, but you need to start working on the project very soon. Read the instructions now and ask questions so you may get started quickly. I cannot stress enough how important it is to get started on the project early.

I check my PSU email and course messages a few times a day, and I will get back to you within 24 hours, usually much faster. But, like most of you, I have many other responsibilities so I am not online 24/7. If you email me in the middle of the day, I may not get back to you until that evening or the next morning. If you email me in the middle of the night, it’s most likely that I’ll respond the following morning.

Join the Yammer Group

Be sure to join our Yammer group immediately. All discussion posts will be made in Yammer, and the sooner you join the group, the sooner you can start participating in these discussions.

The first discussion starts this week, and that is an introduction. Please take a few minutes and introduce yourself to me and to your classmates. The Yammer discussions are links, so all you need to do once you join the group is click on the link and you will go directly to the page to make your post.

Videos from Another Instructor

You will notice that each of the lessons has a video (or videos) of an instructor pointing out things about the lessons or about Yammer. I am not the instructor in the video, but I kept these videos in the lessons because I do believe they are helpful. You are not required to watch these videos for each lesson, but I encourage you to at least watch some of them or parts of them. For example, the video in Lesson 1 covers the importance of posting in the correct discussion on Yammer. If you post to the wrong place, I won’t see your post and you’ll get a zero. Each Yammer discussion is linked to its correct page, so that shouldn't be an issue, but every semester students post to the wrong page(s) and end up missing points for not posting to the correct page.

Other videos in the lessons – the ones that are linked or are from an outside source such as YouTube – are ones you must watch. You’ll be able to tell the difference. If you aren’t sure of the difference, please let me know.

Course Reserves

All materials that are “on reserve” should be linked in the lessons. I have the tech folks double checking this week to make sure that is the case. If something isn’t linked, I will let you know. But right now, if you search by my name for the course reserves, you will get the materials for the other course I teach (COMM 412), and that won’t help you.

Broken Links

If you come across a broken link in a lesson, please let me know. I will contact the tech folks immediately to resolve the issue. I cannot resolve them on my end, but I will work with those who can to get the broken link fixed or replaced as quickly as possible.

As you know from using the Internet, something can be there one day and gone the next. I try to check every link before each week’s lesson begins, but it may work for me on Sunday night and be broken for you by Monday night. When we link to external sources, we have no control over their maintaining the link.

Using the Help Desk

If you have technical issues with Angel or Yammer, please contact the Help Desk immediately. I cannot resolve technical issues for you. I wish I could be more helpful in those areas, but I don’t have the permissions or the training to do that.

Drop Boxes

Please use the drop boxes for your assignments. If you have trouble with the drop boxes, you may email your assignment to me, but then contact the Help Desk to resolve the issue.

Completing and Submitting Your Assignments

Please submit your assignment as a Word document attachment. Do not type your assignment into Angel and submit it in the drop box.

Also, be sure to put your name on EVERY assignment. I often print your assignments and grade them while I am away from my home office.

Grading

I try to get back to you with feedback and scores within 48 to 72 hours. If I am unable to do that, I’ll let you know. Like you, I have computer issues or Internet connectivity issues from time to time, and also like you, I have issues with Angel or Yammer, too. But I do my best to post scores and feedback quickly so you have time to learn from any mistakes before the next assignment is due.

Check Your PSU Email and the Course Site

I frequently send the class email (it will go to your PSU email and/or whatever other email you have designated) and send messages via the course site. I also post to the Announcements section. Check these regularly for updates and important information.

Telling me “I didn’t check my email” or “I never read my messages” is not an acceptable excuse for missing something.

Keeping in Touch

Because this class is online, it is imperative that you let me know if you have questions or are having trouble completing assignments. The sooner you let me know, the sooner I can help. If I don’t hear from you, then I think all is well and you have no questions or issues. I know most of you are not journalism students, so some material may be completely new to you. I’m here to help you understand it and to become better consumers of media and news.

Although it may seem like you are alone sometimes, you are not. I am just an email away and am happy to help you as best I can.

Stacie