General feedback on topic 1

Thanks for all the enthusiastic and informative topic 1 contributions. I realise that this post is long and text-heavy (just what we’ve told you NOT to do, I know) but there is a lot of useful feedback here that you really should incorporate into your topic 2 work, so PLEASE READ IT CAREFULLY.  We will discuss it further in the Live session too.

Your individual feedback is on your Googledoc – please check it and add comments/queries if you wish. You may have been asked for more information, for example direct links to the comments you’ve made, in which case the marking process won’t yet be complete. If your YELLOW highlighting is unchanged, the tutor has agreed with your self-assessment. Any changes we have made are highlighted in GREEN, and will have an explanatory comment added.

If you read the marking criteria carefully, you will see that the highest marks are awarded for evidence/analysis/evaluation. Many of you are currently operating at the more descriptive level, (middle column of the table) which means largely reflecting back what we’ve already provided to you. At this point I must say that there is NO PLACE (in any module) for vague (and totally incorrect!) statements such as “everyone has a smart phone” or “everyone uses the internet”. Even something like “most people have a smart phone” might be factually correct, but is still only (contestable) opinion without the evidence to support it. So if the statement becomes “As evidenced by <Report A (link to source)> X% of the Singapore population specifically engage with the internet on their smartphones…and the age breakdown is….and the implications of this are….” then you can see how it is moving you across towards the right hand side of the marksheet.

Most of you quite correctly agreed that the original “digital native/immigrant” argument based on age has limited value, but some of you still applied it to yourselves/families, despite the very critical approach taken to this in the topic 1 notes provided! It is disappointing that the term has caught on in the popular press and you will still find many uncritical references in the media to young people as “digital natives”. Hopefully you now see the danger of relying on the “truth” of any popular online theme without first digging a little deeper…

Try to keep your work focused and avoid repetition. There is no need to use large amounts of the word limit simply repeating the arguments provided in the initial notes. The key thing is to quickly demonstrate your understanding with a brief review of the topic, but then take the discussion further by commenting on your own experience as a web user, and further examples from *your own reading* which support the points you make, or demonstrate how the topic is evolving in respect of recent developments. Too many of you at the moment are relying too heavily on (some of) the suggested reading which is supposed to just *get you started*

So *please* read the materials provided very carefully and take care to use the correct terminology in your posts. Some of you also confused the native/immigrant and visitor/resident names and arguments more generally, suggesting only a cursory reading of the sources provided had taken place…you know who you are….

Although Topic 1 does not officially “count”, as Marketing students you will know that understanding how your customers behave is important in determining how best to engage with them. You will frequently need to refer back to this topic as we progress through the module.

Including relevant pictures, videos or diagrams in your posts is a good thing, but as we discussed in the Live sessions, please make sure you have permission to use them or that they are ones you have taken/created yourselves. If not, read the Tips and Hints post about using images for blogging. You should only use the material if the author specifically allows it – and make sure you always credit them.

Many of you still need to work on the structure and layout of your blogs. Make sure you have chosen a style which is easy to navigate, and that the reader can easily find your work. You are less likely to get comments from colleagues if the posts are hard to locate or move between. Make sure too that you have done your “housekeeping” – for example complete the “about me” sections, (perhaps with some reflection on your intial self test?) remove any placeholder widgets, allow posting of comments without prior approval, and connect your twitter feeds. Take care with the language used aswell – plain English and correct spelling is good, slang and over-sharing is not. The test is whether or not you would be comfortable with a future employer reading your work – would it raise their expectations of you, or lower them? First impressions count.

Keep discussions going! If someone replies to your post, please respond back to them with your thoughts on their comment. Obviously there is a limit to this, most conversations have an end point and there are no prizes for “dragging out” a topic beyond its natural life span…

Don’t forget to reference your posts as necessary, as with any university work. This can be done by indicating the author’s name/date (eg Bloggs, 2016) where relevant within the post (with the name directly linked to the source if possible) and quoting the full reference in a list at the bottom of your post.

Please take note of further information shared on the #MANG2049 hashtag on twitter, questions raised and answered, good practice observed in the work of your colleagues or tutors etc.

People posting later can obviously benefit from the content of the posts of others, but if you are using someone else’s ideas from the group you should specifically acknowledge this. Good practice would be to state something like “I really liked X’s post about Y, and that made me think of Z which adds value to the discussion because…” It will be very evident to markers from the time stamp if people are waiting until the last minute in order to rely too heavily on the work of others, without giving anything back in return. Also, late posters are unlikely to attract many helpful comments on their own work as the main momentum of the group will have moved on.

Make sure your reflective summaries don’t just repeat your original answers to the set question, but instead draw in what you have learned subsequently since reading and responding to the work of others – feel free to highlight specific posts/tweets by your colleagues or tutors that you found useful and why.

*Please make sure that you include DIRECT links to the comments you’ve made on the work of other students in your summary post so we can read everything in one place*.

This Topic 1 is not formally graded but please adjust your approach if necessary as suggested in the feedback for your contributions to Topics 2 – 5.