General feedback on Topic 1

Thanks for all the enthusiastic and informative topic 1 contributions. We are *really pleased* at the high standard of work and we look forward to reading your topic 2 contributions. A few points to bear in mind please:

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 to complete the self assessment, 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.

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. And please make sure you include a word count at the foot of each post.

Including relevant pictures, videos or diagrams in your posts is a good thing,  but 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, or indicate clearly if you have created them yourself.

Some 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, so 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…

Please take note of further information shared on the #UOSM2033 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 topic reflections 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.

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.