Diagnostic

This 50-question online “exam” evaluates student’s academic language skills and provides a customised learning development and language refinement program that the learner will systematically complete through the duration of the semester.  The Diagnostic Assessment is divided into 2 Parts:

Part 1: On time completion of the online diagnostic exam.

Part 2: Students are required to log a minimum of 13 hours of online "active" attendance on the Composition Connect customised learning program. Student progress as of the conclusion of Week 13 will be compared to the individual's initial diagnostic score to produce a "Progress Score".  

The “Jigsaw” reading outlines provide an expert overview of an assigned reading in a presentation format.  These outlines will be presented to group members during the tutorial and will provide a concise but thorough understanding of the text’s main tenets and applications.  Each student will read and take detailed notes on two assigned texts.  He/she will develop an outline that will function as presentation notes and will include: full bibliographic citation, concise definitions of discipline-specific key terms, the central claim and focus of the text, a discussion of what content/evidence was most significant, and an interpretation of how the content impacts the group’s social inclusion topic.

As part of a four-stage portfolio, students will be placed in groups and assigned a topic examining a social inclusion issue.  This task requires students to critically read and evaluate discipline-specific texts related to the assigned topic.  Each student is required to read three (3) relevant texts and write an annotation summary for each, identifying the salient points, key statistics and points of reliability for why the article is a valid resource in the academic community. 

Wheen choosing their three texts to annotate, students must choose a variety of academically-reliable resources:

1 scholarly journal article, 

1 government or NGO report

1 edited book chapter

Note: Students should collabroate with their groups to ensure that each student chooses three distinct resources (i.e. a group of 4 students should have 12 different resources).  (750 words) 

The Literature Review organises critical information collected in the annotated bibliography to present an information report written for a professional audience.  This review will effectively integrate figures and graphs to illustrate salient information and statistics.

Students are required to reference at least six (6) sources outside of the course materials (note: resources summarised in the annotated bibliography can comprise three of the six) and the prescribed format will replicate the reports examined in class.  (1200 words)

The Oral Presentation builds on the information synthesised both in the Annotated Bibliography and the Literature Review.  Students organise information related to their topics and collaborate to produce a coherent, multi-dimensional informative report on the topic, evaluating the situation and presenting insightful recommendations to respond to a salient issue within the topic area.

Student presentations will demonstrate an ability to collaborate effectively to identify issues and problem-solve solutions.  Each group member will deliver a 5-minute portion of the presentation followed by a 5-10 minute Q&A session in which the presenters will actively respond to audience enquiry. Students who are functioning as the “audience” of a given presentation will be required to complete a “Question Development Worksheet” and will be assessed on their ability to formulate probing questions relevant to their peer’s presentations.

Note: Presentations will include illustrative Tables and/or Figures to support the content of the presentation.  Each presentation must include at least one original data diagram (Figure or Table) and at least one borrowed data diagram.  Each data diagram will be presented with a coherent data commentary to explain the content and its relevance to the issue being presented. 

The group’s PPT presentation will be submitted with each individual’s contributions clearly identified.  At the conclusion of the presentations, each individual student will also submit their Question Development Worksheet.

The Persuasive texts assignment involves two critical parts: (1) A formal academic essay and (2)a persuasive brochure written for a professional, non-academic audience.  Both parts will focus on identical content and arguments; however, the essay will be written for a specialist, academic audience and the brochure will be written for a professional, non-academic audience.

These persuasive texts will identify a recommendation in response to the social inclusion issue topic.  The argument essay outlines the key arguments supporting a central thesis, referencing relevant evidence to support each argument before reiterating and reinforcing the thesis through a summary of salient arguments.  The persuasive brochure will similarly outline the salient issues related to issue and implicitly guide readers to the "call to action".

In the argument essay students are required to reference at least eight (8) sources outside of the course materials (note: resources included in the annotated bibliography and resources reviewed in the group “jigsaw” presentations may be included) and demonstrate the ability to synthesise information and views from a variety of perspectives to produce a coherent, well-supported recommendation. 

Note: The persuasive brochure should include a data commentary to support the recommendations/arguments.  (1800 words; i.e. 1200 for the essay; 600 for the brochure)