Alternative to the essay: Regular writing tasks would aid learning far better than the last-minute essay

Piers MacLean

To create FirstClass web pages, you need to use the client. The browser version has limited functionality. Click on your web publishing folder to see the option to create a New Web Page. The Help icon on each screen is a good place to try if you are not sure what to do next.

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Create web pages
To create a web page:
Click New Web Page.
Select one of the basic web page templates.

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When people create more than one FirstClass web page, they usually ask how to link the pages. First, take a look at your site in a browser.

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How others can access your web site
When you view your web site by clicking View in Browser (from within your web publishing folder), your web browser's address field displays your web site's URL. This is the address to give others so they can access your web site.

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The menu on the left is automatically created so there is no need to link pages.

http://firstclass.ultraversity.net/~Kirstie.Sellers (accessed December 2008)

To create links within pages, it can be as easy as typing the full web address on the page - it works the same in a message.

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Creating URL links to web pages
To create a URL link to a web page, type the URL in the appropriate format.
For example, to link to the Ultraversity resources home page, you would type
http://researchers.ultraversity.net/

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Some researchers have found that a good web page can be the deciding factor when in competition for a job. Anyone who is thinking of becoming a teacher (primary or secondary) will find that being able to demonstrate the confidence and skill to produce a work-based web page will give an advantage over other candidates both for teacher training places and for jobs.

Why do I have web pages as part of my work?
-my area of expertise is e-learning, so it is a natural part of my work
-I had to provide a short biography as a member of staff, for the faculty web page
-I had to create a profile on the COS database for work
-I created a very brief resume in FirstClass so that researchers can find out a bit more about me, and some essential information which is not published elsewhere

Another motivation is that some of our best students - those who graduate with first class or 2.1 - produce their module portfolios as web sites, using skills developed in the course. Some of these are published on the internet - others are not public as they include sensitive information. This is not a rule, as some of those who graduate with a first class degree produced most of their work in Word but it is a noticeable pattern.

Some students will be more comfortable with a personal web page, though I would regard this as a missed opportunity to tailor your studies to your job. This is a degree in Learning, Technology& Research - that is why you are asked to develop your own web spaces.

A selection of Cohort 9 web pages from students starting a work-based Honours degree.

Mark, IT Manager, school in Vienna

Lauren, administrator, university

Julian, teaching assistant, primary school

Louise, parent

Matt, teaching assistant, primary school

Academic writing is very difficult for many people, and deliberately choosing alternative genres in text and other media is a good way to develop skills. Ideally, it would be great to see at least one patch in academic style for each module and this could be in any medium. Academics use text (research and other reports), presentations, video, photographs, posters, executive summaries, abstracts, leaflets...

In addition to academic style in various media, by consciously choosing to write a play, sing your own lyrics or prepare a presentation for your colleagues, you can work to your own strengths, base your studies in your job (choose a work based audience) and begin to understand what makes a style academic, in comparison with other styles.

Not all the academic text you will see is good - there are some dreadful videos on YouTube created by genuine academics. Have a look at some really bad stuff with a critical eye, then you will be assured that you can do better.

One of my favourites is a great photographer, who is a very poor speaker but still managed an amazing live presentation.
James Nachtwey

A stitching template has been created for students who are interested in presenting their work in a web page. It is based on the Gibbs model of reflective writing and has been made for the Introduction to Online Communication & Technology module, although the template could be used for any module.

The starting point (critical incident) was a student's draft stitching that used an alternative to the usual essay format. Constructive criticism showed that the layout was complicated to get right in a Word document, although I could see the possibility for presenting as a web page. A promising tool seemed to be the KEEP toolkit, which is based on Plone technology, supported by the Carnegie Foundation, and can be fun in a geeky kind of way. It is free. I first constructed a test page, using the draft stitching. The next step was to use what I had discovered about creating a useful layout to make a template.
http://www.cfkeep.org/users/baltr/stitching

I posted both the test page and the template to the learning community in FirstClass. The web page (snapshot) could be downloaded as an archive. More experienced web page creators could use the archive (zip) as a template, less experienced users would find it easier to work in a KEEP account, and complete beginners would probably want to throw a brick at me :-)

Initial responses have shown me that some students are excited enough to consider trying out the Keep toolkit. I think I'll see if I can post the html code into a blog entry - for this I think I will use one of my other blogs.

The 2008-9 cover sheets, provided in the Appendix D of the module guides, requests a list of file names for the module portfolio. This has been a learning episode for some students, as the file names need to match the files uploaded. A typical list from the first module, Investigating the Work Setting, is shown below:

Although acceptable in the first semester of the course, an improvement would be to use the conventions suggested in the guidance for presentation of work for assessment. The conventions derive from suggestions by the external examiner, who sees work at levels 2 and 3 of the course.