Assignment 3: Final Reflective Blog(s) (Individual)

This assignment supports you in developing competency in the following Competency Domains:

Domain 2: Critical, Creative, and Transdisciplinary Thinking

Domain 5: Communication and Knowledge Mobilization

Domain 6: Change Making Orientation

In addition to the agreed upon deliverables in your COSA, you will also produce a final reflective blog post for each 3 credits outlined in your COSA. This final reflective blog will be based on your ongoing, critical reflections about the learning, documented over the course of the learning.

In order to generate this Assignment (Final) Reflective blog, you will be asked to keep a reflexive blog/journal over the course of your learning (3-9 credits). This journal is private, and will not be assessed, however entries from it will be used to (1) support the integration of your learning with ongoing reflection; and (2) contribute to your writing of the final, formal, reflective blog entry (Assignment 3). The Final Reflective blog will consist of a series of entries from this private journal (3-5), curated with a written introduction, and narrative that respond to the following prompts:

• Evidence project/learning activity development and your main learnings in regards to the learning outcomes and personal development you outlined in your COS. Consider the following prompts:

• Evidence the background for major decisions in your learning and how these decisions were/are supported in relevant literature.
• How did the course of study inform (validate, challenge, invite revisions) your Climate Action Leadership Plan or your theory of change as developed in CALS 601, 691?
• How did you participate in/contribute to the learning Community of Practice (CoP)?.

The Final Reflexive blog post should be approximately 1500 words.

Post your blog post on your WordPress site (blog site). You are expected to incorporate currently accepted APA standards for citations, formatting, and references, and as with all academic writing, take opportunities to support your claims with evidence and link to appropriate academic literature as necessary, and provide references in APA format. You are required to pay attention to grammar and clarity and to avoid colloquialisms.

You may want to review this resource on General Academic Reflections.

Assessment

Grading: P/F

Submit: your WordPress Blog site

Assessment of Evidence-based Scholarship will align with the following criteria:

The assignments in this course are graded as pass/fail with the overall course being assessed as Credit Granted. A pass in this case is equivalent to the standards associated with an ‘A’ or ‘B’ level as outlined in the RRU graduate grading policy. ‘A’ and ‘B’ level standards are based on academic writing and expression that demonstrates the synthesis and integration of evidence, structure, and format. Academic writing and expression in other formats include points 1 – 3 below:

1. Integration of evidence: Clear and explicit in the synthesis of relevant theory linked to personal experiences, practices, and reflections. Conceptually supported by effectively using relevant and appropriate paraphrasing and quotations from the course materials, other relevant literature, and/or organizational documents, to substantiate assertions, generalizations, and conclusions.

‘A’ level: Clear synthesis, comparison, and contrast of evidence about experience, self-observation, and feedback, and their relationship to the theoretical and empirical literature, and well-conceived arguments (critical analysis). Paraphrasing and quotations illuminate, illustrate, and provide supportive evidence for concepts being presented, and are typically relevant, crisp, and concisely selected from course materials and broader, more current sources (including RRU Library Summon searches).

‘B’ level: Assertions, generalizations, and conclusions are supported with evidence from the literature or by detailed relevant personal experience, with observation and feedback, but may be only tentatively connected to the literature, and present limited critical analysis and synthesis. Quotations are more loosely selected or more verbose or don’t convincingly illustrate or provide evidence for the assertion being made.

2. Structure: Organized, ordered, and orchestrated: paragraphs are focused, with a clearly articulated thesis or purpose statement, and organized into a logical sequence involving an introduction, distinct points in the body of the writing, and a conclusion that ties the elements together.

 ‘A’ level: Scholarly writing is easy to read, and involves well-thought-through levels of argument, critical analysis, and insight.

‘B’ level: Scholarly writing is less polished, orchestration is less evident, as demonstrated by inconsistencies in usage, or superficial or verbose descriptions and reflections, indicative of someone learning how to write using an academic style.

3. Format: Presented with all sources appropriately cited and referenced with consistently used formatting based on the currently accepted APA Publication Manual.

‘A’ level: Consistently adheres to current APA standards, with few, if any mechanical disruptions, and involves consistent use of appropriate Canadian spelling, syntax, grammar, and sentence paragraph structure.

‘B’ level: No more than four or five major current APA formatting errors, or mechanical disruptions, involving inconsistent spelling, word usage, or problems with syntax, grammar, and/or sentence and paragraph structure.

If any final grade for a course competency is F, then, depending on the seriousness of the deficiency, and in consultation with the instructor and the Program Head, one opportunity to revise and resubmit the failing assignment may be granted. If the overall course grade is determined to be an F, you will be required to repeat the course.

Consistent with RRU policies, students who are absent from the course learning environment (WordPress and Moodle sites) in Weeks 1 and 2 and/or miss two or more of the learning activities or will be Required to Withdraw (RW).

Descriptions of INC and EG

• See the General Academic Regulations for the RRU grading policy (available online).
• See also the RRU Academic Integrity and Misconduct in Research and Scholarship Polic