Since your grade in this course is based 100% on labor, you need to spend time making your work visible. You will log your work, noting what you do, how long you work, and how hard you worked. You should always be able to tell how you are doing by checking your log entries.

At the end of the term, you will write a performance review (your final exam) that explains what you have accomplished and provides a self-evaluation of your work in the course.

Logs in the Workplace

Keeping a log of your accomplishments in the workplace can help you do a better job as well as insure you have evidence of your best work when you need it.

The 2016 Harvard Business School study “Making Experience Count: The Role of Reflection in Individual Learning” found “a significant increase in the ability to successfully complete a task when individuals are given the chance to couple some initial experience with a deliberate effort to articulate and codify the key lessons learned from such experience” (72). In other words, spending time reflecting on what you do and what you learn from your task improves your ability to do that work. Why? When you begin a similar task, you are better able to apply the experience from your previous experiences.

In addition to helping you build on your past successes, a record of your work gives you ample concrete evidence of your successes. The Monster.com article “Track Your Own Performance Every Step of the Way” outlines the information you should include, what to leave out, and how to use your logs to demonstrate your abilities.

How Log Entries Work In This Course

Each Friday, you will write a log entry in Canvas that describes your work for the week in each of the categories that are described on the Requirements page:

• Reading, Listening, and Viewing
• Writing
• Providing & Responding to Feedback
• Reflecting
• Collaborating

Essentially, you will look at your work in the course and add details to the log entry to track what you have done, describing what you did, the time you spent on the task, and the intensity of your work. You can include links to relevant drafts, discussion posts, and other work that you do. You will also add reflections on the work you have accomplished and what you have learned.

How Grading Works

You will use this log to document your work in the course. You are graded on the work you do, so this log is critical to doing well.

You will earn either a 100 (for acceptable work) or a 0 (for unacceptable work) on each entry. If you earn a 0, you can revise the entry until you receive a 100. There is no grade penalty related to revision. The only penalty comes from skipping the entries or failing to reach an acceptable level of work. If you do not complete them acceptably, you will not earn a B or better in the course.

In addition, these logs are the raw material that you will use at the end of the term to write your performance review. You can quote sections of your log entries to help demonstrate the time and intensity you have invested in the course.

Icons all from The Noun Project and used under a CC-BY license: LOG File by Pranav Grover, and sheet by Gregor Cresnar