How course could be improved
Most of my suggestions for this course are ones that I feel that many others will not share, because I noticed many of my classmates are very proficient in blogging and Web design. However, I found the course, though much more accessible toward the end, very intimidating at first for people with no former experience creating blogs. Sometimes I became confused, not only by the technical aspects of blog design, but also by the objectives of each writing assignment.
Clarity
This class could benefit from more clarity as far as what is expected in each post. I found myself making mistakes on assignments because I misunderstood the purpose of the assignment and what the instructor was looking for. This gradually became much less of a problem, however, as I got used to the class and its objectives. Having done more readings and seen more examples, I became more comfortable with the assignments and what their aims were.
Technical Guidance
Second, I think the course would be stronger if it offered a strictly technical component for people like me who have never created or posted on a blog before. It would be very useful to devote some time to WordPress itself, including posting, slide shows, and even some HTML. At first, I remember being quite intimidated and nervous about the class, since many of my classmates already seemed to have extensive experience with blogging and HTML coding.
As with the issue mentioned above, I became more comfortable as time went on, but I would encourage an introductory segment for people like me who are much less familiar with the techniques involved in creating a working blog from the ground up. I realize, of course, that this would have been painfully boring for many of the students in the class, so I would suggest not making this a mandatory component of the course. Maybe an introductory reference section could be added to the textbook as a technical guide for the uninitiated. (I would like to add, though, that both the instructor and my fellow classmates were eager to help when I had technical questions.)
Useful Modules
I found the text very informative and helpful, but was especially drawn to those readings which I felt would be more useful in my planned future career as an international correspondent. For example, Module 8, which dealt with knowing one’s audience, discussed cultural and ethnic differences as an important issue to consider in communication. This was invaluable to me, because I will have to keep differences in culture and language in the back of my mind at all times in order to do my job effectively. Since I’m also very interested in how advertisers communicate their messages, I was fascinated with the section about online advertising. I also got quite a lot out of the Screen Writing module, since I feel it got to the heart of the difference between writing for old and new media.
The modules that were less engaging, from my point of view, were the ones concerning business communication (intranets and extranets) and public relations, but I think this was for the simple reason that these are not my areas of interest. In both of these modules, I was able to find useful information that I may well draw on in my future career.
