Introduction

Each module includes a graded discussion assignment. I recommend that you contribute to the discussion after you have finished the week’s reading, video, and graded assignments so that you are writing from an informed position. To receive credit, posts must be made during the Tuesday to Monday period specified for the discussion. Late posts receive no credit.

You may post more than once. I encourage you to respond to what others have written in addition to your comment in the Response part below. You are allowed to edit and delete your own posts prior to the discussion deadline.

Most posts consist of two parts.

Response part (1 point, 30-word minimum)

Starting in Module 2, this part contains:

A vote for the person who wrote the most informative post in the previous week. Please boldface the person’s name.
A brief explanation for your vote and a reply, comment, or additional information related to what the person wrote.

My hope is that this part will encourage better posts, reward people who put a lot of time and thought into their posts, foster the reading of other people's contributions, and promote a sense of community among the participants.

Please be courteous to your classmates, use appropriate etiquette in your posts, and keep your comments positive.

I will tally the votes and award the winner an extra 5 points on the previous week’s discussion. In the case of a tie, 10 points will be distributed among the winners. You may not vote for yourself. For each student, there will be a course limit of 20 extra points. If a winner has reached his/her point limit, the student with the next highest number of votes will receive the points.

Research part (3 points, 100-word minimum)

The second part is a contribution on one of the topics specified in the discussion assignment. The purpose of this part is to share new information that is useful to the other students in the class. We don’t want a rephrasing of the material that was already in the textbook, lesson, or a previous post. Your discussion should not just be a blog about your personal experiences with the Photoshop. Commenting on what you liked or disliked about something is not useful unless it is accompanied by specific reasons for your opinion. The web, books, magazines, the Photoshop User Guide, and experimentation with Photoshop are good resources for additional information. Reference your sources appropriately. Put everything in your own words with the exception of an occasional quote. Again, please keep your comments positive; if you want to complain about something, send me an email.

In addition to text, adding these other elements to your post will improve your post and your grade:

Click the Link to URL button to create a hyperlink to a website, article, image, or video that helps to illustrate your point. For example, see Embedding a URL video link in a Discussion in the Student Canvas Guide.
Click the Attach button to add a link to a relevant file on your computer. See Attaching a File in a Discussion in the Student Canvas Guide. The file will be uploaded to Canvas. You can only upload one attachment in each reply.
Click the Embed Image icon to place an image within your text. See Embedding an Image in a Discussion in the Student Canvas Guide. In this case you either provide its URL, upload it first to Canvas (see the Files section of the Canvas Student Guide), or search by a descriptive term on Flickr, which is probably not useful for our purposes. Image files need to have the JPG, PNG, PDF, TIFF, BMP, or GIF file format.

Your text and additional materials should be such that they would get a “G” or “PG” rating at the movies. No links to websites that would be considered illegal or immoral, such as sites that offer downloads of pirated software.

Grading rubric for the Research part

3 points – the post indicates that the assigned reading, outside sources, and other student postings (unless it is the first post of the thread) have been read, analyzed and integrated together. It shows mastery of the topic with a substantial amount of new information.
2 points – the post demonstrates a good understanding of the assigned material, digs deeper into an issue, and contributes to the class. It adds a fair amount of new information to the discussion.
1 point – the post adds a small amount of new, insightful information to the discussion.
0 points – the post makes trivial comments without adding any new thought to the discussion.

In addition, points will be subtracted from both parts for:

Fewer than the specified minimum words. The deduction will be proportional to its brevity.
Writing that does not exhibit good grammar, clarity, and spelling. Use complete words and sentences, no abbreviations like LOL, but occasional emojis are okay.