I started SOS 110 in December 2022, and now that I'm in my final week, I'm going to follow LevelUP's format and share my experience and thoughts.
The first noticeable changes:
- As P226mem stated, MyLab & Nimble are no longer part of the course.
- Quizzes/Nimble/MyLab together was worth 36% of your grade, now that only quizzes remain, they are worth 9% of your grade.
- (+1 Quiz, -1 Written assignment) => 6 Quizzes instead of 5 Quizzes, 6 Written assignments instead of 7.
In order easiest to hardest with writing sections last.
Section 1: Quizzes (6 parts) 9% of your grade (Previously 10% of your grade)
Easy as you can retake the quizzes as many times as you like. You can take the quiz before you cover the module if you want to test your previous knowledge on the subject, or you can take them after you finish the modules readings to reinforce what you've covered. The questions do change, both in order and the pool of questions but it is low stress as the highest score is what appears in the grade.
Section 2: Discussion posts (6 parts) 24% of your grade (Previously 12% of your grade)
Some discussion posts require you to complete a task as part of your post, e.g. Researching a topic and evaluating XYZ, or summarize a topic and share your thoughts on how it relates to a certain module. My discussion posts averaged about 500 words. You still need to make at least 2 responses to your classmate's posts, which is the most painful part as some people wait until the due date. I was lucky to have a good number of military students in my class and some of them would post 3 days early. Some of my classmates got sick towards the holidays and I thought half the class must have dropped the course because of how few posts there were, but then I saw posts and responses a week after they were due.
Section 3: Final Paper (1 paper but has 4 parts) 25% of your grade (Previously 20% of your grade)
By the time you have to turn in your final paper, most of the writing should be done as you have to turn in the parts earlier during the course. Assignment 2, 3 & 4 assist you towards the final paper, e.g. topic selection, research, etc.
Section 4: Written Assignments (6 parts) 42% of your grade (Previously 32% of your grade)
On average the written assignments are 500 to 1000 words, double-spaced. Save yourself some time and download a APA style paper word template.
Beware of Assignment 6, the module seems short, and you will think you are in the clear but seriously I highly recommend when you start Assignment 2, which tells you to review the information for your Final Paper, to make note of Assignment 6 then... because you will be better off being aware of Assignment 6 before you start Module 6. Don't let Assignment 6 scare you when you start Assignment 2, just be aware of it. Heck, I would have been less stressed if I was more aware of it during Module 4.
Recommendations to make things easier:
- Print out the course calendar and write down the due dates on it or put the due dates in your phone, bullet journal, whatever you use to keep track your appointments and life events.
- Work ahead if you can, if you finish a module a week early, go ahead and reward yourself with a daybreak but then start the next module. Some modules are quick, others are painfully long and it's difficult if you are on the painfully long module and you have an assignment due 2 days after starting it.
- If you finish a written assignment early, don't submit them too early. Once you submit your assignment, it will prompt you to confirm that the paper you've uploaded is the one you wish to submit, once you've confirmed it, you can't resubmit it (At least without asking if your professor can clear your submission out for you to resubmit it). Due to weighted grading of the written assignments, you are better off waiting until the day before the due date or the due date itself rather than locking in an assignment that you noticed you missed part of the directions or had incorrect APA formatting.
Things you can do before you even register for the course to make your life better:
The only thing I didn't expect:
There was a required introduction post (that I didn't count as part of the total discussion posts above) which had to be a video post. Here's the google doc explaining how to record the videos:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Qd6...aiOZXt5uk/
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