To start, we’ll be doing our work online. So, to support your learning and engagement in this particular environment, I am using a grading scheme called badge grading—more about that later. In short, you will be rewarded for the work that you complete rather than penalized for the work you do not.
Second, I specialize in digital writing in particular, so my own specialty will inform the work that you do in this course. I am in the English department by do not focus on writing essays or critiquing literature. Instead, my scholarly focus is on the production and analysis of digital texts, so I teach courses like “Writing for the Web” and “Rhetoric in a Digital Age” as part of the English Department’s Writing, Rhetoric, and Publication program.
Rather than making the focus of this course the reading and writing of essays or the critique of literature, we will be focused on analyzing and redeveloping information designed to circulate online.
Specifically, we will be looking at different kinds of information shared about coronavirus and COVID-19. In your own projects, you are welcome to continue to explore COVID-19. And you are also more than welcome to focus on a different kind of information shared online.