ASSESSMENTS AND THE BLOG

Hi All,

I mentioned below that I'd write a post to clear up some issues around assessment and the blogs.

Firstly all the assessment details are on the course outline and each experiment briefs.

Here: http://russelllowe.com/arch1101_2012/course_info/course_outline.html

and here: http://russelllowe.com/arch1101_2012/experiment1/brief/brief_exp1.htm

The link to the marking schedule is at the top of each brief page.

Pay special attention to the "Assessable Outputs" component in the "Experiment Outline" section of the brief. These assessable outputs won't change. They are also reflected in the marking schedule.

One question from the Student Reps yesterday was regarding how the Blogs fit into all of this.

All of your submissions are accessed via your blogs; in other words ... your tutors will be marking the work they see on your blogs (you don't hand in your sketchbooks, you scan and upload/link everything to your blog). They'll not only look at the work you've indicated is directly linked to the assessment outputs (the sections, animations of the SketchUp model, etc) they'll also see all the progress and process work that has gone into creating them. While this is not a part of each experiment assessment it does sometimes help to see how you got to where you got to; and it counts towards the 10% participation mark for the course overall.

Uploading everything to your blog as you go along has other advantages too. It serves as a great backup system. If the dog eats your sketchbook it doesn't matter if all the drawings have been uploaded before she does. I met a student last week who's notebook was destroyed by a freak act of nature ... think taxi and huge puddle and you'll get the idea. This stuff does happen; so using your blog as a backup is a sensible thing to do. The blog is also a great way to establish your international reputation ... people from all around the world look at these blogs, why not have all the great architecture, arch computing or engineering firms following your blog before you graduate? Done right it will show them the extents of your talents well beyond what a job interview ever could. Finally ... the whole class benefits from a vibrant and constantly updated blog network. You'll learn an enormous amount from your classmates, so make sure you check out what students in other tutorial groups are doing.

Cheers, feel free to leave a comment if you'd like anything else regarding assessment clarified.