GCC Journalism: Reflections about Journalism

Class Assessment Fall 2001

This assessment tool was made available to all students in JRN 201, JRN 215, JRN 298, and NMS 215. All respondents were from the 201 News Writing class and represented about half the number in the class. Interestingly, less than half (42%) were in the class as journalism or media majors for whom the class is mandatory. Others had varying reasons for taking the class. All those responding noted that they would change their own responses as students to improve their level of success, rather than noting anything in the class itself.

Seventy-one percent saw the exercises as enhancing their skills or talent. Only one (14%) saw the story assignments (the thrust of the course) as the assignment which enhanced or encouraged. Suggestions for improving the instruction and pacing of the class presented various ideas – no two the same – that can be used by the instructor as potential changes to be made. The majority (71%) said they thought the information they had about the class before it started was sufficient for their ultimate success.

The respondents were mixed in their ideas about how their expectations for themselves matched their actual success in the class. In general, however, there was either a belief that they had only met their expectations or they had succeeded well beyond their expectations; there was little middle ground. Not surprisingly, most students wanted to improve their writing skills – learn news writing difference, tighten their writing and develop their understanding of AP Style.

There were a variety of responses, but most felt they had improved their writing through the course. The question about what particular writing activity was the most helpful, all respondents selected a different writing assignment, choosing the genre or kind of story likely that held their interest the most. Again, most (4 of 7) responded that the technology and the online information was valuable to them, although one respondent would prefer the interaction of a completely traditional classroom, and another judged the technology neither helpful or distracting.

Which class are you taking?:

• JRN 201
• JRN 201
• JRN 201
• JRN 201
• JRN 201
• JRN 201
• JRN 201

Why did you take this class?:

• Other reason
• Other reason
• Other reason
• Degree requirement
• Degree requirement
• L-1 Literacy Requirement
• Program Requirement

What would you do differently if you were taking this course over again and wanted to
improve your success in it?:

• I would try to be more focused
• Ask more questions early on
• Try to get to campus more frequently to interact with the students.
• Not procrastinate
• I'd have the school work and worked less at my job to see that I had the time to get it done.

· I would to use more detail in my articles.

• Attend more class

Which assignment or activity in this course encouraged or enhanced your particular talents?:

• The exercises and when we got to pick our own story to write

· I'm not sure if any of the assignments encouraged or enhanced my talents, this course has been difficult for me, although I take full responsibility for that.  Some things you do well, some you don't.  It did do me a tremendous favor by helping me narrow down my interest in majors though.

· The exercises were good.  They made a person think and required the reading of the text in order to answer

· I liked all the exercises, they were tailored to specific skills, that help develop your writing

· I thought the exercises enhanced my research skills.

· I enjoyed all of the exercises.

• Writing the various stories for the newspaper

What would you suggest as an improvement as far as instruction and pacing of the course?:

• Less relaxed, the course is very relaxed and I unfortunately took advantage of it.
• I wish I would have understood the format sooner, be taught the structure and style of writing, and get to practice a little bit before the first assignment, maybe that would have helped, but I realize there's not a lot of time for that.
• Mandatory weekly e-mails to instructor on progress of assignments
• Its a little difficult to do 2 stories in one seminar

· I thought it moved at an appropriate pace and that the assignments related strongly to the course.

· Get rid of the 2nd portion of the class. Combine the two, have it in a computer room and then talk half of the class and then do work the other half.

• Have more related material available for the students.  Also, more critiquing on real life articles

What other information should you have been given about this course when you registered? Would having that information have helped you succeed more in the course?:

· Not really, it was a good course and improved my writing

· It would have helped to know the writing format, but even if I knew that, you still have to try something to really know if you're going to succeed or not.  So, even with the information, the only way to be really sure is to take the course.  I don't think there's anything I could have known to change my success in the class.  It just is what it is

• The information given was enough to let the student know what was expected of them during the semester.
• No, it was all planned out very well

· I understood what was expected of me.

• None

· More information at the beginning and more lecture time.  Maybe have guest speakers from local papers or stations come talk with the class

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your actual success in the course as compared to your expectations of success? 1=about the same as expected; 10=tremendously

more than expected. What reason would you give for the difference?:

• 4, I personally expected to do better
• 1, I actually thought it would be easier for me, but it was harder than I expected, again, I feel I just personally had trouble grasping the style of writing.
• 10
• 8

· My actual success was about a 3 in comparison to how I expected to do, but that was my own fault. I was enthusiastic going into the course, but other classes, work, and my own lack of time management blew it for me.

• 7

· 2-I did a little better than I expected.  I did not attend very much class, so I was surprised to find that I was doing better than average

What particular writing skills did you hope to improve in this class? Do you think you were successful? Why or why not?:

• I wanted to improve my overall news writing style, and I did
• I didn't realize how different it would be from formal writing, like writing an essay, and because I had a hard time grasping the style, I don't think I improved my writing skills.
• To tighten my writing style.  I think the course was successful.

· I hoped to improve my overall skills as a writer and I think I really improved all my skills in writing and interviewing

· I hoped to learn to write in accordance with AP and journalistic style, which I think I was successful in. I still have a long ways to go, but this got me well on my way.

· Just writing in news format, I am used to writing in poetry form or just for an English class.

• No answer
• 
  What particular writing activity was the most helpful to you personally?:
• No answer
• News writing, in general, because it helped me to understand the format for writing (the inverted pyramid).
• No answer
• The exercises really helped. And just doing all the leg work that goes into writing a story really helped me get a grip on what it takes to be writer and how I can do it best.

· I enjoyed the review and opinion stories the most. I think they give the student a chance to write something of particular interest to them, and that allows one to put more effort and take more pride out of it.

· I feel that it was the profiling essay because it was more like a reporter.

• Writing a brite.  I had never written one before.  It was a challenge

What writing activity could have been omitted? Why?:

· Some of the exercises were a little confusing

· Writing my own obituary was odd.  I understand the need to know that as a journalist, but it was just odd to write about your own death.

· Anything pertaining to an article to do with a GCC instructor, counselor.  Out of 9 people I tried to contact, via telephone or e-mail, only 3 had the courtesy of responding.  One person stood me up when I spoke with him a scheduled an interview.  Needless to say, I had to travel 25 miles to campus and take the morning off work for a story that did not happen.

· I think they were all vital to the course and helped everyone a lot as far as improving skills

· They were all important. You can't always do the stories that you want to do, so being assigned a story you may not care and learning to deal with it is an important part of the challenge of journalism.

• None

· The exercise 11.  Too confusing.  I had no idea what the heck the paper was even trying to say.

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your writing ability now as compared to the beginning of the class? 1=no increase in writing ability; 10=tremendous increase in writing ability.:

• 6
• 1, no increase, just because it's been difficult for me to grasp the writing style.
• 5
• 10

· I think my writing has experienced negative growth, but only because I have been writing and reading less and less over the past two years. I was hoping to get back into the swing of things with this class, but I found I was too weighed down with other things to devote the appropriate time to the course

• 7
• 3

Was the technology instruction in this course adequate for your completion of the course?:

• Yes
• Yes, it was more than adequate.  It was quite helpful.
• Yes
• Yes, the communication with other students was a little difficult, but other than that, it was great

· Yes, as it becomes increasingly important for journalists to use electronic media, it should be treated accordingly in the schools.

· Yes, I thought it was a great learning experience.

• Yes

Did the technical skills enhance your learning or distract from what you expected to learn? Explain your answer.

• No answer
• They enhanced.  Having the necessary resources available to me online, and being able to hand assignments in electronically made it tremendously easier.

· I think this class would be better taught in a classroom setting.  The interaction with others starting out in the Journalism field would be a valuable learning experience.

· No it helped. We live in a technical world that’s only getting bigger, I like the variety of taking a class online

·  I don't think there was much gain, and certainly no distraction. I say there wasn't much gain because I was already computer literate and the electronic aspects of the course didn't really pose any new challenges to me, but for the novice, I would imagine it was particularly helpful.    

· It actually enhanced my learning ability because not only did I learn journalism, but I learned a new computer program.

· Enhance.  It was easier to turn in assignments online and get any topic notes, etc.