Experiential Learning Written Lab Experience - Instructions and Guidelines

General Instructions (Developed by Silvie MacLean, Professor):

All Assignments are expected to be complete and meet the due date in drop box. No assignment is accepted via email. All dates are noted since day 1 in the weekly, syllabus, your calendar and submission box. Therefore the instructor will not accept any assignment outside of the drop box deadline date and time. Therefore, please do not email your professor as your assignment will not be accepted. Students are expected to project manage their time and take responsibility. This includes issues with not being familiar with FOL, computer dysfunction, uploading issues and/or inability to project manage time effectively. The only exception is for circumstances that are outlined on the Course Information Sheet (i.e. death of an immediate family member where you must travel to attend the funeral or illness that includes a medical note). As noted on your detailed course syllabus, your individual assignment(s) are based on your own personal experience and insightful knowledge, and not to be shared with other students. This is also noted on each of the individual assignments. Therefore, any time you hand in an assignment with your name on it, it is presumed to have been created entirely by you unless you indicate otherwise. In other words, you are to provide a citation indicating the information is from another source. In addition, any content you did not create yourself (i.e., ideas, information, data graphics, etc.) must be cited using APA, 7th ed. Resources re: APA 7th ed. are posted under the tab “APA resources” in FOL.

Purpose: The purpose of this experiential learning written lab experience is to assess your ability to research, process information effectively and think and write critically. The key skills and step in critical thinking and analysis include: identification (defining the factors of the problem), research (comparing arguments), identifying biases (challenge yourself with evidence), inferences (drawing conclusions), determining relevancy (understanding which information is on relevant) and curiosity (asking why questions). Research skills is a highly regarded competency.

Length: This assignment must be completed in WORD and involves answering key questions that are detailed in page 2 of this assignment. You will use key words to research relevant reputable Canadian journal articles that are from 2005 and onwards. Each annotation must consist of 350 words each. Each annotation must use the “evaluative” and “descriptive” perspective. A sample of both styles are provided.

As noted above, this is an individual assignment and it must conform to APA 7 referencing and writing style guidelines. A main rubric is used to assess/grade your lab. Resources re: APA are posted on FOL.

The following are the minimum standards for all written assignments:

Integrity: Ensure your assignment contains no plagiarized segments. If it does, it will be considered an academic offence. Note: Quotations and paraphrasing of any source without proper in-text citations and attached reference list is considered plagiarism.

Purpose: Ensure that your assignment achieves the primary purpose at least in a minimal way. A rubric is provided as an assessment to your learning and to improve your inquiry, analysis and writing skills.

Readability: Ensure that your assignment is edited to account for the majority of grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors. If it contains too many errors that create confusion of meaning and severely limits communication, then it will not meet the minimum standards.