Franske ITC-1000 Assignments
There are two types of assignments in this course, online discussions and job search reports.
Online Discussion
For each career area covered in the course you will need to make at least four online discussion posts. Two of the posts have specific formats and instructions, the remaining posts are general response/discussion with classmates. Instructions for these posts as well as for your introductory posts the first week are below. Each week there will be up to 15 points available for online discussions. All posts should follow a narrative paragraph format (not bulleted lists, etc.) and use appropriate grammar and punctuation. Posts are due at 11:59pm on the day indicated on the course schedule.
First Week Introductory Posts
Instead of discussing a particular career area the first week we'll take some time to get to know each other.
You should make your first post by Thursday the first week of class. Your introductory post should include: who you are, what experience you have with computers, why you're interested in a computer career, and what you hope to get out of this class.
Over the next few days you should continue to check in to the forum and read the posts by your classmates. By Monday the second week you should have responded to something interesting that someone else in the class posted.
Career Area First Post
After you have read the chapter in the book on a particular career area and read/viewed the online resources you should make a post which answers the following questions:
- What do you find most appealing or interesting about this career focus and why?
- What do you find least appealing or desirable about this career focus and why?
- After reading about this career area how interested are you in it and why?
This post is typically worth up to 5 points, remember that it should be in paragraph format and use appropriate grammar and punctuation.
Career Area Second Post
After you have completed your job search report for the career area make a post which summarizes some of the information you found. Include whether any of the information you discovered changed how interested you are in a career in this area and why.
This post is typically worth up to 5 points, remember that it should be in paragraph format and use appropriate grammar and punctuation.
Career Area Response Posts
Read through and respond to things in other students' posts that catch your interest. If someone makes an interesting observation, thought, etc. engage them in a discussion about it. If someone posts something you believe to be surprising or incorrect ask about where they found it and provide a source with information you believe is more accurate.
All of your response posts combined are typically worth up to 5 points, in order for posts to count towards your score in this area they need to be substantial and related to the topic at hand. It never hurts to make as many response postings as you can but you should consider two to be the bare minimum if you hope to achieve all of the points.
Job Search Reports
For each career area you must turn in a job search report. The report should be in paragraph format and use appropriate grammar and punctuation. Each report will be worth up to 20 points.
Use several jobs search engines such as those found on the main page for this course to search for and review several job opportunities in this career area in Minnesota. As you are doing this think about the following questions.
- Which search terms are you finding successful in searching for jobs in this career area? Which search terms did you try but were not as successful with?
- What types of jobs are you finding in this career area? Are they full time/part time, contractor/employee? etc.
- Based on the job postings what types of responsibilities are common for someone in this area?
- Based on the job postings what types of requirements (and desirable skills) are common for someone applying to a job in this area? What level of education, experience, certifications, skills, etc?
- Find salary information for jobs in this area in Minnesota. If you can find salary ranges listed in job postings use those. You'll probably have better luck if you're looking at government jobs which often have fixed salaries and so are advertised in the listings. Search in the Minnesota DOER System and University of Minnesota Employment for example. You should also check for typical salary ranges through the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Combine the answers to these questions, in narrative paragraph format, into a report and submit it through the online tool.