COS 490: Module Response Student Submission Examples
The following two example Module Report responses were prepared in response to readings in the assigned book titled: Open: How We Will Work, Live and Learn in the Future (2013) 220 pages, David Price
The first example Module report format is more typical and is recommended (i.e. respond point by point) but the second approach is also acceptable. Word counts are listed in these examples for your benefit but you do not need to submit counts as part of your answers.
The third example is of a Module Discussant Submission.
Note: All of the examples were picked for their use of formatting and use of full sentences in the responses to outline points rather than based on the quality of the content.
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EXAMPLE 1 – MODULE REPORT THAT CONTAINS OUTLINE FOLLOWED BY FULL RESPONSE
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Submission Subject Line: Jones, Module R, Chapter 4, Part 1
(1) OUTLINE OF RESPONSE (major talking points) [Grading: 5 pts]
1. Most innovative and successful companies combine culture, structure, ambience, and space to create exceptional learning environments called the Global Learning Commons.
2. Interest in reclaiming the idea of the Global Learning Commons is on the rise in nearly every field of study.
3. Global Learning Commons includes making resources free or more easily accessed, but also includes the habitat.
4. Open learning is the key to creating the learning commons, and technology is what has allowed it to become global.
5. The three principles important to the success of the Global Learning Commons are participation, passion, and purpose.
(99 words)
(2) FULL RESPONSE [Grading: 20 pts]
1. Most innovative and successful companies combine culture, structure, ambiance, and space to create exceptional learning environments called the Global Learning Commons.
Already being done by many top companies, including Facebook, and Google.
Used as a tool to drive collaboration, and through that, the creation and development of new ideas.
Not a new idea – the idea of the commons has actually been recognized for hundreds of years.
Now people are beginning to realize how beneficial the Global Learning Commons can be, so it is gaining traction.
2. Interest in reclaiming the idea of the Global Learning Commons is on the rise in nearly every field of study.
On The Commons is an advocacy group that seeks to usher more companies and institutions into the Global Learning Commons.
On The Commons claims to be active in: information, environment, economy, food, culture, politics, health, and science.
General social movements are also pushing for the Global Learning Commons, as seen by the rise of Khan Academy or free classes from MIT.
3. Global Learning Commons includes making resources free or more easily accessed, but also includes the habitat.
A fundamental feature of the learning commons is collaboration of the people who are trying to learn the same topic.
Self-guiding and self-tutoring groups form if given a place to think together on one problem.
A location which offers the information but does not allow adequate time and space for it to be discussed and thought through does not really foster learning.
4. Open learning is the key to creating the learning commons, and technology is what has allowed it to become global.
Open learning is learning done by us, rather than to us.
Instead of a teacher lecturing for an hour at a collection of students, allow the students to take responsibility for their own learning.
When we actively participate in the learning, it makes ideas stick better, gives us a better understanding, and gives us more motivation to continue learning
5. The three principles important to the success of the Global Learning Commons are participation, passion, and purpose.
Learning is not a spectator sport, and if we do not offer students the chance to participate, they become disengaged.
Passion is one of the key factors in motivation, and should therefore be encouraged.
If students see that the teacher is interested in a subject, they can find more interest in it as well.
Learning should not be done some way just because it is always been done that way.
One of the best ways to inspire students is to let them see the purpose of learning what they are.
(428 words in the full response – 99 words in the restated questions = 329 words < 500 words. Does NOT meet minimum recommended word count)
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EXAMPLE 2 – MODULE REPORT THAT CONTAINS OUTLINE FOLLOWED BY FULL RESPONSE
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Submission Subject Line: Smith, Module R, Chapter 1, Part 3
(1) OUTLINE OF RESPONSE (major talking points) [Grading: 5 pts]
1. In 2011 a series of uprisings occurred around the world – the Arab Spring, which spread across Middle Eastern and North African countries including Egypt, Syria, and Libya
2. Protests in Britain after the shooting death of Mark Duggan, as a response to aggressive policing
3. The Occupy protests against corporate greed, across the U.S. and the world
4. The series of uprisings in 2011 echoes a series of similar events in 1848, including a French revolution after King Louis Phillipe enforced a law that banned public gatherings, he eventually escaped to London and the Second Republic of France began
5. Throughout 1848, rebellions and revolts took place in Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Belgium and Brazil
6. The 2011 and 1848 political revolutions share many things in common – the dissatisfaction of the unemployed poor and educated middle-class and the cooperation between the two, a higher set of goals, new ways to spread info (newspapers in 1848 and social media in 2011) and reanimated counter culture
7. A sense of indignity was and is still being felt by young people across the world. This will only continue as governments continue to be outmuscled by multi-national corporations and the rise of China and India as manufacturing and knowledge powers
8. People always assumed that America and the Western world would have the upper hand in the knowledge economy that is college-educated people will always be in higher demand, but then other countries like China and Russia started investing more in the education.
9. In the UK, 3 years after their graduations, 28% of college grads were without a full-time job
10. Even the assumption that college graduates will more make over the lifetime is becoming less of a reality because of growing debt
(296 words)
(2) FULL RESPONSE [Grading: 20 pts]
Chapter one of Open: How We’ll Work, Live and Learn in the Future begins by talking about the series of protests and political uprisings that occurred in 2011, which included the Arab Spring across the Middle East and Africa, protests in Britain and the Occupy movement across the United States. The author David Price compares these modern uprisings to a similar series of uprisings that occurred in 1848 across Europe. It turns out that these two periods of political uprisings separated by 163 years, actually had a lot in common. In both years, a dissatisfied and unemployed class of poor and middle-class people were introduced to and inspired by new forms of communication technology. In 1848, the newspaper and in 2011, online social media sites like Twitter.
As David Price put it, a sense of indignity was and is still being felt by young people across the world. This feeling of indignity and unfairness will only get worse as governments continue to be outmuscled by multi-national corporations and as India and China become the manufacturing and knowledge powers of the world, and more jobs continue to be outsourced.
The author then talks about education and jobs, the current state of both in America, and how they might change in 10 or 20 years. People assumed that America and the rest of the Western world would always be the centers of the knowledge economy, where the best schools are located and college-educated people are always in high demand. Even taking on debt was considered worth it because a job will always be there for graduates. However, we are seeing a shift of higher education to the other side of the world, to countries like India. People there can get a college education, learn the basic skills they need for a job and work for a lot less.
This is something that I relate to very much, as a college student who has taken on a lot of debt to get where I am now. I’ve been told countless times that debt is normal and expected and that getting a good job after graduation will make it worth it. As a Computer Science student, this might still be true but for students of other majors, getting a job will only continue to get harder. According to a survey cited in this chapter, only 28% of college graduates in the UK had found a full-time job three years after graduation. College is cheaper in the UK which makes it more accessible to more people, but that’s still a shocking figure.
Another part of this chapter that I enjoyed reading was the author’s vision of the economy forty to fifty years from now. According to him we are in the midst of a global economic rebalancing and that in a couple of decades, we might see the shift from for-profits to non-profit organizations. We already have a form of that in what some economists are calling the sharing economy, epitomized by online, app-driven services like Uber and Airbnb that let people make money by sharing their cars and homes, respectively.
At the same time, I have a sense of cynicism when it comes to an alleged shift from for-profits to non-profit companies. Right now multi-national corporations have so much power, especially in our political system. Trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership that strengthen corporate power (such as the right for companies to sue countries for infringing on their right to do business by passing laws such as clean water acts) and expand restrictive patent and copyright laws to other countries will only entrench them even further. Unless something like the Arab Spring and 1848 revolutions happen on a much larger scale, I can’t picture these huge corporations giving up their power voluntarily.
(628 words)
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EXAMPLE 3
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MODULE DISCUSSANT QUESTION AND ANSWER
Submission Subject Line: Jones, Module R Discussant, Chapter 4, Part 1 [Grading: 10 pts]
QUESTION: What changes do you think we will have to make to our education system and society in general to adapt to the continued export of jobs, including so called innovation jobs?
RESPONSE: If jobs continue to be exported to other countries, we’ll have to seriously change how we make a living and pay for the things we need. Whether that’s in the form of wealth redistribution or a system where the government provides a monthly stipend, I don’t know for sure.
As for changes to the education system, we’ll have to confront the enormous amount of debt that college students face. We should not have to accept as a fact of life that people should start off their adult lives encumbered by debt. That will only catch up with us later when other countries have already solved the problem through free or reduced tuition, and their graduates are able to fully participate in their societies. Big changes will have to be made because if everyone has a college education, it will lose some of its value. I think changes to society and the education system will have to start before college. Refocusing public education from being able to regurgitate answers to being able to think critically is absolutely essential.
(176 words)