Use Slack to participate in class discussions about design concepts and practice. There will be 8 graded discussions this semester, and I will provide a prompt to help guide each discussion. In general, discussion prompts will focus on one of the following: redesign a sample document (that I provide); identify, discuss, and evaluate the design qualities of an example document; participate in peer response for a major design project; discuss and debate concepts from the week's readings. For all prompts, you'll need to justify your discussion with specific techniques and ideas you've learned in class that week. The primary purpose of the discussion activities is to learn from/with your fellow students; you will have a chance to see how others are engaging with the course, and you can share your own insights and questions.
There are no additional requirements for graduate students.
Deadlines
During peer response weeks, you should post a rough draft of your design project to the appropriate Slack channel on Monday by 11:59 pm CST. This will give everyone the entire week (until 11:59 pm CST on Friday) to provide feedback and participate in the discussion.
For all other discussion weeks, your only deadline is this: meet all the evaluation criteria (see the checklist below) by 11:59 pm CST on Fridays.
Grading Criteria
I will grade each of the 9 discussions on a pass/fail basis. If you meet all the criteria below, you pass!
Did your discussion comments help keep the conversation moving?
Did you provide constructive feedback designed to help your classmates prepare for upcoming design projects, better understand course readings and materials, or stay motivated and excited about the course? (i.e., Humor is ok and indeed encouraged—with respect, always.)
Did you participate consistently in the discussion? (i.e., Did you wait until Thursday or Friday to make your first comment? Did you comment only once or twice? Don't do that!)
Getting Started with Slack
I created a short "tour" video of our Slack page, so check it out: Quick Tour of Slack. It should answer a lot of your questions.
You can participate in Slack discussions by accessing our course Slack site through a regular web browser on your desktop computer or laptop. Alternatively, if you have a smartphone, you can download and install and app that will allow you to participate on the go. This is what I do, and it's pretty convenient and fun. You can download the iPhone app or the Android app.