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Writing Assignment #5 Short Report to a Decision-maker

Summary of assignment

• Task: You will write a report that does the following: o defines a problem persuasively and accurately o proposes a solution to the problem to a decision-maker or group of decision-makers who

can implement the recommendation

• Topic: You will choose a problem in your workplace or your community

• Length: 1400-1600 words

• Citing Sources: You will not cite any sources in this paper except interviews or surveys you conduct through primary research. For this reason, you will not list any sources at the end of your

report.

o Instructions on citing an interview in APA format

Please note that you can conduct your primary research virtually. If the current COVID-19

pandemic precludes you from speaking with individuals face-to-face or from visiting sites in-

person, you may conduct research such as interviews or surveys by email or by phone. Please

contact your instructor with any questions you might have about conducting primary research in

the current situation.

• Formatting the Report: You will need to insert a running head and page numbers into the report in APA format.

• Writing Process: You will submit a first draft of the report to the assignment folder. The first draft will be given comments by the instructor. After receiving comments from the instructor,

you will submit a revised draft. The final draft will be graded.

If you do not submit a second draft, the first draft will be graded.

• Components of the report:

o title page

o memo to the decision-maker (app. 80-120 words)

o executive summary (app. 150-200 words)

o table of contents

o introduction (app. 100-200 words)

o discussion (app. 900-1100 words)

o conclusions (app. 75-100 words)

o recommendations (app. 100-200 words)

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Topic Selection:

You must use the same topic on which you wrote your memo for writing assignment #4. If you

have a need to change your topic, you must contact your instructor as soon as possible.

(Please continue to the next page.)

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Details on the Different Parts of the Assignment

Title Page

The following image shows the format you should follow for your title page:

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Memo to the Decision-maker

In your memo, you will include the headings

The following screen capture shows a format you can follow for your memo.

Screen capture from Victoria Business School. “Writing a Business Report,”

https://www.victoria.ac.nz/vbs/teaching/resources/VBS-Report-Writing-Guide-2017.pdf

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Executive Summary

The executive summary should be a stand-alone document. In other words, if a reader were to

read only your executive summary, the reader would have a good understanding of the problem

you are writing about and the solution you are proposing to that problem. In this report, your

executive summary should be 150-200 words.

The following image shows the format you should follow for your executive summary. Please

keep in mind that this executive summary is about 260 words in length, so it is longer than the

one you will write. However, it provides a guide for how you can approach your executive

summary.

Screen capture from Victoria Business School. “Writing a Business Report,”

https://www.victoria.ac.nz/vbs/teaching/resources/VBS-Report-Writing-Guide-2017.pdf

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Table of Contents

This video shows how to create your table of contents.

Introduction

In your introduction, you will tell your decision-maker what problem the report is analyzing. It

will do the following

• describe the context of the work or community situation

• describe the problem being analyzed in that business or community situation

• state the questions your report will answer

• define any terms, if necessary

Discussion

The discussion area is the main part of your report. In this section, you will provide evidence of

the problem and justify your recommendations. You will need to be clear, thorough, and

persuasive.

The following examples demonstrate the need for clarity, thoroughness, and persuasiveness:

• If you are writing a report recommending that your company allow teleworking, you do not want to write a few sentences about how teleworking is convenient. You want to

quote some co-workers you have interviewed about how teleworking will benefit them.

• If you are writing a report recommending that your company move from Google mail to Outlook, you do not want a few sentences on how good Outlook is. You want to show

some screen captures of Google mail to demonstrate that it is awkward, is cumbersome,

or has inconvenient features. You also want to show some screen captures of Outlook to

demonstrate that it does not feature these shortcomings and improves upon these

problems.

• If you are writing a report recommending that a sidewalk be repaired in your neighborhood, you do not want a few sentences describing why sidewalks should be

smooth. You want to show some photographs of the sidewalk that is in disrepair,

demonstrating why its current state is unsafe, unsightly, or otherwise undesired.

• If you are writing a report recommending that your local high school repair parts of its football field, you do not want a few sentences describing the value of athletics for high

school students. You want to show some photographs demonstrating where the field

needs to be repaired, quote individuals that you have interviewed on the problems with

the field now, etc.

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Notice that in all four examples listed above, primary research was included. Interviews with

co-workers or individuals in the community, screen captures of software applications, or

photographs of the neighborhood or the football field all represent primary research. Such

research adds to the persuasiveness of the report.

Without this type of evidence, the report is not thorough and lacks persuasiveness. The decision-

maker will not be persuaded that the problem you are outlining is an actual problem unless you

can demonstrate that it is an actual problem in the context.

Moreover, in the discussion, you describe, in paragraph form, your conclusions and your

recommendations. You need to explain why you have come to these conclusions and why you

are making these specific recommendations.

Conclusions

In the Conclusions section, you take an objective stance. You summarize the findings of your

research without putting your own opinion into the analysis.

In your conclusion, you will do the following:

• summarize your findings

• connect your findings to the problem you have identified

• present the conclusions in parallel form

• bullet the list of conclusions

You stated your conclusion in the Discussion section. However, in the Conclusions section, you

will list the conclusion concisely and succinctly in bulleted form.

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Recommendations

In the recommendation, you take a subjective stance in the report. You give your opinion on

how the problem should be addressed.

In your recommendation, you will do the following:

• number specific steps of action you recommend in parallel form, beginning with a verb

• rank the recommendations, listing the most important recommendation first, the second most important recommendation second, etc.

Please note that this section should be brief. A busy administrator does not want to pore through

long, dense paragraphs trying to locate your recommendations. The decision-maker should be

able to see at a glance what your recommendations are.

You stated your recommendations in the Discussion section. However, in the Recommendation

section, you will number the recommendations concisely and succinctly.

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Due Date Your instructor will notify you of the due date. You will write a first draft, your instructor will

comment on the first draft, and you will submit a second draft using the comments as your guide.

Guides to Help You in Writing this Assignment:

• Victoria University of Wellington • Writing Effective Short Reports

• Report Writing by Massey University

Submitting the assignment:

You will submit a first draft of the essay to the assignment folder. The first draft will not be

graded. The instructor will provide comments to it.

After receiving comments from the instructor, you will submit a revised draft. The final draft

will be graded.

Effective Teaching Tools for Online Teaching

Effective Teaching Tools for Online Teaching

Sofiya Khanam, WRTG 293 6360 Professor Brender

Submitted by: Sofiya Khanam

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Effective Teaching Tools for Online Teaching

MEMORANDUM

To: The Dean of the Undergraduate School, UMGC From: Sofiya Khanam Date: October 6, 2019 Subject: Effective Teaching Tools for Online Teaching

Enclosed is the short report “Effective Teaching Tools for Online Teaching,” per your approval following my proposal memo from earlier this week.

The report attached below explains about the need to eliminate the communication barriers and to introduce interactive and effective teaching tools for the courses being offered at UMGC. It also provides some recommendations for solving the issues mentioned above.

Thank you for your time in reviewing this report and my classmates who helped me with the survey. I hope you find this report useful to assist with your decision regarding developing effective teaching tools. Please call or text me if you have any questions, I can be reached at (123) 456-7890.

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Effective Teaching Tools for Online Teaching

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Purpose of this report

A lot of students take online courses at UMGC. The courses enable them to study while working. Some of these courses are ineffective and communication barriers are created as there is a lack of face-to-face communication. The purposes of this report are to:

 determine which tools are effective and interactive for online teaching courses.  recommend ways to eliminate the communication barriers that occur between the

teacher and the student.

Thorough primary research for this report was conducted to discover the best methods of online teaching, effective and interactive online teaching tools, and the best ways to eliminate the communication barriers.

Findings and conclusions

It was found from the research that all the five students who have answered the survey have faced communication problems at UMGC. It was also found that some teaching tools needed improvement. Primary research suggests that using interactive and effective online teaching tools lead the students towards success.

Recommendations for effective online teaching

Recommendations for effective online teaching include:

 Using interactive tools like overview videos, reading repositories, assignment -submission interfaces, etc. would help in learning and understanding the course better.

 Communicating better with students by using clear and easy language in their posts and making sure to reply to their questions would help in eliminating the communication barriers.

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Effective Teaching Tools for Online Teaching

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Memorandum………………………………………………………………………………2

Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………… 3

Introduction Background………………………………………………………………………… 5 Purpose………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5

Discussion…………………………………………………………………………………….6

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………7

Recommendations………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7

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Effective Teaching Tools for Online Teaching

Introduction

Background

Online education enables a lot of people to study while they are working. Many students take online courses at UMGC, which help them to study while working. That is why the courses need to be effective, easily accessible and be understandable at the same time. Some courses at UMGC, use very interactive tools like Wiley Plus and some do not. As these are online courses there is no face-to-face communication between the professor and the students and this results in communication barriers.

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to determine which tools are effective and interactive for online teaching courses and to recommend ways to eliminate the communication barriers that occur between the teacher and the student. Effective teaching tools and elimination of communication barriers could help in a better understanding of the course which would lead to the success of the student.

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Effective Teaching Tools for Online Teaching

Discussion

As the courses at UMGC are online courses, the medium of communication is through posts and announcements by the professor. Students sometimes fail to interpret what is written in an announcement or a post. In the case of math-related courses like accounting, the tools are not very interactive which results in confusion among the students. Sometimes the due date of the assignment shows a different date under the post and the announcement post made by the professor contains another date which again leads to miscommunication. When ineffective teaching tools are used, the students will find it difficult to understand the course material. This would also result in confusion among the students. The communication barriers and the ineffectiveness of the course would not help in the success of the student. As UMGC’s goal is the success of students, it is very important to make sure that every measure is being taken to lead the student to a successful degree.

The issues mentioned above can be solved by using tutorial videos, which contain all the instructions regarding the assignment. One more solution is to create and post an overview video to the course, which explains the objectives, assignments, and outcomes of the course. Creating an easily accessible online chatroom would help to make the communication easier. Scheduling a group video chat session at an agreed time by all the students and the professor would also help. Using interactive tools like overview videos, reading repositories, assignment -submission interfaces, etc. would help in learning and understanding the course better. Communicating better with students by using clear and easy language in their posts and making sure to reply to their questions would help in eliminating the communication barriers. In regard to the teaching tools, using tools like Wiley Plus, McGraw-Hill Connect, Zoom, etc, would help in making the course more effective. The cost of all these interactive tools is affordable for UMGC. Using a chat tool like Backchannel Chat would help the instructor and students to communicate in a better way. Improving the chat tool that already exists in the UMGC’s LEO would also help the students to reach their instructors. Through this tool, the students will also be able to reach their classmates, where they can discuss about the assignments and the course material.

Primary research was conducted through a survey among a few students to know about the communication problems they are facing and about the problems regarding the teaching tools. The survey was posted on the student discussion boards where everyone could find it. The instructor’s help was taken to announce and notify the students about the survey. The survey included some questions on communication problems, and teaching tools, and recommendations. The results of this survey were used to determine communication barriers and effective teaching tools. Research participants took two to three days to respond to the survey and only five people have participated in the research. The timing constraints were a problem because there were only three weeks to research and write the report. If there was more time, more research participants would have been located to gather information and valuable recommendations.

The survey contains the following questions:

 Are you facing any communication problems at UMGC (in regard to the online classes)?

 How do you feel about the teaching tools which are being used at UMGC? Do you feel that they need improvement?

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Effective Teaching Tools for Online Teaching

 Please provide any recommendations you have to offer about the courses and communication at UMGC.

The results of the survey show that the students have faced problems in communicating with the professor and they had a few issues with the structure of some courses. Specific results of this survey are:

 One of the students did not receive any answer from the professor when he sent the message through “Instant messages” and “Email” which delayed his course work. He felt that professors must connect with the students and should help them to connect with each other and make students feel that they are members of a supportive learning community.

 Another student felt that some professors are not easily approachable. She suggested that having a video conference at a time agreeable by all the students once a week would help solve this problem.

 One student felt that the course work is lengthy for the given amount of time, which is 8 weeks. She felt that a 10-week course would help.

 Another student felt that too much reading is being assigned every week.  One student found it difficult to navigate through LEO, as the structure is different for

each course.

The results of this survey suggest that there is a lack of good communication and effective and interactive teaching tools to understand the course better and to complete the course work without difficulty.

Students all over the world might find it difficult to meet at a particular time for the video conference, this can be resolved by recording the video conference, many tools like Zoom provide the option of recording the conference. The students can refer back to the video to clear any doubts.

As the courses at UMGC are online, the courses greatly depend upon the written communication, including posts, announcements, and discussion board contributions. Therefore, there is a chance of miscommunication and misinterpretation which will come in the way of the success of the students. This is why it is very important to make sure that communication barriers do not occur.

Conclusion

 Some courses at UMGC are ineffective and there is a lack of face-to-face communication.

 The research and recommendations would make online learning more effective which results in satisfaction among the students.

 The interactive tools would make the students understand the course work better.  The recommendations like using online chatrooms would help in eliminating the

communication barriers, the overview videos and the tutorial videos will help in better learning.

 Finally, by using interactive tools, overview & tutorial videos and by communicating better with students, online teaching can be made more effective.

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Effective Teaching Tools for Online Teaching

Recommendations

After conducting research and analysis on “Effective teaching tools for online teaching” it is clear that there is a need for developing interactive and effective teaching tools and eliminating communication barriers. There are many methods and approaches to effective online teaching. Below are recommendations based on survey and research:

1. Using interactive tools like overview videos, reading repositories, assignment -submission interfaces, etc. would help in learning and understanding the course better.

2. Communicating better with students by using clear and easy language in their posts and making sure to reply to their questions would help in eliminating the communication barriers.

3. Making sure that the faculty is socially present in the learning environment, which helps the students to form a learning community and to participate actively in the learning activities.

4. Professors must connect with the students and should help them to connect with each other and make students feel that they are members of a supportive learning community.

5. Supporting student success, providing clarity and relevance through content structure and presentation.

6. Becoming better prepared and more agile as an educator.

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