Course Orientation Assessment
After studying the course expectations and watching all of the course orientation videos, you will take this quiz containing multiple choice questions to assess your understanding of the course expectations and structure.
Introduce Yourself Discussion
Please introduce yourself in the "Introduce Yourself" discussion board, this will help class members to get to know each other. This assignment is worth 25 points. It is utilized as an ice-breaker in order to familiarize class members with each other, providing a more comfortable atmosphere for their professional presentations.
Research Assignments
Modules 2 and 3 will focus on various research assignments starting with selecting a topic, asking the right questions, and performing preliminary research while producing your annotated bibliography.
Teamwork Assignments
In Module 4, we will have you research a law enforcement, a courts, and a corrections topic in assigned teams. You will be provided a team discussion board where you can collaborate and will be assessed on your team research results. You will then need to evaluate your teammates’ work at the end of the module.
Paper Assignments & Final Paper
For your paper assignments, you will initially submit your paper incrementally– a revised outline, introduction and thesis, substantive/background information, and recommendations. Once you have worked on each of these pieces individually and revise them, then you will turn in your final paper at the end of Module 5.
Executive Summary
Your are to compose an executive summary that covers all aspects of your assigned topic and contains the following items: Introduction and Thesis, introduction to your topic, discussion of your topic’s substance, thorough recommendations, evidence cited for each argument with citations in a reference page, APA formatting with Times New Roman, 12 point font, double spaced (with no abstract or cover page), and a logically sequenced organization with clear transitions from one to the next.
Final Presentation
It is commonplace for the person who wrote the executive summary to present their material to their supervisor, management team, department head, government officials, or the public. With this in mind, you will be required to present your findings to the class (as a recording on a discussion board). You should be prepared to explain your material, answer questions, and defend your analysis/recommendations.
There are several components to the presentation, all of which are included on the rubric:
- Title and introduction
- Your presentation should include a title and a verbal introduction of the topic.
- Overview
- After introducing the topic, the student should provide a road map (overview) of what will be included in the presentation. Your audience needs to have an idea of where you are going to sufficiently follow the presentation. In different terms, don’t put your audience in a car, blindfold them, and have them guess where they’ll end up; tell them where you are going and how you will get there!
- You should give the overview both verbally and in writing.
- It should include that you will end with recommendations. Please note: you should not provide your recommendations, just say that you will provide them.
- Content
- Your presentation needs to include all components of the assigned topic. Essentially, if it is in your executive summary, it should also be included in the presentation. The content consists of all information that needs to be provided in order to understand the recommendations.
- Recommendations
- Recommendations finish out the presentation. You should briefly, but thoroughly, provide the audience the plans to “fix” the problem. Don’t just tell them what you are going to do; tell them how you plan to accomplish it.
- Appearance
- You should be professionally dressed and groomed for your presentation. This includes a shirt and tie, nice blouse, sport jacket, etc.
- For grooming, you are not expected to shave facial hair, change the color of your hair, or fix an everyday part of your appearance. Think about what you would look like to interview for a job you really want. You should probably at least comb your hair.
- Mechanics
- Proofread your slides! Your audience should not pick out mechanical, spelling, or other grammatical errors on your slides.
- Time limit
- There is not a minimum time standard for the presentation. Take the time you need to sufficiently present the information. Just don’t go over 15 minutes.
- Practice giving your presentation prior to recording it so you know how long it will take.