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Journals (Ultra Student)

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Journals

You may need to contribute to an individual journal that only your instructor or group members can view and contribute to. It cannot be seen or commented on by other students in the course.

Work with journals

    Using journals

    Your instructor may ask you to:

    • share impressions of live lectures and events
    • reflect on learning experiences
    • maintain a diary of course-related thoughts
    • post content in multiple formats, including text, audio recordings and video clips
    • continue course-related discussions outside class
    • share responses to course readings
    • collect, organise and share web materials
    • post works-in-progress for review by lecturers or tutors.

    Journaling guidelines

    1. Only post things that you would want everyone (at uni, at home, in other countries) to know.
      Ask yourself: Is this something I want everyone to see?
       
    2. Do not share personal information
      Ask yourself: Could someone find me (in real life) based on this information?
       
    3. Think before you post
      Ask yourself: What could be the consequences of this post?
       
    4. Know who you’re communicating with
      Ask yourself: Who is going to look at this and how are they going to interpret my words?
       
    5. Consider your audience and that you’re representing UQ
      Ask yourself: Do I have a good reason/purpose for doing this?
       
    6. Know how to give constructive feedback
      Ask yourself: What will I cause by writing this post?
       
    7. Treat other people the way you want to be treated
      Ask yourself: Would I want someone to say this to me?
       
    8. Use appropriate language and proper grammar and spelling
      Ask yourself: Would I want this post to be marked for proper grammar and spelling?
       
    9. Only post information that you can verify is true (no gossiping)
      Ask yourself: Is this inappropriate, immature or bullying?
       
    10. Anytime you use media from another source, be sure to properly cite the creator of the original work
      Ask yourself: Who is the original creator of this work?

    Commenting guidelines

    You may be commenting on people's work regularly. Good comments:

    • are constructive but not hurtful
    • consider the author and the purpose of the post
    • are always related to the content of the post
    • include personal connections to what the author wrote
    • answer a question or add meaningful information to the content topic
    • follow the writing process (comments are a published piece of writing).

    Citations

    Give credit where credit is due.

    Your course may have specific citation requirements, for instance:

    • If you use the direct words or lists of another writer, you must put the words in quotation marks. Cite the source by including the name and URL of the source; hyperlink to the source or use APA style.
    • If you paraphrase another writer, you must indicate where you found the information. Cite the source by including the name and URL of the source; hyperlink to the source or use APA style.
    • When using images in your posts, indicate where the images come from, either by linking back to the image source or providing a photo credit on the page. Some great sources for royalty-free images include Vecteezy, Pixabay and Pexels.