Learning Journals

? Overview

A journal of learnings from this course as collected, considered, and applied to your future academic and professional goals. Fifteen entires over the duration of the course.

? Rationale

One of the goals for this course is for you to develop a set of CX knowledge and skills relevant to your own individual future academic and professional goals. Keeping a running, reflective journal provides an effective means of doing so.

Why? Two primary principles:

• Writing is a way of thinking. Engaging with your thoughts through writing is a forcing function for clarifying your thinking.
• Related, numerous studies show that critical reflection on coursework improves comprehension, aids recall, facilitates new insights, and enhances knowledge transfer

Sources for entires in your learning journal may include:

• Course readings
• Class discussions
• Readings from your tech news practice

? Structure

• One entry per scheduled day of class for fifteen entries total (see course schedule).
• Other assignments submitted in the Google Doc that aren’t part of the learning journal (Tutorials, Final Project work) do not count toward the total of fifteen.
• Shared as a Google Doc with instructor’s Gmail.
• Include a Table of Contents.
• Give each entry a title formatted as a Heading 2.
• Spend 8-15 minutes per entry.1

Follow these three guidelines for your journals:

1) The journal is a practice

This is not an assignment to be caught up with at the last minute; rather, it is to be an ongoing, continually tended space for learning and growth.

2) The journal is personally driven

If this journal isn’t advancing your learning goals, it’s pointless. Discuss and work on the things we focus on in class, of course, but bend this assignment to your interests and goals.

3) The journal is interdisciplinary and multimodal

Writing is good, but you’re encouraged to go beyond: images / audio / code / etc. are welcome and encouraged.

Note: Your Tutorial writings will be written in your Learning Journal Google Docs but will be assessed separately.

? Grading (20 points, 2 checkpoints x 10 points each

Journals will be evaluated by:

• Completeness (one entry per fifteen days of class)
• Timeliness (entries completed within one day of that class)
• Adherence to principles noted above

? Timeline

• Checkpoint 1: Friday 5/24 (8 new entries, 8 entries total)
• Checkpoint 2: Wednesday 6/5 (7 new entires, 15 entries total)

? Prompts

• Entry 1: Analyze a negative digital customer experience. What were the negative elements of that experience? What precisely caused the experience to be negative?
• Entires 2-4: Each day, reflect on either a passage from Tragic Design or a reading from your tech news practice.
• Entries 5-7: Each day, reflect on either a passage from Principles of Product Design or a reading from your tech news practice.
• Entries 8-9: Each day, reflect on either a passage from This Is Service Design Doing Chapters 1-4, 9 or a reading from your tech news practice.
• Entries 10-12: Each day, reflect on either a passage from Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited or a reading from your tech news practice.
• Entries 13-14: Each day, reflect on either a reading from our CX Toolkit readings or a reading from your tech news practice.
• Entry 15: Reflect on your experience in and takeaways from this class.