T4: Creating Exercises

The exercises in this book were originally designed for technical communication students. They are geared toward the needs of students in the communication field. I encourage you to create your own, ones that meet the needs of your students. Plan projects that are appropriate for a portfolio in your field. If you are dealing with younger students, high school or below, you might plan projects to help them explore different technology uses. Such exercises do not have to be limited to using software only; consider ways to take adaptability skills into other technology areas such as hardware or coding.

With a few basic guidelines, you can create exercises that will challenge your students while directing their experiences. Exercises should be designed to provide an overview of what the program can do. Choose a variety of tasks that provide a look into many different parts of the program unless you choose to create an exercise targeting a specific function or area of the program. The Word text box and picture exercises in this book are examples of targeted exercises.

Exercises can either be a list of tasks or a list of goals or aims. The Word text box and picture exercises are examples of a list of tasks. The Illustrator and Photoshop exercises included are examples of a list of goals. Tasks are better at the beginning; goals work better once they have developed a little skill.

Project ideas can be challenging to create. They need to be fun, interesting, or useful to encourage engagement. You may want to consider current trends in your field or areas that the student might encounter.

After teaching this course for years, I have learned some things that might make your exercises work well from the beginning. In earlier exercises, try to choose tasks that have help available somewhere on the internet. As students advance, you might choose a few goals or tasks that do not have outside help. If they encounter this challenge too early, it can cause them to give up or shut down.

Ensure your terms match industry standards unless you use them as a teaching moment. For example, I referred to colors in Photoshop as a “color scheme” during my first semester teaching this course. My students were completely confused until I started using the term “color palette,” the standard term for that software.

Finally, make sure to cover common issues and problems. For instance, users often do not realize that Illustrator has multiple tools under each tool icon. I make sure to require the use of a couple of those semi-hidden or less obvious tools so that my students can be aware of that function.

Above all else, encourage students to play. To try new things. To experiment. To explore. By encouraging them in these attitudes, you encourage them to adopt an attitude of adaptability.

Grading Exercises

Grading adaptability exercises can be easy. The issue most likely to affect a grade is completeness. Many students struggle just to complete the assignments. I often have students skip the harder parts of the assignment, so I put the greatest emphasis on completing the project. If they complete the exercise, they will receive benefits, even if they barely understand what they are doing.

Once completed, the next area to consider is technological understanding and finesse. Students may succeed in completing an assignment by kludging, computer speak for jury rigging, or working around the problem. The fact that they succeeded at all is a success, though not an ideal one. I do take some points off for working around an issue when a workaround is not needed.

You may want to add other components to encourage engagement with the exercise. Since my students must communicate creatively, I count creativity as a third criterion. You may have other criteria that you want to emphasize. Do remember, however, that students are moving very quickly in this process and can get even more overwhelmed by too many criteria.

The following is an example of a rubric I use.

As you can see, I emphasize completion since a student must complete the exercise to receive the adaptability benefits. Creativity is relevant to my field; another criterion might be more relevant to your own.

Examples

You may want to provide an example document or key so that students can see the final desired product. However, I encourage you to provide a PDF and not a file in the program targeted by the exercise since they are likely to copy the exercise file.