You will be asked to write annotations of articles frequently over the course of your program. These are critical annotations which, in addition to describing the text, evaluate its usefulness for your particular audience or situation. An annotation includes the following parts:
- A complete APA formatted bibliographic citation
- A brief description of the main points/conclusions of the text
- A brief description of the text’s format, intended audience, and purpose
- A critique of the text's accuracy and objectivity (including both explicit and hidden biases)
- A reflection on the text’s usefulness to you, including what you could personally apply from the text to help you become a better adult educator
The annotation should be no more than 300 words (which is longer than a standard annotation due to the addition of the final two components). You may find that once you get going it's hard to keep it to 300 words or less. Use the word count feature in your word processing software and you'll soon get a feel for what 300 words looks like.
A note on the examples below: I can't do a hanging indent in html so just imagine it's there. You won't be able to either when you paste these in the Oncourse discsussion forums so the indents and double spacing are only really important on papers that you turn in as word processing documents.
You'll also notice that the writing style also gets less "academic" through the examples. Writing in an academic style is not just about using big words to sound important. It's about making connections between ideas and between things you are just learning and things you already know.
First things first: Read the article used for the examples: Go to Citation Linker You can search find the article by clicking on the "find it" button. You may be asked to log in.
A GOOD EXAMPLE:
Lock, J. V. (2002). Laying the groundwork for the development of learning communities within online courses. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education 3(4), 395-408.
In this refereed journal article, Lock discusses some of the conceptual and theoretical issues related to online learning communities. She presents a review of the literature on the characteristics of such communities, related pedagogical issues, technological issues, and the encouraging of community-building. The analysis is grounded in social constructivist theory and presents support for four “cornerstones” of learning community. These cornerstones of communication, collaboration, interaction, and participation are then synthesized into guidelines for creating and sustaining learning communities.
It is authored mainly for online instructors and instructional designers with an eye to encouraging them to encourage community. The literature review provides a good resource for further investigation of theories or research with which the reader might be unfamiliar. The emphasis on social context and participatory action reflects the current movement in online education.
Though Lock notes the need for valuing community by the instructors/designers, she does not explicitly note that need in learners. While the author’s juxtaposition of peer-to-peer collaboration, instructors as community members, transparent course design, and whole-group shaping of the community points to a servant-leadership model of teaching there is a lack of any discussion of “buy-in” from the learners. From a critical theory standpoint, I believe this sort of intentional community building design should include, if not be prefaced by, that sort of discussion.
While the benefits of community are many, there are learners who do not place a great value on community. As I attempt to integrate collaborative small group activities in my own courses, I need to examine my intent and assumptions in this social environment and their interactions with issues of power. I also need to work with the learners to ensure that the course design is appropriate for supporting the development of the type and level of community desired by the group.
Let's break it down:
- A complete APA formatted bibliographic citation:
Lock, J. V. (2002). Laying the groundwork for the development of learning communities within online courses. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education 3(4), 395-408. (correctly formatted citation)
- A brief description of the main points/conclusions of the text
Lock discusses some of the conceptual and theoretical issues related to online learning communities. She presents a review of the literature on the characteristics of such communities, related pedagogical issues, technological issues, and the encouraging of community-building… . These cornerstones of communication, collaboration, interaction, and participation are then synthesized into guidelines for creating and sustaining learning communities. (synthesized main points succinctly)
- A brief description of the text’s format, intended audience, and purpose
In this refereed journal article … It is authored mainly for online instructors and instructional designers with an eye to encouraging them to encourage community. (notes type of journal article, audience, and purpose)
- A critique of the text's accuracy and objectivity (including both explicit and hidden biases)
The analysis is grounded in social constructivist theory and presents support for four “cornerstones” of learning community… … . the guidelines contain nothing surprising. The emphasis on social context and participatory action reflects the current movement in online education… . Though Lock notes the need for valuing community by the instructors/designers, she does not explicitly note that need in learners. While the author’s juxtaposition of peer-to-peer collaboration, instructors as community members, transparent course design, and whole-group shaping of the community points to a servant-leadership model of teaching there is a lack of any discussion of “buy-in” from the learners… . While the benefits of community are many, there are learners who do not place a great value on community. (notes social constructivist philosophical orientation which influences much of the article's emphases, provides critique of one aspect of the article supported by examples from the text and related to prior knowledge)
- A reflection on the text’s usefulness to you, including what you could personally apply from the text to help you become a better adult educator
From a critical theory standpoint, I believe this sort of intentional community building design should include, if not be prefaced by, that sort of discussion… . As I attempt to integrate collaborative small group activities in my own courses, I need to examine my intent and assumptions in this social environment and their interactions with issues of power. I also need to work with the learners to ensure that the course design is appropriate for supporting the development of the type and level of community desired by the group. (notes personal usefulness and more than one application with some detail)
A STILL PRETTY GOOD EXAMPLE:
Lock, J. V. (2002) Laying the groundwork for the development of learning communities within online courses. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education 3(4), pp. 395-408.
This article is about the conceptual and theoretical issues related to online learning communities. The author presents a review of the literature on the characteristics of such communities, related pedagogical issues, technological issues, and the encouraging of community-building. She sorts these into four "cornerstones" of communication, collaboration, interaction, and participation and then gives guidelines for creating and sustaining learning communities based on them. The conclusion is that these guidelines can be used to guide the development of good online courses that support learning communities. The purpose of the article is to help instructors build community in online classes. The guidelines are based on constructivism so there is a bias toward constructivism over cognitivism or behaviorism.
What I found useful was the idea that students in an online class need to feel like the environment is safe so they are comfortable discussing things openly and honestly. Helping students connect with each other and learn to trust each other can help them be more active community members. I can apply this to my online courses by adding activities that encourage personal sharing and sharing more of myself with my students. By putting myself "out there" they can see that I trust them and that they can trust each other.
Let's break it down:
- A complete APA formatted bibliographic citation
Lock, J. V. (2002) Laying the groundwork for the development of learning communities within online courses. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education 3(4), pp. 395-408. missing a period after the date and added pp. in front of the page numbers where it is not needed)
- A brief description of the main points/conclusions of the text
This article is about the conceptual and theoretical issues related to online learning communities. The author presents a review of the literature on the characteristics of such communities, related pedagogical issues, technological issues, and the encouraging of community-building. She sorts these into four "cornerstones" of communication, collaboration, interaction, and participation and then gives guidelines for creating and sustaining learning communities based on them. The conclusion is that these guidelines can be used to guide the development of good online courses that support learning communities. (while the writing is less academic and the word choice could use some help ("guidelines can be used to guide," for example) it is still a good synthesis of the article's main points.)
- A brief description of the text’s format, intended audience, and purpose
The purpose of the article is to help instructors build community in online classes. (doesn't say if it's a journal article or a magazine article and doesn't mention instructional designers as a part of the audience)
- A critique of the text's accuracy and objectivity (including both explicit and hidden biases)
The guidelines are based on constructivism so there is a bias toward constructivism over cognitivism or behaviorism. (doesn't triangulate to other literature or knowledge)
- A reflection on the text’s usefulness to you, including what you could personally apply from the text to help you become a better adult educator
What I found useful was the idea that students in an online class need to feel like the environment is safe so they are comfortable discussing things openly and honestly. Helping students connect with each other and learn to trust each other can help them be more active community members. I can apply this to my online courses by adding activities that encourage personal sharing and sharing more of myself with my students. By putting myself "out there" they can see that I trust them and that they can trust each other. (noted usefulness and application but could be expanded by mentioning why this is useful or why lack of trust might be an issue in this class)
A NOT-SO-GOOD EXAMPLE:
Jennifer V. Lock. (2002) Laying the groundwork for the development of learning communities within online courses. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education 3(4), pp. 395-408.
This was a good article about online learning communities. The author talks about how community is a process not a product and it's a "group of people who are willing and able to help each other." Next she talks about pedagogical issues and four "cornerstones" of a learning community framework. Next she talks about course content and how you should use real world problems and case based learning. Next she talks about technology and how that affects learning communities. Following that she talks about community building and how to do it. In conclusion she gives five guidelines for creating learning communities and four guidelines for sustaining learning communities. Online teachers can use these guidelines in their classes. I would say the author has a bias for having community in her classes. This article was useful to me because it gave guideline for building and maintaining community in online classes. I can use these with my students.
Let's break it down:
- A complete APA formatted bibliographic citation
Jennifer V. Lock. (2002) Laying the groundwork for the development of learning communities within online courses. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education 3(4), pp. 395-408. (name is formatted wrong, missing a period after the date, article title is italicized instead of journal title, and added pp. in front of the page numbers where it is not needed)
- A brief description of the main points/conclusions of the text
his was a good article about online learning communities. The author talks about how community is a process not a product and it's a "group of people who are willing and able to help each other." Next she talks about pedagogical issues and four "cornerstones" of a learning community framework. Next she talks about course content and how you should use real world problems and case based learning. Next she talks about technology and how that affects learning communities. Following that she talks about community building and how to do it. In conclusion she gives five guidelines for creating learning communities and four guidelines for sustaining learning communities. (Don't step through the article like this. Synthesize the main points. Also, don't quote directly from the article in the annotation.)
- A brief description of the text’s format, intended audience, and purpose
This was a good article about online learning communities… . Online teachers can use these guidelines in their classes. (doesn't say if it's a journal article or a magazine article and doesn't mention instructional designers as a part of the audience)
- A critique of the text's accuracy and objectivity (including both explicit and hidden biases)
I would say the author has a bias for having community in her classes. (doesn't triangulate to other literature or knowledge, doesn't move past the really obvious)
- A reflection on the text’s usefulness to you, including what you could personally apply from the text to help you become a better adult educator
This article was useful to me because it gave guideline for building and maintaining community in online classes. I can use these with my students. (doesn't give any specific application, needs more elaboration and detail)
