D339 Task 1 Sample
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School
Western Governors University *
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Course
D339
Subject
Communications
Date
Jan 9, 2024
Type
Pages
4
Uploaded by salvadorsabori
D339 Task 1 Sample (WGM2) Section A: Blog Post Introducing a New Tool for Student Success
At WGU, we are student obsessed. Thus, we always want to make sure we are engaging in practices that best help students. One such practice is providing feedback to students about their written work. While a Word document allows for comments, depending on what version of Word students have and how familiar they are with Word functions, often students cannot see the comments. As Richards (2020) notes, such feedback can be more demoralizing and demotivating to students. Thus, another way to provide feedback is warranted. Research suggests that Snagit, a screen capture product by TechSmith, is a perfect tool for providing more direct and visually appealing feedback to students on their written work. Following, I will first explain what Snagit is, and then explain how it can benefit instructors and students at WGU. Snagit has been around for decades now, developed early in TechSmith’s history (TechSmith, n.d.a). It began as a simple screen capture tool and has evolved into a tool that provides multiple ways to capture one’s screen, then add features using editing tools, and create content such as a GIF or enhanced image. The tool provides multiple ways to share one’s creations as well. In their review of the most recent version of Snagit (called Snagit 2022), authors Wilson and Minor give it the Edito
r’s Choice award for its utilities. While Snagit is more expensive than many of its competitors, Wilson and Minor prefer it because of all the features provided. These features include a screen recorder allowing one to capture an image, and record video, and/or audio. For an image, in the Editor, one can add text, shapes, stamps, comment bubbles, arrows, and more to the image. For video capture, the Editor feature allows one to cut sections and even save them as a GIF. Snagit 2022 has the added feature of capturing the speaker on camera. One can also splice together a series of images into a video. Another excellent feature is the panoramic scrolling mode and delay counter. This allows creators to capture longer or wider images as well as cascading menus (Wilson & Minor, 2022). In addition, Snagit 2022
has the capability to move objects within one’s screen capture, meaning we could move a button and even delete text (TechSmith, n.d.b). This leads me to an explanation for why WGU should purchase Snagit for each instructor to use for providing feedback to students on tasks. Brick & Homes (2008) explain “The use of speech, graphics
, and the written word seems to cater to the widest variety of learning styles, reaching those with a preference for auditory and visual learning who are less likely to benefit from standard single mode written feedback” (pg. 340). Currently, most instructors just use a combination of the comment feature in Microsoft Word and email to explain to students how to fix a task so that it will meet the evaluation requirements. While such comments may be extremely helpful, often students cannot see the comments (or do not know how to access them) depending on the version of MS Word that they have. In addition, a comment may not be obvious enough as to what it is pointing out. Thus, a screen capture that is edited with arrows and text comments pointing directly to the issue would be helpful. Such images can also be copied and pasted right into an email so that students never need to leave the email to learn how to revise a task. Denton (2014) discusses “undeveloped feedback” versus “developed feedback.” While he was referring to short comments such as “well
-
done” as being “undeveloped,” I believe that a full paragraph of comments th
at are well-developed may not be clear to the student what it is referring to. Or, if the student cannot see the comments at all, then even the best-
developed comment is of no use and could be considered “undeveloped.” Using a more advanced screen capture tool such as Snagit will allow instructors to provide students with the best “developed” comment and visual to go with it. Below is an example of a comment just using the commenting feature in MS Word and then a comparison of the same kind of comment and additional notations using the Snagit editing features. MS Word: Snagit Version:
It takes a little more time to develop the Snagit image, but overall, it could save a lot more time for both instructor and student because there is a better guarantee that the student will see these comments and know exactly what they are pointing to. Hopefully, the comparison above helps to make it clear why using Snagit for feedback will be more helpful for our students. Snagit, the screen capture product by TechSmith, is a perfect tool for providing more direct and visually appealing feedback to students on their written work. In this white paper, I reviewed what Snagit is, and then explained how it can help instructors at WGU provide more developed feedback to our students. For this reason, WGU leaders should consider providing a Snagit license to each instructor who requests it. Section B: Identify Employee Group The audience for this blog post is employees at WGU who make decisions on software to purchase for instructors. This is likely faculty managers, senior managers, and directors for programs that faculty teach. It would also be appropriate for instructors to also read so they can better help make the case for adopting Snagit. B1. Analyzing Business Etiquette In my blog post, I am explaining the technology of Snagit and the helpfulness of screen captures for giving feedback to students. For my audience of supervisors (and eventually instructors), I kept my tone
light in nature and a little less formal because we tend to have a less formal way of engaging in communication at WGU. Given the culture at WGU, I focused on the idea that Snagit is a best-practice product for helping students. I
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wanted this blog post to be persuasive by focusing on the WGU leadership principle of student obsession. Therefore, my word choice
consistently brought up how this product would be helpful to our students because I believe supervisors would react positively to the mention of helping students. Section C: Sources Brick, B. & Holmes, J. (2008). Using Screen Capture Software for Student Feedback: Towards a Methodology. Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference on Cognition & Exploratory Learning in Digital Age
, 339-342. Denton, D. (2014). Using screen capture feedback to improve academic performance. Tech Trends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 58(6)
, 51-56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-014-0803-0
Richards, N. (January 1, 2020). Closing the feedback loop using screen capture technology. Modern English Teacher, 29
(1), 34-36. TechSmith (n.d.a). About TechSmith. https://www.techsmith.com/about.html
TechSmith (n.d.b). Snagit Homepage. https://www.techsmith.com/screen-
capture.html
Wilson, J. L. & Minor, J. (January 11, 2022). Snagit review: A powerful, feature-rich screen-capture app. https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/snagit