Step 1: The Setup

All in all, setting up my blog was not overly difficult. The typical user name, password, and email entries. Next I was given the option of 9 different layouts, and told to choose one. "Dots" simple and a bit of colour. Seemed like something I would pick. The choice of font size and colour was not hard at all, considering we all have our favourite fonts that we use all the time. Mine's Georgia; and purple was obviously the colour to choose... dark enough to read, and my favourite colour since I was 3 years old. Finally I was asked to come up with a title that would be the heading of my blog. The first thing everyone sees. BIG BOLD letters right at the top of my page. What would I call my blog? This is the question that stopped me in my tracks. It would have to be creative, yet something that others would come to understand. After contemplating this question for what seemed like hours, it came to me. HALF OF MY GRADE!?

HALF OF MY GRADE?! The thought that immediately came to mind when faced with this assignment worth 50% of my grade in this essential course.

One of John Berger's many theories states that what we perceive, and the way our perceptions are formed, is always a function of our past experience (Berger).

In my past experience, tests and assignments have been worth a maximum of 20% of my final grade. Therefore, when faced with an assignment worth 50% of my grade in this course, I was shocked. This is where I noticed the big difference between high school and university. In high school students are asked to complete many small day to day assignments, group activities, quizzes, tests and essays; all worth a small portion of the students’ grade. In university, students are given a couple assignments, an essay and an exam or two. These few things are what make up the students’ final grade in the course. Because there are so few things assigned for marks in each course, everything assigned is heavily weighted (like these blogs worth 50% of our final grade.)

As time goes on, and I become more accustomed to this type of marking, I’m sure my perceptions will change and I will get used to the fact that a single assignment can be worth such a large portion of my grade.

For now, this idea remains shocking to me, as I'm sure it is to many others as well.





Works Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Group, 1972.