Assignment task: Applies Professionalism to Problem-Solving Strategies
The learner applies professionalism to problem-solving strategies in a given context.
Introduction:
During your academic career you will encounter some problems or questions that will require you to identify sources of information and find solutions. You will also need to communicate professionally with your instructors and other staff members who will assist you throughout your learning journey.
For this task, you will respond to a given scenario demonstrating a student problem, where you will be asked to apply problem-solving strategies and professional communication strategies. To complete this task, you may find it helpful to refer to the WGU Student Policy Handbook as a source of information for problem-solving as the student in the scenario. You will also write an email to a staff member to demonstrate professional communication in an academic context.
You will be required to acknowledge sources for all examples, in-text citations, and references. You should review the resources provided in the course of study and the Academic Coaching Center for support with in-text citations and references.
Note: All references used should be current, published within the last five years.
Scenario:
Note: You will find the WGU Student Policy Handbook helpful when completing this task. Scroll down to find a link to the handbook under the Web Links section.
A university student recently completed two high-stakes assessments for one of their academic courses: an objective assessment and a performance assessment. However, the student did not pass either, and they are frustrated with both experiences.
When taking the objective assessment, the student's virtual proctor required them to rearrange their home testing environment to align to the university's proctoring policy before beginning the assessment, which resulted in a 30-minute delay to start the assessment. The student feels that this experience caused them considerable stress and anxiety and impacted their performance.
The student also submitted a performance assessment, but when they received their evaluation report, it indicated they did not pass all the paper's requirements. The student is unhappy with the feedback they received, particularly when informed that, according to the university's academic policy, they must meet with the instructor to review the course's concepts before submitting the research paper again.
The student indicates they do not understand why they must meet with the instructor prior to attempting the assessments for the second time. They also state that they do not know where to find the university's student handbook or what information is included in the handbook.
The student has acknowledged that they did not fully review all of the course content, noting that they were overwhelmed with the amount of material included in the course. They have requested approval to immediately retake the objective assessment and resubmit their performance assessment, but both requests have been denied per the university's academic policies, and the student was told to meet with the instructor to review the concepts they did not pass. The student has also been directed to review the university's student handbook, which includes the assessment policies the university adheres to.
Requirements:
Your submission must be your original work. No more than a combined total of 30% of the submission and no more than a 10% match to any one individual source can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from sources, even if cited correctly. The similarity report that is provided when you submit your task can be used as a guide.
You must use the rubric to direct the creation of your submission because it provides detailed criteria that will be used to evaluate your work. Each requirement below may be evaluated by more than one rubric aspect. The rubric aspect titles may contain hyperlinks to relevant portions of the course.
Tasks may not be submitted as cloud links, such as links to Google Docs, Google Slides, OneDrive, etc., unless specified in the task requirements. All other submissions must be file types that are uploaded and submitted as attachments (e.g., .docx, .pdf, .ppt).
Use the information in the given scenario to complete the following:
Note: You will find the WGU Student Policy Handbook helpful when completing this task. A link to the handbook is provided in the Web Links section.
A. Describe two actions the student in the given scenario can take to resolve their concerns that are appropriate in an academic setting and demonstrate professionalism. Support your description using relevant sources.
Note: You must acknowledge the sources used for all examples, in-text citations, and references.
B. Compose an email that the student in the given scenario could send to their academic program mentor that demonstrates academic professionalism and professional communication by doing the following:
1. Summarize the student's concerns.
2. Explain, from the student's perspective, how the student plans to move forward to complete their objective and performance assessments, including the two actions described in part A.
a. As part of your explanation in part B2, identify two goals, one goal for the objective assessment and one goal for the performance assessment, that will support completion of the assessments in a timely manner. Both goals must be different from the actions described in part A.
C. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized.
D. Demonstrate professional communication in the content and presentation of your submission.