My first task is to write a memo to the CEO regarding an employee who is claiming that we've discriminated against him. WGU stresses that they don't care what exact format your memo is in, nor do they give a specific page minimum or limit. Awesome! My first thought is that I'm writing to a CEO, so the memo should be concise, direct, and that I should not assume anything. Since this is a graduate level course, I shouldn't be afraid of thinking outside the box and looking for sources that weren't directly in the suggested reading. Details are my enemy so I (sometimes) try and overcompensate for that. What I struggled with most on this task was the fact that there really weren't any details. The dude quit because he felt like he'd been discriminated against. How am I supposed to make a recommendation when I don't have all of the information that I want or need? Worse yet, how do I not assume things? I emailed the course mentor and didn't get much info from him. *groan* I talked with my student mentor, Kelly, and she reminded me that this was the first time I was actually submitting something to be graded, and that since I didn't know what to expect, to do my best and see what happened. (I think basically she was regurgitating my "pasta theory" of, when you don't know what to do, start throwing pasta at the wall and see if something sticks. A lot of the time it won't, but if something does, great, if not try again.)
I was frustrated at this point (I seriously don't mean for "frustration" to be the theme of this blog!) but didn't know what else I could have added to make it better. I fully expected to receive it back. WGU has a policy thingy where you must pass each criteria of the rubric to pass the entire task; it's all or nothing. What is nice is that you can see the rubric (rubric is just a fancy word for "scoring criteria") ahead of time so that you have a better idea of what to focus on. Unfortunately, the rubric (at least for this task) is as vague as the scenario so it didn't help much.