Project 1 Lab Discussion
The goal of this project is to introduce you to using Blackboard’s Assignment Manager and
writing simple word processing documents. For most of you, this will not be new. The one part
that may be new to you is the part that where you determine your hardware and software on your
computer.
Blackboard
More and more of CLC courses are using Blackboard, a course management tool, for interacting
with our students. One of the components of Blackboard is the Assignment Manager that
permits me to post an assignment for you to complete and then allows you to attach your
completed assignment so it will show up in my area for grading. So it is important that you
understand how to use the Assignment Manager so you can attach your completed projects for
grading. To get into the Assignment Manager, click the Project 1 title.
All your grades will show up in Blackboard’s gradebook area.
Writing a Simple Word Processing Document
The structure of your document is very simple for this project. You need a minimum of five
paragraphs. A paragraph is designated by either indenting the first sentence of the paragraph or
by placing some spacing between two paragraphs. The spacing can be accomplished by either
using an embedded empty paragraph or by using the paragraph space before or space after (see
Figure 1).
This paper should be written at a college level; ie. no Internet abbreviations and shortcuts. A
paragraph should consist of a topic sentence, several supporting sentences and possibly a
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Project 1 Lab Discussion
concluding sentence. The sentences should consist of a subject and a verb with possibly a direct
object. Part of the grade is attributable to your paragraph and sentence structure and your word
choices so you still need to follow grammar rules. The only other word processing technique for
this paper is that the paper must include a header section and a footer section. You can add these
to your document by using the Insert menu item, followed by the Insert Header/Footer and then
entering the data you want in the header and footer.
Figure 1. Insert Toolbar
Notice in the figure below that the horizontal ruler for the header and footer sections has several
different alignment tabs - a left-alignment tab for the left side of the page, a center-aligned tab
for the middle section and the right-aligned tab for the right side of the page. If you change your
page orientation or the margins for the page, the alignments tabs remain as before, so you may
need to adjust these alignment tabs.
Figure 2. Header/Footer Tools tab
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Project 1 Lab Discussion
So What is the Content of your Project 1 Document
My project description is fairly straight forward. In it, I mention that I will grade you on meeting
the requirements laid out in the project description and the majority of the points will be
allocated to potentially new word processing techniques. These requirements are concisely
summarized in the Grading Rubric for the project so please use the rubric both as a guideline for
writing your documents and a checklist regarding how points are assigned. In this first
requirement for your project, I want a short description of your education and career goals, the
reason you are taking this course, your experience with computer hardware and software, the
jobs you have held, and any interests you have. If you have never had a job, describe how you
spent your summer vacations. Each of the previous topics should be a paragraph. The last part of
this project concerns finding out information about your hardware and software. We will record
the hardware and software information about the lab computer you are using during the lab
session. This should give you a good idea of how to discover the information about the computer
you normally use for your school work.
You will see that I have a second document associated with this project - Determining Your
Computer Information. If you are using Windows 8, make sure you use the Determining Your
Computer Information under Windows 8 document. As you follow the instructions on one of
these documents you should be recording your computer information into the table that you
copied from the project description. Below is the start of the table that must be completed about
the computer you are using to do this project. You need to copy the complete table from the
project description to your project 1 document by clicking on the little box with the 4-way arrow
in the upper left corner of the table. This will select the complete table. Copy the selection to
the clipboard, then click on your project 1 document and position the mouse where you want to
insert the table. Paste the table from the clipboard to your document.
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Project 1 Lab Discussion
What Office Software Can You Use
The school is currently using MS Office 2013. You can also do the projects using MS Office
2003 or MS Office 2007 or MS Office 2010. If you have a Mac and are using MS’s Mac Office
versions, 2008 or 2011, these will work fine as well. I do have a desktop computer that is
running Linux so you can turn in your projects using Libre Office or Open Office.
Attaching a Document to the Blackboard Assignment Manager
The last part of the project is attaching a file to the Assignment posting. Under the submission
section, use the Attach My Computer to attach your file. Once you have located the desired file,
then use the Open button. Next, you must press the Submit button for it to be posted to my area
for grading.
Finding Related Material in the MS Office 2013 Book
Formatting marks
Displaying the rulers
Adjusting paragraph spacing
Headers and footers
Insert page number
Saving a document
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WD 72, 73
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WD 76
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