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Hi everyone, I just thought I'd do a quick little video
about Assignment 4, the Briefing Note,
just to give you a little more context about what it is.
Um, so basically what this is, is an efficient way
of getting essential information to a decision maker.
It's a clear, concise analysis of key factors on a particular issue.
So it's often used in government, definitely.
You're often briefing the minister or the deputy minister.
Um, in corporate, you would often use it for across departments, or up the chain.
They may not call it a briefing note, but similar kind of idea.
Um, in higher ed, and K to 12, it isn't used quite as much,
uh, but again, it depends on the context.
So in the ad- sort of, administration of a higher ed institution,
this would be something that would be used, um,
fairly frequently to inform other departments
or other groups of a particular issue
or particular considerations.
So, it's used when the decision maker lacks the background,
or they're uninformed about an issue, they might be new to the role.
Again, if you think politics, this helped to make a little more sense.
Um, if they're responsible for a broad range of issues,
and this is just one of them, so being able to keep on top,
and have things top of mind is, is the challenge.
Or if they've been contracted or delegated this task,
and they need the starting point,
they need, sorta, what's been done to date.
So here's what's in a good briefing note.
It's brief! Go figure.
Um, it's usually two to three pages.
After that, people are not going to read it.
So this is, uh, for the purposes of the assignment,
we're doing two pages as a briefing note,
and four pages as the background supporting documentation,
for a total of six pages for the assignment.
Um, in real life,
you would usually look at, maybe, two to three pages,
and the rest would be, quote-unquote, appendices.
It's concise.
So it's only relevant information, there's no repetition,
you're not trying to tell them,
then tell them what you told them, and then tell them you told them.
Um, it's not the journalist model.
It is concise, no wasted words,
and, uh, very easy to read with a logical structure.
It's also reliable.
So it has to be accurate, it has to be comprehensive and complete.
This is no mean feat to get all of this in two words.
So even though the assignment for this course seems small,
two pages, and then four pages of background and supporting,
um, those two pages have to really be on the mark.
And so, I think you'll find you'll end up writing much more,
and then editing and trimming down.
This is a suggested structure.
It's a very common structure for a briefing note.
Um, you'll need to work with this and adapt it,
depending upon which tack you take for the assignment,
uh, but this'll give you an idea
of, sort of, headings, subheadings, that kind of idea.
So the first thing you wanna identify is what, what is the issue?
What's the problem? What's the thing you're gonna be talking about?
Give a bit of background. How did we reach this point?
What's the current situation? Where are we now?
Who's involved? Who are the key players? What are we to consider?
And what are the key concerns
or key factors that we have to consider?
And then, some options. How might we take care of this?
And recommendations.
Sometimes five and six are combined together.
Um, sometimes five, six, and seven are combined together,
depending upon the context and who this is going to.
So, for this assignment,
there is one briefing note, it's made up of two pieces.
It can all be done in one document.
The first two pages are your two-page briefing note.
That's where that structure comes into play.
It's single-spaced, you can use bullet points,
um, adhere to that structure.
You can adapt it if you like, but generally there's a-
those are your headings that you're working on.
And then, you have the four pager backgrounder.
We're calling it a backgrounder, in this case,
in other settings it may be called appendices.
And this- the purpose of these four pages
is to provide additional detail that would enhance comprehension.
So it's more information about
what was presented in the first two pages,
it's not new topics.
The backgrounder needs to be APA formatted –
double spaced, APA-attention to detail, citations, all of that sort of thing.
Citations should be included in the backgrounder,
not necessarily in the briefing note, unless you use a direct quote,
or a citation that's critical.
Then you will need to cite it.
But usually, the briefing note is very straight speak,
um, here's how, how we follow through the structure.
Uh, don't forget to include a reference list.
So, for this assignment, you're gonna have a cover page,
Assignment 4, Briefing Note, blah blah blah blah, who you are,
and then the first two pages will be single spaced briefing note,
and the following four pages will be your backgrounder,
and after that, you'll have your reference list.
So I've put in a sample in our Blackboard shell,
so you can see one, um,
it's on content that's not irrelevant, but very different
than what we've been focusing on in the course,
uh, but I think you'll start to see the structure,
and the approach that was taken, and the formatting.
So, you can use that as a guide for the assignment.
And the other piece, in addition to this briefing note,
is to complete the peer assessment forms for your problem-based learning group.
So, I've created them in Blackboard,
um, you'll need to fill in your group mates' names,
assess them against the criteria, and then upload them to Blackboard.
Now, here, it says upload them in the same place,
and I would like you to disregard that, I'll change it on the PDF slides,
because I've actually figured out a way
to create a place where you can upload them separately,
and I'll explain that in Blackboard in an email.
So now that we've been through the assessment
and how to assess online, um,
and some detail around peer assessment,
now is the point where I wanted to introduce the peer assessment
for your work in both of your PBL teams.
And so that's the second piece that you'll need to get done, um,
as we start to wrap up the course.
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