Another thing I have done to make course management easier is to require student to turn in their assignments by saving them to my folder on the P: drive. You all have a folder there too! It's only accessible from the computers on campus. When students save things to the Hand In folder, they can't later open them and change them (nor can other students). Also, it records the date and time that the assignment was last saved, which helps eliminate "I handed this in on time and you lost it" arguments.

Then, depending on how I want to do my grading, I can either print them all out or just grade them electronically.

I also put all the assignments linked below up on the P: drive in the Hand Out folder. That way, when students inevitably lose the handout, they can go there and reprint.

I may eventually move this system over to Google Docs so that students can access the documents from off-campus (one of the biggest complaints I've had, especially from evening students). I'm still refining my systems, and my goal one day is to have a totally paperless class. I usually make it about halfway through the semester before I revert to my tree-killing ways!

E-mail Assignment: Goes with Ch 8 in the textbook

Memo Assignment: Goes with Ch 8 in the textbook

Routine Letter Assignment: Goes with Ch 9 in the textbook

Persuasive Letter Assignment: Goes with Ch 10 in the textbook

Bad News/Negative Letter: Goes with Ch 11 in the textbook

Final Portfolio Project: This is actually the previous iteration of this assignment. I, um, can't find the one I used more recently, but I don't know that the more recent one was better. This one always worked pretty well although I suspect it was a little too easy. I did have a few students turn in some amazing work though.

Okay, now you guys post some thoughts or best practices. What works for you? What areas do you need help with? And thanks Bert, for setting this up.