Class Project
Goal
• to provide students with an opportunity to become more aware of how the media (more specifically,
social advertising) is used to promote social development in Canada and around the world.
• to identify and reflect on the main learning points from course textbook;
• to improve student’s research capacity within key areas of social development field of practice.
Procedure
The class project is an ongoing learning activity during the course. A class project has two parts. For each part,
students need to complete the following tasks.
The part 1 (units 1-5) is due during midterm (please see the deadline in course schedule) and will include Social
Advertisement and Social Development Concern Selection post, 1 Knowledge Sharing post, 1 Knowledge Caring
post, 2 Multiple Choice or 4 True/False questions.
The part 2 (units 6-13) is due at the end of the course (please see the deadline in course schedule) and include
Social Advertisement Research Paper, 2 Knowledge Sharing posts, 2 Knowledge Caring posts, 4 Multiple Choice
or 8 True/False questions and answers to 5 reflection questions that are posted two weeks before the
assignment is due.
Types of Posts:
Social Advertisement and Social Development Concern Selection Post (Part 1 only): Please post on designated
page on UM Learn your selected social development concern and social advertisement for your research paper.
Your post should include the correct APA reference for your social advertisement and a rationale why you have
selected social advertisement for your class project. In your rationale you need to define one prominent social
development concern you will research for your social advertisement research paper. You also need to select a
target population (a group of people who are affected by your selected social development concern and a
geographic location for your research). For example, if you choose to use the Engage and Change (2014) social
advertisement (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8KQlhwmsII) you can focus your paper on raising
awareness about male homelessness in Toronto, or you can focus your paper on raising awareness about
attitudes towards homeless people in Winnipeg. It is up to you to select your focus (target population,
geographic location and one prominent social development concern). In your research paper, you will need to
use evidence to argue that your selected social advertisement is designed to raise awareness about prominent
social development concern in Canada or around the world.
In addition to selecting social advertisement, you also need to include at least 1 APA formatted reference to the
most relevant academic resource that focuses on the same concern, target population and geographic location
and brief explanation on what makes the selected resource the most relevant for your paper. Please use no
more than 250 words (excluding correct referencing for your social advertisement and selected resource) for
your social advertisement and social development concern selection post.
Additional Information about social advertisement selection:
• Each student should select a social advertisement using Youtube video search engine. You will use the
social advertisement to complete a research paper in part 2 of the class project. The social advertisement
should be no longer than 4 minutes in length. Please see the selection of social advertisement from
previous offerings of the course. You can choose one of them or find your own:

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• Advertisements which are more than 4 minutes in length (4:01) are not accepted. Please note: the
advertisement can be as short as 10 seconds.
• The definition which is used to determine if your selected video can be defined as social advertisement or
public service announcement (PSA) is taken from PBS.org and states that social advertisement or public
service announcement (PSA) is “Announcement that informs the public about safety and health
information, community services or public affairs. Produced and programmed much like commercials,
but usually not produced for profit.” Please note that news clip cannot be used as an example of social
advertisement.
Public Broadcasting Service (2004). Media literacy glossary. Retrieved online from
http://www.pbs.org/weta/myjourneyhome/teachers/glossary.html
• Make sure your selected social advertisement fits the above-described definition before starting your
class project. If you are unsure that your selected social advertisement fits the assignment guidelines,
please feel free to email course instructor, and we will schedule a time to meet and discuss your
selection.
• Only one student can research the selected social advertisement (each student needs to choose
different social advertisement). Please check discussion board on course management system before
starting your class project to avoid duplication. No duplication is allowed, and the student will be
assigned 0% if another student used the same advertisement and already posted the link on the
course management system discussion board.
Knowledge Sharing Post (part 1 and part 2): Please post knowledge sharing posts on UM Learn no later than 1
week after we covered each unit of the course. The knowledge sharing post should include either 1 academic
resource or 2 non-academic resources (videos) for a selected unit readings that helps students to understand
better the material covered in the selected unit readings. The academic resource can come from any peerreviewed
document, such as an academic journal, book, government report, etc. The non-academic resource
can be a newspaper article, blog, poster, etc. A video can be selected from YouTube, Ted talk, Documentary
recording, etc. Please include a correct APA reference for your shared online resource and a summary of no less
than 100 words why the selected academic resource or 2 non-academic resources is helpful to improve your
understanding of the material covered in the selected textbook chapter. Please review APA guidelines on official
APA blog: http://blog.apastyle.org/ or purchase the most recent APA manual available here:
http://www.apastyle.org/manual/index.aspx Part 1 of the class project covers units 1-5. Part 2 of the class
project covers units 6-13. Please note no duplication of resources is allowed on a discussion forum. If another
student selected the resource, you could not post the same resource twice on course discussion forum for the
same unit reading.
Knowledge Caring Post (part 1 and part 2): Please post knowledge caring posts on UM Learn no later than the
class project deadline. The knowledge caring post allows to appreciate work shared by other students. The
knowledge caring post should include an appreciative comment (minimum 100 words) on the knowledge sharing
post already made by another class member to highlight why you appreciate reading other class member
knowledge sharing post. The knowledge caring post should indicate why the resource(s) is (are) helpful and
correctly reference (in-text citation only) the unit reading and selected resource(s)
True/False and Multiple Choice Question Post (part 1 and part 2): Please post the correct number of questions
for each part of the knowledge sharing assignment on selected unit readings. You can make the post before the
knowledge sharing reports are due. You can substitute the 2 true / false questions with 1 multiple choice
question for the selected unit reading. Please note, that no duplication of questions is allowed for each unit
reading and no true/false or multiple choice questions should be used from sample question test bank as part
of your submission.
Social Advertisement Paper (part 2 only):
• Each student is required to complete the research paper based on selected social advertisement. The
paper should follow essay style format (introduction, body and conclusion). All referencing should be
done using the most recent APA referencing guide. The introduction and conclusion to your research
paper should be no longer than 100-150 words each.
• The body of your paper (450-600 words) should have a strong argument on why your selected advertisement
is needed to raise awareness for your selected social development concern for selected target group in your
specified geographic location.
• Please make sure you clearly define the selected social development concern, state the significance of your
selected concern for target population and geographic location. You need to provide the recent data from
credible source (where the information was independently verified using good scientific methods) to
demonstrate the significance of the selected social development concern. Also make sure you have a strong
argument that your selected video meets the requirements for social advertisement and is relevant in
addressing your selected social development concern. Please note that you need to use at least 4 academic
referencesto be considered for the B grade and 6 academic referencesto be considered for an A grade. In
order to receive an A+ grade your paper should have at least 8 academic referencesin addition to
meeting other posted evaluation criteria. The course textbook, PBS definition of social advertisement and
selected social advertisement count as three academic sources.
The pre-formatted docx files are available on course management system for each part of the project.