Keeping up with your blogs (individual & team), other valuable tips.

Hello 2018/2019 Spartan Superway Students! PLEASE READ THIS ALL AS IT AFFECTS YOUR GRADE. 

My name is Eric Hagstrom, and I have been working as the Spartan Superway's Academic Programs & R&D Manager since the summer of 2016. During the 2017/2018 academic year, Dr. Furman took sabbatical, and I stepped in as the lead instructor for the Spartan Superway senior design course. I recently moved to San Luis Obispo with my significant other, so that is why you are not seeing me in person anymore (I know some of you from the summer program are in the senior design course now, so don't let me down! ;) ) . Anyways, I would still like to provide suggestions through the Spartan Superway blogspot that can help you and your team better prepare for the end of each semester in a wide variety of topics.

Please check back here for updates!

First piece of advice that also affects your grade. Keeping up with your BLOGS - both individual and team. Keeping up with your blogs means posting ONCE PER WEEK. 

1. Your individual blogs should keep records of what you have done individually for your group each week (i.e., describing a part of the system that you looked into and diagnosed, any notes thereof, preliminary calculations or sketches, debugging, future goals for next week and/or long term, etc).
2. Your team blogs should keep record of what you AND your team have done collectively for this week in terms what team project goals have been completed. Any progress should be noted, and progress should be completed each week in tandem with a team Gantt Chart to keep you and your team on track. It is okay to use some content from your individual blogs as long as you are complete with your blog posts.

These blogs posts should be detailed, including, but not limited to, photos, diagrams, calculations, sketches, and CAD models. You can also include meetings with your mentors, discussions with Dr. Furman and Ron, and other related suggestions. You should also consider looking at your FINAL REPORT GUIDELINES so you know what to expect at the end of the semester. This will help you and your team understand what details need to be filled out in your final report. The more you complete now, in the form of your blogs, means the less you will have to write at the end of your semester when you have to balance final tests and other reports for your classes.
A minimum of 2 paragraphs, along with other details, should be written each week in your blogs as you are likely performing and completing a bunch of work related to your project. Your team blogs should have more than that!

**If you are under an non-disclosure agreement (NDA), please speak with Dr. Furman and/or Ron on what is appropriate to post on your blogs or not.

When you enter SpartanSuperway.blogspot.com, as you should already know, on the left hand side you will see team blogs, while the right hand side has your individual blogs.
If your individual blog or team blog is not listed, please send your URL to Eric.Hagstrom@sjsu.edu, and I will personally add your link to the web page. Please view the instructions below on how to make a blog, both personal and team, if you have not done so.

Observations: 
Looking at the current blogs, both individual and team, are relatively lackluster. Some blogs are better than others in terms of written content, while others have not been updated in weeks! You are LOSING grade points. So please, keep up with this blogspot. You are in your final year of engineering, and technical writing will NEVER disappear if you stay within the engineering industry (depending on what you are doing of course).

Please do not hesitate to send me an email if you need any help. Eric.Hagstrom@Sjsu.edu