Title: Practicum Guidelines
Course: DEPT MC - PERSONAL COMPUTER HARDWARE > Section: Start Here

What is the Practicum?

The Practicum (defined at dictionary.com as "the part of a course consisting of practicalwork in a particular field") is an opportunity for you to demonstrate the computer hardware skills you have acquired over the course of the semester. You are to complete a project of your own design which includes a discussion of several key topics we've covered and then document your work on the project with a PowerPoint (or Google Slides) presentation to be presented in class.

What can I do for my project?

The Practicum is a flexible assignment; you can design the project to focus on any topic we've covered in the class. If any subject (e.g. networking, processors, etc.) has been particularly interesting to you, build your project around that. The project can take many different forms. Past examples include:

- Installation of a clean operating system on a Raspberry Pi
- Upgrade of an older personal computer (with the addition of a new motherboard, processor, graphics card, and RAM)
- Replacement of a broken LCD panel on a student laptop

What should I turn in for my Practicum?

This will depend on your project. There are two main requirements that must be met by your submissions: 1) you must turn in a presentation summarizing your project and its relevance to the course, and 2) you must turn in some form of documentation of the work you completed. These two criteria can be filled in different ways, and can be fulfilled by the same document. For example, someone who repairs a personal computer might take short videos of themselves performing key steps in the process, then embed those videos in their presentation. If you were to complete a research paper, for example, the paper itself with citations would be the proof of work, and you could summarize the paper in your presentation.

How is the Practicum evaluated?

Your grade on the Practicum is the following 4 criteria, each weighted 25 percent of the total grade:

- Class Presentation (Introduction, Voice, Presence)
- Project significance (Defined link to course topic)
- ON TIME Delivery
- Overall Presentation

Each student will also submit a peer review of classmates' projects. The evaluations will factor into each student's final project grade.

Don't forget about the Practicum proposal!

One of the assignments for this class is to write up a small (1 or 2 paragraph) proposal describing your project and submit it for approval. Click here to go directly to this assignment page.