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Welcome to the Writing Guide course. This course invites students and instructors to practice rhetoric and engage in invitational conversations with empathy and meaning, empowering students to negotiate their identities and cultures through language.
Utilizing educational resources based on Handbook from the OpenStax Library, a nonprofit organization at Rice University. This allows students to participate in learning assessments, discussions, and apprenticeship sharing with peers worldwide. Next GenU’s team has focused on creating an engaging and interactive learning experience through content knowledge and improvement activities.
This Writing Course uses learning resources from the OpenStax Library, a nonprofit organization based at Rice University whose mission is to improve student access to education. This allows students to participate in learning assessments, discussions, and apprenticeship sharing with peers worldwide. Next GenU’s team has focused on creating an engaging and interactive learning experience through content knowledge and improvement activities.There are 3 modules to complete, which provide an introduction to:
- Module 1: The Things We Carry: Experience, Culture, and Language
- Module 2: Bridging the Divide Between Personal Identity and Academia
- Module 3: Navigating Rhetoric in Real Life
The completion time for this course is estimated at 129 hours, comprising 36 hours of learning resources, 72 hours of time to study content and assimilation, and 57 hours of participating in learning activities, to assist the learners in synthesizing learning materials. This course is equivalent to 3 credit hours.
The course requires completion of all activities needed to complete the course; once you’ve completed them, you can download a certificate of completion from NextGenU.org and our course’s co-sponsoring organizations. We keep all of your personal information confidential, never sell any of your information, and only use anonymized data for research purposes. Also, we are happy to report your testing information and share your work with anyone (your school, employer, etc.) at your request.
At NextGenU.org, we provide the estimated reading times for all of our Learning Resources (LRs) i.e. webpages, articles and slides. The estimated reading time is calculated using a reading speed of 144 words per minute (no. of words recommended to read in the LR ÷ 144 words per minute). Additionally, we calculate the study/assimilation, which for primary sources, are multiplied by 2 and for secondary sources, are multiplied by 1 (estimated read time x 2 = study/assimilation time).
Engaging with this Course:
You may browse this course for free to learn for your personal enrichment; there are no requirements.
To obtain a certificate, a learner must first register for the course and then successfully complete:
- All the reading requirements
- All Learning activities
- The self and course evaluation forms
To obtain credit:
- Complete all requirements listed above for the certificate, and
- Your learning institution or workplace should approve the partner- university-sponsored NextGenU.org course for educational credit, as they would for their learner taking a course anywhere.
NextGenU.org is happy to provide your institution with:- A link to and description of the course training, so they can see all its components, including the cosponsoring universities and other professional organization cosponsors;
- Your grade on the final exam;
- Your work products (e.g. case study activities), and any other required or optional shared materials that you produce and authorize to share with them;
- Your evaluations -- course and self-assessments;
- A copy of your certificate of completion, with the co-sponsoring universities and other organizations listed.
To obtain a degree, NextGenU.org co-sponsors degree programs with institutional partners. To obtain a full degree co-sponsored with NextGenU.org, registrants must be enrolled in a degree program as a student of a NextGenU.org institutional partner. If you think that your institution might be interested in offering a degree with NextGenU.org contact us.
We hope that you will find this a rewarding learning experience, and we count on your assessment and feedback to help us improve this training for future students.
Here are the next steps to take the course and earn a certificate.
- Complete the registration form.
- Begin the course with Module 1: The Things We Carry: Experience, Culture, and Language. In each lesson, read the description, complete all required readings and any required activity, as well as take the corresponding quizzes.
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Module 1: The Things We Carry: Experience, Culture, and Language
This Module delves into the rich, dynamic tapestry of personal experience and how it is influenced by culture and language. We examine the influence of our digital world, probing our preconceived ideas, and challenging them through critical thinking. The module also emphasizes the relationship between language, identity, and culture, providing opportunities for you to explore, employ, and embrace the nuances within. A major component of this module is the creation of a literacy narrative, which serves as a symbolic bridge between our personal experiences and how we communicate them, fostering empathy, understanding, and connection.
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Module1: Lesson 1: The Digital World: Building on What You Already Know to Respond Critically
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Develop inquiry, learning, critical thinking, and communication skills within diverse rhetorical and cultural contexts.
- Identify relationships between ideas and patterns of organization, verbal and nonverbal elements, and successful social media use.
- Use rhetorical terminology to analyze various texts and understand how genre conventions are shaped by audience, purpose, language, culture, and expectation.
- Distinguish between rhetorical situations and determine how conventions are shaped by purpose, language, culture, and expectations.
- Develop flexible reading strategies, articulate how organizational features function for different audiences, and identify standard formats and design features for different kinds of text.
- Read and write critically within social media platforms, distinguishing variations in genre conventions, differentiating between intention and execution, and articulating how rubrics provide insight into the outcomes of an assignment.
- Determine how various mediums address, affect, and interact with multiple audiences and examine the importance of their college experience and its impact on society.
- Write and post texts in different environments and varying rhetorical situations, and reflect on the development of their composing processes and how they affect their work.
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Module 1: Lesson 2: Language, Identity, and Culture: Exploring, Employing, Embracing
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Explain the importance of communication in different cultural, language-related, and rhetorical situations and how language can promote social justice and equality.
- Articulate how authors incorporate identity and genre conventions into their compositions and how language conventions shape readers' and writers' practices and purposes.
- Define oppression and inclusion and ways to write inclusively.
- Analyze relationships between ideas and patterns of organization and how language, identity, and culture shape writing using W. E. B. Du Bois is an example.
- Implement drafting strategies, collaborating, and giving productive feedback.
- Distinguish variations in genre conventions and differentiate between intention and execution in intended meaning.
- Identify linguistic structures and write authentically, adapting their language to different contexts.
- Write reflections on the composition process and apply composition processes to discover and reconsider ideas.
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Module 1: Lesson 3: Literacy Narrative: Building Bridges, Bridging Gaps
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Identify various types of literacy, discern identity in different contexts, and read a diverse range of texts, attending to relationships among ideas and patterns of organization.
- Developing flexible drafting, reviewing, collaborating, revising, rewriting, and editing strategies using language structures and various technologies.
- Reflect on the development of their composing processes and consider how those processes affect their work.
- Read and compose in multiple genres to understand how genre conventions shape and are shaped by readers' and writers' practices and purposes.
- Match the capacities of different environments to varying rhetorical situations.
- Read a diverse range of texts, attending to relationships among ideas, patterns of organization, and the interplay between verbal and nonverbal elements.
- Develop a writing project through multiple drafts and use composing for inquiry, learning, critical thinking, and communicating in various rhetorical, cultural, and language situations.
- Give and act on productive feedback to works in progress and benefit from writing processes' collaborative and social aspects.
- Identify how genre conventions for structure, paragraphing, tone, and mechanics vary.
- Use a variety of technologies to address a range of audiences.
- Reflect on the development of composing processes and consider how those processes affect your work.
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Module 2: Bridging the Divide Between Personal Identity and Academia
This Module explores the intersection of personal narratives and academic discourses. You will have the chance to mine your personal experiences for insight through memoirs or narratives, understand the art of profile writing, propose solutions for problems, and evaluate various subjects. The lessons extend to analytical reporting, mastering the art of rhetoric, honing reasoning strategies, and practicing argumentative research. This module essentially establishes a discourse between your personal identity and academic perspectives, empowering you with research skills to substantiate your ideas and arguments.
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Module 2: Lesson 1: Memoir or Personal Narrative: Learning Lessons from the Personal
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Read in several genres to understand how genre conventions shape and are shaped by readers’ and writers’ practices and purposes and analyze relationships between ideas and patterns of organization in a nonfiction text.
- Identify composition techniques for personal writing in various rhetorical and cultural contexts, identify standard formats and design features used to develop a personal narrative or memoir, and show that genre conventions are shaped by purpose, culture, and expectation.
- Develop a writing project through multiple drafts, apply correct genre conventions for structure, paragraphs, tone, and mechanics, write with purposeful shifts in voice, diction, tone, formality, and design appropriate to personal narratives, proficiently employing cultural and language variations in composition, experience the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes, and give feedback to works in progress.
- Correctly identify and use conventions of the personal narrative genre, including structure, paragraphing, tone, and mechanics, gain experience negotiating variations in genre conventions, develop flexible strategies for reviewing and revise, and give and act on productive feedback for works in progress.
- Respond to a variety of situations and contexts by recognizing diction, tone, formality, design, medium, or structure to meet the problem, read a diverse range of texts, attending especially to patterns of organization, the interplay between verbal and nonverbal elements, and how these features function for different audiences and situations.
- Reflect on the composition process, reflecting how the composition process affects your writing, and use a composition for learning, critical thinking, and communicating in various rhetorical contexts.
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Module 2: Lesson 2: Profile: Telling a Rich and Compelling Story
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Identify and explain the characteristics of profile writing and how the genre has developed.
- Read and profile in various rhetorical and cultural contexts, identifying genre conventions, and comment on the interaction between the author, subject, and audience.
- Plan and conduct primary and secondary research, compose an email that meets professional standards, synthesize research findings to create a written profile, give and receive constructive feedback, and revise a draft in response to feedback.
- Apply editing strategies, consistent use of verbs, profile genre conventions for structure, paragraphing, tone, and mechanics, and evaluate one's text according to a given standard.
- Read and analyze profiles with specific historical and cultural contexts and reflect on composing processes' development and how they affect the final product.
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Module 2: Lesson 3: Proposal: Writing About Problems and Solutions
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Have skills and knowledge related to proposal writing and technical writing.
- Ask critical-thinking questions, distinguish between fact and opinion, and recognize bias.
- Describe a problem and proposed solution.
- Understand the roles of purpose and audience.
- Identify key features and characteristics of proposals.
- Learn to analyze organizational structures, integrate evidence, and draft proposals using prewriting strategies.
- Identify and correct subject-verb agreement errors, evaluate feedback, and reflect on their writing processes and objectivity as writers.
- Apply technical writing as a professional career.
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Module 2: Lesson 4: Evaluation or Review: Would You Recommend It?
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Understand the review genre's role in personal, professional, and academic contexts and how it differs from other genres.
- Read with the intention of inquiry, learning, and critical thinking about the review genre.
- Analyze credibility and bias's role in reviews and identify their characteristic features and evaluation criteria.
- Identify critical terms, mediums, and features of review writing, as well as criteria and evidence to support different primary sources.
- Revise a thesis supported by analysis and evaluation and demonstrate the steps of the writing process, including engaging in collaborative and social aspects and adapting to different technologies and modalities.
- Selecting and integrating direct quotations into writing and evaluating reviews using a rubric for thesis, evidence, rhetorical choices, clarity, and language awareness.
- Understand the role of sociohistorical context and linguistic variations in the review genre and identify opportunities for publication.
- Reflect on the development of composing processes and how they affect one's work.
Click here to start this lesson10 URLs, 4 Forums -
Module 2: Lesson 5: Analytical Report: Writing from Facts
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Distinguish between fact and opinion, recognize bias in reading and oneself, and ask critical thinking questions to explore ideas for a report.
- Define the term myth buster and its connection to field research, answer questions about investigating and reporting information, and gather information from biographical texts.
- Determine the purpose and audience expectations for an analytical report, identify key features and characteristics of both informal and formal reports, and define key terms related to an analytical report.
- Identify the genre conventions of an informal analytical report, analyze the organizational structure of a piece, and recognize how writers use evidence and objectivity to build credibility, including identifying sources of evidence and source citations.
- Identify the elements of the rhetorical situation for a report, find and focus a topic, gather and analyze information from appropriate sources, draft a thesis and create an organizational plan, as well as compose a report that develops ideas and integrates evidence from sources, and giving and act on productive feedback.
- Distinguish between essential and nonessential information in sentences and use commas for clearer, more effective sentences.
- Evaluate feedback on a report and apply another reader's response to the rhetorical choices made as a writer.
- Explain the role of discipline-specific and technical language in various situations and contexts, implement purposeful shifts in voice, tone, level of formality, and word choice, and pursue options for publishing a report.
- Write about the development of composing processes, how they affect one's work, and objectivity as a writer.
10 URLs, 4 Forums -
Module 2: Lesson 6: Rhetorical Analysis: Interpreting the Art of Rhetoric
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Identify and explain ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos.
- Identify and analyze logical fallacies used in persuasion.
- Understand and analyze rhetorical strategies in different texts and how to use them in real-life situations.
- Identify key rhetorical strategies that authors use to persuade readers.
- Analyze texts to demonstrate an understanding of vital rhetorical concepts.
- Develop skills in analyzing and writing a rhetorical analysis.
- Identify genre conventions, analyze rhetorical strategies, demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills, develop a rhetorical analysis through multiple drafts, identify and correct errors in mixed sentence construction, evaluate the elements of a rhetorical analysis, evaluate an essay for clarity, coherence, and language, and reflect on the development of composing practices and how they influence work.
- Apply knowledge of linguistic structures, recognize and correct errors in mixed sentence construction, apply methods and technologies commonly used for communication in various fields, write an effective resume and accompanying cover letter, and interpret legal language and rewrite it in plain English.
10 URLs, 4 Forums -
Module 2: Lesson 7: Position Argument: Practicing the Art of Rhetoric
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Apply key rhetorical concepts to presenting a position argument, understand how these conventions are shaped by purpose, culture, and reasoning, and identify different types of evidence used in a position argument.
- Analyze rhetorical and cultural contexts, verbal and nonverbal elements, and conventions shaped by purpose, language, culture, and expectation when reading and writing about position and argument.
- Demonstrate effective brainstorming, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing processes when composing a position argument that integrates the writer's ideas with appropriate sources.
- Implement transitional words and phrases and genre conventions in paragraphs and transitions, evaluate feedback and understand citation conventions and intellectual property concepts, and reflect on the writing process, reasoning, and critical-thinking skills used in developing a paper.
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Module 2: Lesson 8: Reasoning Strategies: Improving Critical Thinking
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Identify key rhetorical concepts and thought patterns in a variety of texts.
- Explain how thought patterns function for different audiences, purposes, and situations.
- Read for inquiry, learning, and critical thinking.
- Identify reasoning strategies and explain their functions.
- Identify and define reasoning strategies and signal words.
- Determine how the rhetorical situation influences written works' content and reasoning strategies.
- Identify reasoning strategies and explain their function in a written text.
- Explain how reasoning strategies are shaped by purpose, language, culture, and expectation.
- Read and respond critically to a text.
- Use organizational and reasoning strategies to compose texts that integrate the writer’s ideas with those from appropriate sources.
- Implement varying language structures in the process of composing.
- Develop flexible strategies for drafting and revising.
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Module 2: Lesson 9: Argumentative Research: Enhancing the Art of Rhetoric with Evidence
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Articulate how research evidence and sources are key rhetorical concepts in presenting a position or an argument.
- Locate and distinguish between primary and secondary research materials.
- Implement methods and technologies commonly used for research and communication within various fields.
- Identify and explain key rhetorical concepts.
- Identify key terms and characteristics of evidence-based research writing.
- Identify and analyze genre conventions.
- Analyzing how writers use evidence, formulate a solid thesis, synthesize information from outside sources while retaining a writer's voice, and draft an argumentative research essay.
- Experience collaborative and social aspects of writing processes, give and act on productive feedback to works in progress, apply citation conventions systematically in their work, and identify standard formats and design features for different kinds of texts.
- Implement style and language consistent with argumentative research writing while avoiding bias and stereotyping in their essay.
- Distinguish between facts, inferences, and informed opinions and analyze how realities have shaped their research and composing processes.
10 URLs, 3 Forums -
Module 2: Lesson 10:Research Process: Accessing and Recording Information
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Locate, evaluate, and create primary and secondary research materials using methods and technologies commonly used in various fields.
- Practice strategies such as interpretation, synthesis, response, and critique to compose texts that integrate the writer's ideas with those from appropriate sources.
- Demonstrate the ability to inquire, learn, think critically, and communicate when reading in different rhetorical and cultural contexts.
- Identify and analyze relationships between ideas, patterns of organization, and verbal and nonverbal elements in written texts.
- Analyze and make informed decisions about an intellectual property based on the concepts that motivate them, and apply citation conventions systematically.
- Participate effectively in collaborative processes involving field research in a variety of disciplines.
- Develop projects using the characteristic processes of various disciplines.
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Module 2: Lesson 11: Annotated Bibliography: Gathering, Evaluating, and Documenting Sources
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Integrate your ideas with ideas from related sources.
- Locate, compile, and evaluate primary, secondary, and tertiary research materials related to your topic.
- Apply citation conventions to your writing, understanding the ideas of intellectual property that motivate their use.
- Compose texts that integrate the writer’s views with ideas from related sources.
- Explain the composition genres' purpose, language, culture, and expectations.
- Analyze relationships between ideas and organizational patterns.
- Evaluate research materials for credibility, sufficiency, accuracy, timeliness, and bias.
- Apply citation conventions to your writing and understand the ideas of intellectual property that motivate their use.
- Compose to discover and reconsider ideas.
- Compose an annotated bibliography that uses correct style conventions and integrates the writer’s ideas with ideas from related sources.
5 URLs, 3 Forums -
Module 2: Lesson 12: Case Study Profile: What One Person Says About All
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Define and explain the purpose of case studies.
- Identify ethical considerations, and apply critical thinking and communication skills in various contexts.
- Analyze and implement the genre conventions of case studies, participate in collaborative writing processes, and give productive feedback on works in progress.
- Identify and correct commonly confused words, evaluate the effectiveness and quality of a case study report, and reflect on their composing processes.
Approximate time required for the readings for this lesson (at 144 words/minute): 6 hours and 24 minutes.Click here to start this lesson10 URLs, 4 Forums -
Module 3: Navigating Rhetoric in Real Life
This module equips you with the tools to interpret and navigate the rhetoric that surrounds us in daily life. Here, we deal with various forms of analysis, including print, textual, and image, to uncover layers of meaning. We also look at the interplay of text and images in multimodal and online writing, encouraging creativity in digital expression. Scripting for public speaking becomes a medium for you to engage with broader audiences. This module culminates with a portfolio reflection to help you gauge your growth as a writer, creating a roadmap for your future rhetorical journey.
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Module 3: Lesson 1: Print or Textual Analysis: What You Read
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Define and explain the textual analysis and its use in academic and real-world contexts.
- Identify the components of textual analysis and compare it to rhetorical analysis.
- Demonstrate critical thinking and communication in varying rhetorical and cultural contexts.
- Integrate the writer's ideas with those of others.
- Define key terms and organizational patterns of textual analysis and explain how genre conventions are shaped by purpose, culture, and expectation.
- Make connections between ideas and patterns of organization, evaluating literary elements and strategies used in textual analysis.
- Develop a writing project focused on textual analysis, completing the stages of the writing process, and collaborating in the peer review process.
- Apply methods commonly used for analysis and interpretation in writing and demonstrate competent use of the present literary tense in textual analysis.
- Apply formats and design features for different texts and assess writing for language, clarity, coherence, and rhetorical choices using a rubric.
- Describe various disciplines in the humanities and evaluate employment opportunities for graduates with humanities degrees.
- Reflect on the development of composing processes and identify strengths in writing to continue developing writing skills.
Click here to start this lesson10 URLs, 3 Forums -
Module 3: Lesson 2: Image Analysis: What You See
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Define and interpret the key concepts and elements of visual rhetoric and use them to interpret visual information.
- Interpret images differently based on cultural considerations and choose digital and visual media according to the rhetorical situation and cultural context.
- Make informed decisions about intellectual property issues regarding images and interpret images through the conceptual lens of hybridity in different rhetorical and cultural contexts.
- Analyze and reflect on images using the language of visual rhetoric, determining variations in genre conventions and organizational patterns of various texts.
- Develop a writing project through multiple drafts, employing drafting strategies, and applying aspects of visual rhetoric to a writing project, participate in collaborative and social aspects of writing processes, and give and act on productive feedback.
- Apply editing strategies to highlight the features of visual rhetoric and eliminate wordiness and overused modifiers.
- Compare written work with evaluation criteria, examine and apply essential techniques in film and movies to personal rhetorical and cultural contexts, and create a multimodal work that incorporates visual rhetorical methods.
- Articulate the use of images in light of their rhetorical context and elements and analyze them rhetorically both in and out of academic settings.
10 URLs, 3 Forums -
Module 3: Lesson 3: Multimodal and Online Writing: Creative Interaction between Text and Image
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Identify, analyze, and apply genre conventions and rhetorical techniques in various contexts.
- Address different audiences using a variety of technologies and modalities.
- Understand how genre conventions vary and are shaped by purpose, culture, and audience expectation.
- Develop skills in multimodal composition and reflection on the composing process.
9 URLs, 3 Forums -
Module 3: Lesson 4: Scripting for the Public Forum: Writing to Speak
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Apply genre conventions and rhetorical concepts appropriate to various environments and situations.
- Emphasize the relationships between genre conventions and the practices, purposes, and expectations of writers and readers.
- Highlight effective rhetorical devices, structure, tone, and mechanics in writing speeches while providing and receiving feedback.
- Produce effective written and oral content using genre conventions, different technologies, and understanding cultural considerations.
- Emphasize the reflective process of creating a presentation script and how the composing process affects the final product.
Click here to start this lesson9 URLs, 3 Forums -
Module 3: Lesson 5: Portfolio Reflection: Your Growth as a Writer
Student Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Identify and analyze an author's reflections and demonstrate critical thinking about them.
- Identify conventions of reflection and articulate how genre conventions are shaped by purpose, culture, and expectation.
- Analyze a reflective essay's elements and organizational patterns and demonstrate critical thinking about them.
- Apply composing processes and tools to discover and reconsider ideas and adapt them to different technologies and modalities.
- Demonstrate knowledge of linguistic structures, including grammar, and implement appropriate pronouns in written work.
- Articulate how genre conventions for structure, tone, and mechanics vary and evaluate a written work for critical language awareness, clarity and coherence, and rhetorical choices.
- Recognize and avoid gender bias in writing and language use, and use current terminology and gender-neutral pronouns where applicable.
Click here to start this lesson9 URLs, 3 Forums -
Course and Self Evaluation & Certificate
In this section, you can provide feedback about this course to help us make NextGenU.org better. Once evaluations are completed, you will be able to download your certificate of completion.
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