Class participation can help your grade on this course, and lack of participation can hurt your grade. You won’t get a number or even a letter grade for participation, but it will influence me at the end. A person with a B business plan could end up with an A in the course if he or she were participating well. And a person with an A business plan who never came to class is going to get about a C on the course, because I’ve got tons of supplemental material on the business plan itself, but by not being in class you will have missed a lot of discussion.

Participation also includes participation in the online discussions on this site. It’s perhaps a bit overambitious to pretend that commenting on a blog, which is what’s going on with these discussions, is the latest leading edge in social media. Still, it’s a start.

Here are some important notes:

• I’m not going to take attendance, but I’m going to be disappointed if you skip a lot of classes. And I’m also disappointed if you come to class and don’t participate in discussion.
• I can’t guarantee that I won’t be offended if you’re in class doing IM, Twitter, work for some other assignment, Facebook, or anything else. You’re welcome to bring a laptop and take notes on it, but I’m a laptop addict myself and I’m quite guilty of not paying attention during a business meeting because I’m doing email. As a personal note, I really like twitter — follow me as Timberry — but I know it can be distracting. Because I suffer from the same online bad habit I’m noting here, I’m more likely to know it if you’re doing it, and that will then be more likely to affect your grade.
• A good comment, a good question, an example at the right spot in the discussion, all of those can help your participation.
• Participating in the end-of-the-course business plan can make a big difference in your grade. It’s not inconceiveable that you could have a C+ or B- in your business plan and then take an active part in the winning team, and end up with an A. On the other hand, I like to think that I can tell from the presentation for the contest when one or more of the group members weren’t actively involved.
• Please don’t email me your reason for not attending class. You’re an adult now. I assume when you’re not there that you had a good reason. I don’t take attendance and there is no such thing as an excused absence.

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