Here are our instructions for contributions.

This is what is expected. 

	Course blog contribution
Purpose	·    To practice thinking & creative writing ·    To inculcate the habit of actively seeking new knowledge in the area of L & SCM ·    To practice giving, taking & using feedback on one’s work
Task	To write blog posts on contemporary & interesting aspects of L/SCM in practice
Response	To read other posts, reflect & enhance understanding by providing feedback through comments
Outcome	·    Better writing & thinking ·    Increased awareness of developments in the area of LSCM ·    More open to giving & taking constructive feedback

Check the rubric here

RUBRIC FOR BLOGGING: Contributing to course blog carries 20% weight of your total 100 marks in the course. Your posts in the course blog will be assessed based on the dimensions in the given rubric and your work will be placed in one of the four given levels and the marks bucket (out of 20 marks).

Dimensions of quality	Below satisfaction (<8)	Satisfactory (9 – 12%)	Above Satisfaction (13 – 17)	Excellent (18-20)
Originality	Posts do not reflect the author’s personality and word choice does not bring the topic to life. Copy and paste; no attempt to be original	Posts reflect almost no personality and little attempt is made to use effective word choices to bring the topic to life.	Posts reflect a bit of the author’s personality through word choices that attempt to bring the topic to life.	Posts reflect the author’s unique personality through choice does not bring the topic to life.
Content & Creativity	Posts show no evidence of insight, understanding or reflective thought about the topic Posts show no specific viewpoint and no supporting examples or links to websites or documents are provided, or the links selected are of poor quality and do not add any value to the information presented Posts do not stimulate dialogue and commentary and do not connect with the audience.	Provide minimal insight, understanding and reflective thought about the topic. Posts present a specific viewpoint but lack supporting examples or links to websites or documents, but not all links enhance the information presented. Posts are brief and unimaginative, and reflect minimal effort to connect with the audience.	Posts provide moderate insight, understanding and reflective thought about the topic Posts present a specific viewpoint that is substantiated by supporting examples and links to websites or documents, but not all links enhance the information presented. Posts are generally well written with some attempts made to stimulate dialogue and commentary.	Posts provide comprehensive insight, understanding, and reflective thought about the topic by -building a focused argument around a specific issue or -asking a new related question or -making an oppositional statement supported by personal experience or related research. Posts present a focused and cohesive viewpoint that is substantiated by effective supporting examples or links to relevant, up-to-date websites or documents that enhance the information presented. Posts are creatively and fluently written to stimulate dialogue and commentary
Quality of Writing	Posts contain numerous grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors. The style of writing does not facilitate effective communication.	Posts include some grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors that distract the reader.	Posts are largely free of grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors. The style of writing generally facilitates communication.	Posts are free of grammatical, spelling or punctuation errors. The style of writing facilitates communication.
Timeliness & Regularity	Does not update blog within the required time frame.	Updates blog when reminded; posts are often missing a date stamp.	Updates blog when required; most posts are date-stamped with the most current posting listed at the top.	Updates blog as often or more often than required; all posts are date stamped and the most recent posts are placed at the top of the page.

Why this blog?

Simply stated, to develop your thinking - reflective, critical and analytical and communication skills, while learning new and interesting things in the field of Logistics & Supply Chain Management. But again, why blog?

Blogs are brief. They are not term papers. You are not taxed with onerous task of creating a 6000 word full-length research paper here, but you still will be engaged in a creative activity putting your writing skills to practice.

Not just that. You will practice a special kind of communication skills, being crisp and precise. All that you have to say must be distilled to a concise half - one page of matter that clearly states your idea. Mind you, it is not easy.  A very valuable skill, for your profession and life.

Blogs can be enhanced with visuals. It is not a boring word document. You can plug in images, video, sound to enhance the meaning of your content and to create interest. Your posts can link to other websites to add more information or to connect to a related idea. Your posts can be made super interesting with some efforts. You can be at your creative best.

You can become responsive to one another.  You read other's posts, think about their ideas and critique those, enhance with even more ideas, debate, discuss by commenting.  Everyone in the course, this way, becomes both and author and a reader. Giving and taking feedback is a lesson to learn. 

...and, the evidence exists forever. Blogs are stored online and remain as a portfolio of your ability to write, think, and communicate. Because they appear as latest -post- first order, they are easily searchable, so refinements in your thinking is traced and demonstrated, showing evidence of your maturing as a thinker over time. Imagine, what it can do in your job interview! You just demonstrated how willingly you learn.

How are you going to use the blog in our course?

This is a blog that I own. Every student of this course will become a guest blogger on invitation. You are expected to do two things: actively contribute by posting original writing and continually engaging with your peers by commenting on their posts. 

This means, you will not only write posts, but also read every post that appears here, the only evidence of that will be your comments, which will be an expanded idea, or a counter point, or additional support or evidence materials. (One word replies/comments like 'OK, Good, great or poor, bad' etc or only Emojis do not qualify as evidence of reading). 

You will make sure you have made at least one post in a week, however brief, that is original and not a copy-paste. (Your own thoughts, reflections only will be considered original). The originality, appropriateness, newness, supporting materials and the way it is written will all be counted to assess the quality of your contribution.Of course, all your posts will only be in the theme of Logistics & Supply Chain Management. Finding interesting stuff to share is the way you will reach out to new knowledge.

This is a new effort I am attempting in my course and we shall add or relax guidelines as we go. The message I want you to take home is to seek out new knowledge.

Enjoy learning 😊

Welcome to LSCM

Welcome to the exciting world of Logistics & Supply chains. I am happy you chose this course LSCM and happier that you are willing to put in the efforts.

This course is all about understanding the mechanics of the drivers of supply chains. The aim of this course is that you should gain enough expertise in the field that you will be able to tell if there is an issue in the supply chain when you study one. And, after identifying the issue(s), you should also be able to resolve those using the techniques you learn in this course.  If you work hard enough in this course, you will not only be able to critique & correct issues, but also be able to draft a SC strategy for a business. It is in your hands what you draw out of this course- to just pass the exam, or to gain a deep understanding of the field.

In order to get there, we will in this course follow a protocol. 

We will first understand what supply chains are and what drives them, in the first two units. Most of  what we see here are the concepts and principles we learnt in the OM & AOM courses that you had taken already. We will spend our time making connections across these concepts and principles and learn how these are linked to each other. 

Second, we will look at how these drivers are used as levers of performance. We will see what decisions you take in which areas of business will have what effect on the ways your customers are served and at what costs to the business. In order to identify these decisions, we will spend good amount of time in exploring each one of these drivers and the potential issues involved.

Third, we will learn how to manage pricing and revenues for better results. Throughout the course, we will be working extensively with caselets - micro cases - representing the decision-making situations we are currently learning. 

At the end of this course, we will be able to  identify and define issues in key levers of performance of SC, resolve supply chain issues in any of its key levers of performance and formulate effective supply chain strategy, which are the objectives of this course.

In order to reach where we intend to, we need to take the right path. This blog is one such routes to completing this course successfully. I shall soon write more about the why, who, what, where, when and the how of this course blog.  Welcome again.