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last.updated 5.5.10

Introductions

Purpose

Today you will be introduced to the course. Also we will think about the tropes about distance learning and how they inform what instructors know and do, as well as what students expect.

FreeWrite and Discussion I

Based upon what you know or anticipate, how is teaching writing at a distance different than teaching writing face-to-face (F2F)? than teaching other–predominantly lecture–courses at a distance?

Introductions

• Student introductions
• Instructor introduction
• Introduce course and syllabus
• Calendar
• Readings
• Professional Writing Principles for Instructors

Activity & Discussion II

We will listen to last's Thursday's (5.6.10) story on NPR about Kaplan University. As we listen to this, take notes trying to address the following questions:

• why teach at a distance?
• what are some of the concerns about courses taught at a distance?
• do the arguments about distance education apply equally as well to the teaching of writing?

Using these same heuristics spend 20 minutes looking online at various types of institutions' presentation of their distance learning programs. We will discuss the data you have collected as a class and start developing a picture of what administrators, instructors, and students perceive distance education to be.