syllabus
calendar
blackboard
student.email resources

last.updated 6.9.14

Preparing for OWI

Purpose

As instructors and administrators begin to implement their pedagogical designs for online instruction, they can prepare for instruction by thinking about how they can pull back the curtain and best understand how the "mechanism within the machine" work. By understanding how the infrastructure works, instructors and administrators can seize more control over how they achieve the outcomes for their courses. Some strategies for developing this understanding include applying one's knowledge of distance education, designing usability testing to understand how students perceive the course, and leveraging the rhetorical nature of online instruction's digital infrastructure.

Freewrite–Teaching the software's rhetorical design

Assuming that you agree with DePew's argument about needing to teach the rhetorical design of the technologies that mediate the online writing course, what activity or assignment might you design to teach students how to understand the technologies rhetorical nature? If you do not agree with DePew's argument (and, it is perfectly okay not to), why do you disagree? You will have ten minutes to write on this.

Discussion–Considerations for Preparation

We will discuss the following questions about the readings:

• What questions, comments, or concerns do you have about the readings?
• How feasible would usability testing be in your teaching context? Why? Do you imagine yourself using heuristic evaluation or a pluralistic walkthrough? Why?
• How might e-journals promote interactivity? Do your blog entries seem to support this idea?
• What argument would you make at your institution regarding Principle 2 of the CCCC Position Statement on Effective OWI practices? What challenges might you face trying to implement this principle as DePew interprets it? Are OWI courses just about linguistic writing or do administrators and instructors need to expand the writing courses' scopes.
• What assignment or activity would you design to teach students about the technologies' rhetorical nature?

Class Activity–Strategies of OWI

As a class we will develop heuristics for designing, preparing, and implementing an OWI course.