Embedding Learning: Writing in Online Courses

Workshop Description:

Online courses demand extensive writing by both students and faculty. Whatever the capacity for imagery, most web sites display text and online classes communicate primarily through written language. Research has established that regular writing embeds learning and that major writing projects (such as term essays) improve when preceded by smaller writing assignments. By bringing together insights from composition studies and instructional design, this workshop will help you make the best of the writing in your courses.
The workshop is highly interactive, with participants examining and replying to writing samples.

In this workshop we will discuss:

• devising activities and assignments that exploit the text features of web courses
• getting through the reading: how to keep your students writing while saving your sanity
• building arguments: small steps that encourage organized thinking
• chat rooms, blogs, and wikis
• getting assistance from writing centers and OWLs
• faculty writing: recommend practices for producing and displaying educational text.

Presenter: Melissa Spore, MA, University of Saskatchewan

Melissa Spore is an instructional designer and founder of the Online Writing Lab at the University of Saskatchewan. With an MA from Columbia University, Melissa has focused on communication issues throughout her career. Her publications include the chapter, “Writing and Computers” in Learning Through Writing (Dalhousie University Press, 2001), Wired Writing (Extension Division, University of Saskatchewan, 2001), and (with Sally Bigwood) Presenting Numbers, Tables, and Charts (Oxford University Press, 2003).