Committee Charge
This committee is being created to develop a set of best practices for online writing instruction. The committee charge is to:
Charge 1: Identify and examine best strategies for online writing instruction using various online media and pedagogies primarily used for the teaching of writing in blended, hybrid, and distance-based writing classrooms, specifically composition classrooms, but including other college writing courses.
Charge 2: Identify best practices for using online instruction specifically for English language learners and individuals with disabilities in coordination with related CCCC committees.
Charge 3: Create a Position Statement on the Principles and Standards for OWI Preparation and Instruction. In consultation with the Assessment Committee and the Task Force on Position Statements, review and update the 2004 Position Statement “Teaching, Learning, and Assessing Writing in Digital Environments.”
Charge 4: Share best practices in OWI with the CCCC membership in a variety of formats..
The committee has created a listserv open to all faculty members and administrators interested in online writing instruction. To subscribe to the listserv, email cccc@ncte.org.
The State-of-the-Art of OWI
Initial Report of the CCCC Committee for Best Practice in Online Writing Instruction (PDF), April 12, 2011
Fully Online Distance-Based Courses Survey Results
Hybrid/Blended Courses Survey Results
2009 CCCC Session Review
Read a review of the session we presented at the 2009 CCCC Convention titled "CCCC Committee Research into Best Practices for Online Writing Instruction (OWI)."
Annotated Bibliography
The CCCC Committee on Best Practices in Online Writing Instruction has gathered, reviewed, and annotated webtexts, articles, and books from 1980 through early 2008 that help us better understand those approaches and strategies that are most effective in OWI and compiled them into an annotated bibliography (pdf).
November 2010 Update
The Committee for Best Practices has worked together for three full years, and it has been reconstituted for another three years.
We are in the process of analyzing and synthesizing data from a nation-wide electronic survey about the state of the art of OWI, which we hope will lead us to a better understanding of OWI best practices overall. The Committee will report on these activities at the CCCC conference in Atlanta, GA in 2011. Our goals include:
- to present a thorough report of our progress thus far to the EC in March 2011,
- to report to the General Membership at the 2011 CCCC conference through a panel and a SIG,
- to begin writing publishable articles relevant to the Committee’s work,
- to present a Webinar open to the General Membership in April 2011, and
- to begin work on the next phases of our research, with particular attention to OWI and professional development, disabilities challenges, ESOL student needs, and online tutoring.
Also on this website is an annotated bibliography of the scholarly materials available up to December 2008 that speaks to best practices in OWI. This bibliography serves CCCC members as a resource for research and teaching. We invite members to assist with updating and maintaining the bibliography by emailing Committee Chair Beth Hewett.
To participate in an e-list dedicated to issues of OWI, please click the appropriate link on this website at http://www.ncte.org/cccc/committees/owi. To date, there has been little traffic on this e-list; we welcome feedback from CCCC members as to why this might be the case. Please email Beth Hewett with any feedback.
In terms of our current understanding of OWI best practices, among other early findings, we are learning that educators have a wide range—from minimal to extensive—of preparation and training for their online instruction. It seems that much of the training has an extremely tactical focus on how instructors can engage the technology used in a course. There seems to be less of an emphasis on the pedagogy of teaching with technology. Along those lines, the issue of actually teaching writing as the disciplinary subject appears to be treated somewhat inconsistently at these institutions. Some of the respondents we have interviewed and who have responded to our initial questionnaire have expressed a lack of ability to speak to the theory and pedagogy of online writing instruction. Their responses suggest that discerning best practices in areas other than the superstructure and infrastructure of OWI courses might be the biggest challenge this committee faces. At this early point in our research, we take this interesting finding to indicate that the theory and pedagogy of OWI—particularly regarding the state of the art, which will lead to “best practices”—likely will require ongoing research.