Committee on Best Practices for Online Writing Instruction (March 2013) - Previous Revision

     We have several initiatives underway that are geared toward making progress on two major projects: (1) an annotated bibliography of the materials currently available that speak to best practices in OWI and (2) the creation and distribution of a survey targeted toward OWI instructors and administrators.

     The bibliography, which ultimately will be posted to the CCCC website for membership use, will be a valuable product for the field, and it also is helping us learn more about OWI relevant to our charges.

     The survey is being constructed from data derived from (1) a special interest group (SIG) conducted at the CCCC 2008 (F15: Best Practices for Online Writing Instruction: Issues and Questions), and (2) field visits to institutions that are noted for their OWI programs, as well as some that may consider themselves more “technology poor,” during which we are talking with colleagues and observing their practices; these face-to-face meetings will augment and nuance digital communications. Once constructed, the survey will be tested with volunteers (some of whom have already agreed to participate) and then conducted.

     From the results, and from the materials gathered over the next two years, we will share the synthesis of our research with the field. Finally, we plan to continue to inform the membership of our research by proposing a panel presentation for the CCCC 2009 conference, as well as another SIG for discussion about our progress.