Proposal
Establishment of an On-line Writing Lab at The Ethiopian Civil Service
College
1. Description
The Ethiopian Civil Service College's commitment to incorporating
computer technology in higher education makes it an ideal location
for the development and implementation of an Online Writing Lab
(OWL). The OWL will focus on the following objectives: 1) establishing
an on-line writing center that provides easily accessible help for
students who desire help in their classroom writing assignments;
2) establishing an on-line resource center providing faculty with
professional consultation in implementing writing in their classes;
3) reaching out to the community by developing and implementing
an asynchronous learning based technical writing certificate program:
and 4) providing a vehicle for faculty to monitor student writing
problems and reinforce the writing principles they are emphasizing
in their classrooms.
Implementation of the OWL will serve to re-emphasize
the importance of writing in all academic areas and provide the
kind of support that is needed to establish a strong writing consciousness
fundamental to higher education. Faculty in all disciplines will
have access to information and assistance in all aspects of teaching
writing. Conversely, students undertaking writing tasks in their
classes will have access to assistance. Consequently, faculty who
utilize the OWL will become more aware of the teaching efforts of
other faculty members, leading to more discussion of the problems
and successes of writing throughout the entire university.
2. Rationale
In a world where communication abilities are vital, the university
writing center plays an essential role in developing fundamental
communication skills. However, few if any university writing centers
take advantage of the computer-mediated forms of communication that
are rapidly transforming higher education and the world. Business,
government, and education are incorporating the speed and convenience
of computer-mediated communication (CMC), and written communication
is becoming increasingly important.
The computer network at The Ethiopian Civil Service
College presents an ideal environment for establishing the OWL.
The OWL will take full advantage of ECSC's networking capacity:
high speed servers will transmit students' messages to faculty and
tutors and return responses; all messages and responses can be stored
on network disks for future reference.
Although other universities have on-line writing
centers, The Ethiopian Civil Service College will be the first to
implement an online environment to provide extensive writing support
for faculty members and students who are exclusively non-native
English speakers. Since writing courses, as well as many other courses,
are already being taught using ECSC, a writing center using computer
technology would be a logical extension. In addition, almost without
exception, the faculty are computer literate and will easily adapt
to the use of an OWL.
3. Process
The Online Writing Lab will have two facets: one for faculty and
one for students. The success of the OWL will be reinforced by this
two-faceted approach. The two components are described below:
Student OWL:
This online facility will be attended primarily by a native English
speaking OWL Coordinator who will answer any questions via e-mail
regarding writing, ranging from simple grammar to advice with a
dissertation. More specifically, the OWL helps students and professors
(a) understand an assignment, (b) generate ideas, (c) pre-write,
(d) develop a thesis, (e) analyze an audience, (f) organize and
develop ideas, (g) revise earlier drafts, (h) improve proofreading
and editing skills, and (i) discover their own writing process.
However, tutors do not proofread, edit, ghostwrite or research any
writer's work.
Faculty OWL:
The purpose of the faculty OWL is to encourage, implement, and facilitate
the use of writing in courses throughout the university. The OWL
Coordinator will be available to help faculty members research writing
in their disciplines, to devise appropriate writing assignments
for their courses, to suggest a variety of evaluation approaches,
and to assist in locating further electronic sources for enhancing
their courses. In addition, the consultant/directors will work with
faculty members to adapt the OWL to fit their diverse needs.
As an incentive, faculty will be encouraged to develop
detailed writing strategies for their classes. Faculty members submitting
proposals for these grants must demonstrate a willingness to incorporate
writing in at least two courses, and be willing to present their
plans for incorporating writing at a faculty conference. Each proposal
must include a description of the evaluation measure that will be
used to determine success.
4. Staffing
The On-line Writing Lab Coordinator
The On-line Writing Lab (OWL) Coordinator is responsible for encouraging
faculty and students to use the OWL, providing pedagogical assistance
for the faculty, developing and implementing an asynchronous learning
based technical writing certificate program, and maintaining day-to-day
operations. In particular, the Coordinator is responsible for implementing
the following services:
- On-line and face-to-face tutoring. Native speaking
English tutor(s) answer any questions via e-mail regarding writing,
ranging from simple grammar to advice with a dissertation. More
specifically, the OWL helps students and professors (a) understand
an assignment, (b) generate ideas, (c) pre-write, (d) develop
a thesis, (e) analyze an audience, (f) organize and develop ideas,
(g) revise earlier drafts, (h) improve proofreading and editing
skills, and (i) discover their own writing process. However, tutors
do not proofread, edit, ghostwrite or research any writer's work.
- Faculty services: Writing Across the Curriculum
(WAC). The OWL encourages, implements, and facilitates the use
of writing in courses throughout the university. The OWL Coordinator
will be available online daily and for face-to-face consultation
to help faculty members research writing in their disciplines,
devise appropriate writing assignments for their courses, suggest
a variety of evaluation approaches, and assist in locating further
electronic sources for enhancing their courses. The OWL Coordinator
will work with faculty members to adapt the OWL to fit their diverse
needs.
- Technical Writing Certificate: The OWL is developing
a 8 unit-credit technical writing specialization delivered via
asynchronous learning that introduces students to the technical
writing profession and also provides them with tools relevant
to a range of writing situations. While focusing on technical
communication as a set of problem-solving strategies, the Technical
Writing Certificate program provides students the opportunity
to create a writing portfolio that demonstrates their strengths
and abilities.
- Curriculum development: The Chinese Technical
Writers Series. In line with the Certificate of Technical Writing
delivered on-line, the OWL develops technical writing curriculum
materials for asynchronous-based learning, known as "The
Chinese Technical Writers Series." The Series seeks to provide
a sound technical writing curriculum and, on a more practical
level, to provide valuable reference guides for Chinese technical
and managerial professionals. The Series concentrates on aiding
Chinese technical writers in the following areas:
Writing style
The books in the Series seek to transform archaic ways of writing
(often result-
ing from literally copying phrases from other texts) into a more
active and
direct writing style that makes the author's maid ideas easier
to identify.
Structure and content
Another issue facing technical writers is how to organize the
structure and
Contents of manuscripts and other common forms of writing in the
workplace.
Quality
Technical writers must inevitably prepare their manuscripts to
meet the
Expectations of editors, referees and reviewers, as well as to
satisfy journal
requirements. The books in this Series are prepared with these
specific needs
in mind.
- In-service training: Ministry of Education approved
technical writing course delivered by asynchronous learning. The
OWL has developed a Ministry of Education approved technical writing
course delivered by asynchronous learning that can be used as
a tool in graduate level seminars to help doctorate students satisfy
their English language requirements. Instead of teaching a course
on technical writing, the OWL serves as a virtual English tutor
assistant to the instructor of the graduate level seminar to ensure
that a graduate student can organize, write and revise his or
her thesis prior to graduation.
5. Approach
The The Ethiopian Civil Service College Online Writing Center will
begin operating during the Fall 2001 semester. During the first
semester, the entire campus community will be introduced to the
OWL.
The OWL will be intensively promoted among faculty
in the other academic areas during the Spring 2002 through orientation
sessions, in which the focus will be on active participation by
all academic areas. Faculty members who are interested in devising
appropriate writing assignments for their courses will be offered
assistance.
6. Evaluation
The effectiveness of the OWL will be measured by several means.
Attitudinal surveys will be issued to determine faculty acceptance
of the OWL.
Detailed user statistics will be collected. The
number of inquiries to the OWL will be logged. Specific information
on the types of inquiries will also be collected. Student users
will be surveyed upon their first inquiry to the OWL and again at
the end of the semester.
7. Space and Equipment
The OWL will be located inside of ECSC. The OWL requires a computer,
a desk and work space. |
