Funding Announced for Faculty-led Projects Aimed at Improving Disciplinary Writing
Yuzhong Shen
Megan McKittrick
Daniel Richards
Wu He
Rochelle “Shelley” Rodrigo
Amy Adcock
Old Dominion's Improving Disciplinary Writing (IDW) initiative, led by Remica Bingham-Risher, has announced the awarding of four action projects for the 2014-15 academic year. Total funding for the projects is $78,334.
Bingham-Risher is ODU's director of writing and faculty development, with responsibility for the university's Quality Enhancement Plan. The QEP is intended to improve upper-division undergraduate students' disciplinary writing - that is, writing that demonstrates a reasoning process supported by research and reflection on a problem, topic or issue - through faculty development and engagement initiatives.
Details of the four projects are provided below, and the principal investigators are pictured at right.
Project Title: Improving Disciplinary Writing in Modeling, Simulation, and Visualization Engineering
Principal Investigator: Yuzhong Shen, Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Engineering, College of Engineering and Technology
Co-Investigators: Roland Mielke, James Leathrum Jr. and Trey Mayo, Modeling, Simulation and Visualization Engineering, College of Engineering and Technology
Funding Amount: $19,000
Abstract: Technical writing is an essential skill for students studying to become the next generation of engineers and scientists. The purpose of this document is to propose an across-the- curriculum approach to improving the technical writing skills of students enrolled in the undergraduate program in Modeling and Simulation Engineering. The project has four main components: (1) implementation of an across-the-curriculum plan for coordinated technical writing instruction and practice spanning the sophomore year through the senior year; (2) introduction of a revise-until-satisfactory requirement for selected writing assignments; (3) development of an electronic writing sample repository for use by students and faculty; and (4) introduction of a project assessment strategy to evaluate both the implementation and the impact of the project. The strategies resulting from this project are easily transferrable to other similar engineering and science departments.
Project Title: Improving Student Writing in the STEM Disciplines: A Faculty Learning Community
Principal Investigators: Megan McKittrick and Daniel Richards, English, College of Arts and Letters
Co-Investigators: Julia Romberger, English, College of Arts and Letters; Pilar Pazos-Lago, Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, College of Engineering and Technology
Funding Amount: $19,984.19
Abstract: The "Student Writing in the STEM Disciplines: A Faculty Learning Community" project will focus on the development and delivery of a three-part workshop series for faculty in science, Technology, engineering and math (STEM) disciplines. These workshops will be led by two faculty members in the Department of English, specializing in technical writing, and facilitated by four faculty members from the departments of Engineering and English. Patrick Bahls, a well-known figure in "writing in the disciplines" (WID) and "writing across the curriculum" (WAC), will join the first workshop as a guest speaker and facilitator, and participants will explore his book "Student Writing in the Quantitative Disciplines" (2012) as a means of starting the conversation. STEM faculty will research the genres and conventions associated with their discipline as well as techniques for designing course assignments around these genres and conventions. They will receive the training and tools needed to enable a WID/WAC approach to the design of their writing assignments. This will be established by the development of writing-intensive activities in an environment of peers, which will later be collected as online resources to be integrated into existing STEM curriculum and tailored to existing Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) in senior-level STEM courses.
Project Title: IDW: Using a Scaffolding-based Bogging Approach to Improve IT and CS Undergraduate Students' Disciplinary Writing Skills
Principal Investigator: Wu He, Information Technology and Decision Sciences, College of Business and Public Administration
Co-Investigators: Harris Wu and Li Xu, Information Technology and Decision Sciences, College of Business and Public Administration; and Kurt Maly, Computer Science, College of Sciences
Funding Amount: $19,500
Abstract: Blogging is an appealing way to engage students in writing. We propose to design and experiment a scaffolding-based blogging strategy for disciplinary writing in our Information Technology (IT) and Computer Science (CS) upper-division undergraduate courses. We will scaffold the blogging process and design course-specific writing tasks for students to blog. We will examine their writing through their blog posts, collect student feedback and suggestions at different times of each semester, refine the writing tasks and summarize the experience and lessons we learned. An informational website will be developed to share our developed materials and results with other faculty on campus and beyond. We believe that scaffolding-based blogging as an educational tool in IT and CS will improve STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education and help students in their study and future career.
Project Title: Learn-to-Learn (L2L) Game: Adding Learn-to-Write Modules
Principal Investigators: Rochelle "Shelley" Rodrigo, English, College of Arts and Letters; and Amy Adcock, STEM Education and Professional Studies, College of Education
Co-Investigators: Matthew Beale, English, College of Arts and Letters; Chris Osgood, Biological Sciences, College of Sciences; and Denise Claiborne, Dental Hygiene, College of Health Sciences
Funding Amount: $19,850
Abstract: Faculty are charged with the responsibility of teaching course content while fostering effective writing skills that lead to academic, professional and civic success. However, these writing skills are often overlooked in a content-heavy, deadline-driven grading environment. Games can cultivate a low-risk setting that promotes experimentation, problem-solving strategies and collaboration. To facilitate improved writing in the disciplines, we are adding scaffolded writing activities to an existing digital gaming environment. The environment is customizable, allowing faculty to associate specific writing skills with relevant course projects all the while providing students with access to intrinsically motivating activities that integrate writing skills training with their written assignments.