Project Design

Project Outcomes

This IDW Action Project sought to improve undergraduate student writing through:

  1. Offering professional development and collaborative opportunities for faculty teaching lower-level general education composition (‘C’) courses and upper-level disciplinary writing (‘W’) courses in the English department;
  2. Easing English instructor anxiety regarding digital technology as a teaching tool and fostering the use of composition strategies with the aim toward enabling more students to develop essential digital literacy and archiving skills in their early undergraduate courses;
  3. Developing a community of practice around ePortfolio use within the English Department in which faculty significantly inform the design, implementation, and revision of WordPress templates for showcase ePortfolios in both ‘C’ and ‘W’ courses;
  4. Aligning assignments in gen-ed writing courses to the six IDW outcomes to prepare students in lower-level ‘C’ courses for the outcomes they will encounter in upper-level ‘W’ courses;
  5. Fostering metacognition via a process-driven portfolio with reflective components and bridging the writing gap between ‘C’ and ‘W’ courses with an opportunity for digital literacy assessment;
  6. Reiterating the importance of these reflective digital practices through implementation of the templates in upper-level ‘W’ courses within the English department by developing and revising these templates for potential use in other disciplines.

Implementation

During Summer 2017, the team developed a WordPress template and the initial training for participating faculty.  Two implementation periods took place: the initial adoption in the Fall of 2017 and the second adoption in Spring of 2018. The templates were implemented in 6-8 classes each semester:  lower-level ‘C’ classes and  upper-level ‘W’ classes.

Fall 2017

  • 5 sections of ENGL 110C: English Composition
  • 1 section of ENGL 211C: English Composition II
  • 2 sections of ENGL 327W: Advanced Composition

Spring 2018

  • 1 section of ENGL 110C: English Composition
  • 1 section of ENGL 211C: English Composition II
  • 4 sections of ENGL 327W: Advanced Composition 

Project Timeline

 

Summer 2017:

  • May: Identified and recruited potential training faculty
  • June-July: Developed template, planned initial training session, and planned student survey and faculty focus groups
  • August: Led showcase ePortfolio training session for 9 faculty
  • August: Identified 5 faculty for Fall 2017 template pilot

Fall 2017:

  • 5 participating faculty implemented template in classes (6 gen ed ‘C’, 2 upper-level ‘W’)
  • September, November: Held support meetings for fall template-user faculty
  • October: Identified and recruited potential training faculty for Spring 2018 template pilot
  • November: Led second showcase ePortfolio training session for 8 faculty 
  • December: Surveyed Fall 2017 students, collected student ePortfolios, held focus group with Fall 2017 faculty participants, revised templates as necessary, and identified 4 faculty for Spring 2018 template pilot

Spring 2018:

  • 4 participant faculty implemented template in classes (2 gen ed ‘C’, 4 upper-level ‘W’)
  • February, March: Held support meetings for spring template-user faculty
  • April-May: Surveyed Spring 2018 students, collected student ePortfolios, held focus group with Spring 2018 faculty participants, conducted additional project assessment, and revised templates as necessary
  • May: Led showcase ePortfolio training session for 7 faculty