Toward a Complexity of Online Learning: Learners in Online First-Year Writing

Rendahl, Merry; Breuch, Lee Ann Kastman

doi:10.1016/j.compcom.2013.10.002

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…In recent years, consequently, researchers have shown an increased interest in writing instruction that occurs over the Internet (Hewett & DePew, 2015;Rendahl & Breuch, 2013;Warnock, 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Approaches Reflected in Academic Writing MOOCs

Kwak

2017

IRRODL

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Since it was first introduced in 2008, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have been attracting a lot of interest. Since then, MOOCs have emerged as powerful platforms for teaching and learning academic writing. However, there has been no detailed investigation of academic writing MOOCs. As a result, much uncertainty still exists about the differences of writing MOOCs compared with traditional types of writing instruction in the classroom. Drawing on historical emphases in writing instruction, five approaches are illustrated: skills, creative writing, process, social practice, and a socio-cultural perspective. This study uses data from six academic writing MOOCs to examine what approaches are revealed within their writing instructions. Focusing on a group of six academic writing MOOCs at college level, attributes and features of writing MOOCs were explored by analyzing syllabi, video lectures, and assignments. Overall, the study found that these academic writing MOOCs stick to a traditional model of teaching writing, "writing as skills." These findings suggest that instructors who teach academic writing through online platforms showed that their immediate concerns were not a social practice or socio-cultural context. Rather, teaching and learning of grammatical accuracy and surface features of texts at college level appear to be best purpose of academic writing MOOCs.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Approaches Reflected in Academic Writing MOOCs

Kwak

2017

IRRODL

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“…Students may have only exerted minimal effort on the peer review tasks, or perhaps they underestimated the value of those interactions. However, Rendahl & Breuch (2013) also suggest that the findings may highlight flaws in constructivist approaches to writing instruction online. Effective social knowledge production requires a particular cultural mindset that students may or may not have been exposed to prior to their OWC.…”

Section: Limitations Of Constructivism In Owcsmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…Although a significant body of research supports the use of constructivist pedagogies in OWC, we must examine the limitations of these models if we are to continue to refine them. Rendahl & Breuch (2013) claim that their study of FYC online writing students indicates that students did not consider peer interactions important to their learning, citing data that suggests that most students rarely or never opted to communicate with other students in a class chat room. They hypothesize a number of factors that may have led to students' low value of peer learning.…”

Section: Limitations Of Constructivism In Owcsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Much like a case study, Wes's research offers us a deep look at one incident but does not necessarily offer universal take-aways for implementing strong peer review in other contexts. Even as a single example, though, Wes offers an insightful counter-narrative to Rendahl & Breuch's (2013) claims that students do not value peer interaction in OWCs.…”

Section: ) At Least Frommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Wes's study on peer interaction, the student co-researchers' work might provide either support or counter-narratives for existing research. Rendahl & Breuch (2013), for example, suggest that students did not find peer interactions valuable in the OWCs that they studied. Wes mentioned regularly in his blogs (as well as in his article) that he took up many of the concepts in the class through his interactions with his peers.…”

Section: And Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Waking Dormant Researchers: Student Co-Research as Writing Research Methodology and Pedagogy

Sheets¹

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This thesis explores the ways that students took up writing researcher skills, knowledges, and identities through a teacher-student co-research investigation of writing in an online writing research course. The following questions guided this study:• How did literate activity occur in an online Composition as Critical Inquiry Course?• What writing research skills, knowledges, and identities did the students take up and demonstrate as they participated in a co-research project?The study also examined the efficacy of co-research as a methodology and pedagogy.Chapter 1 reviews literature from the relevant English studies fields. Central topics include the rationale for writing research pedagogies, an exploration of co-research (the primary methodology for this project), and an overview of online writing courses (OWCs).Chapter 2 describes the methods and methodologies used in this study. It begins with a rationale and description of the course that served as the site of the co-research investigation followed by a description of the methods used in the study. For the first research question, the students were invited to investigate literate activity in our OWC and report their findings in journal articles. For the second research question, four students participated in a focus group where they were asked to describe the writing research skills, knowledges, and identities they developed during the course.Chapter 3 presents results and discussion related to the first research question.Findings from six student co-research projects are presented along with a discussion of the affordances and limitations of each co-researchers' work.Chapter 4 presents results and discussion related to the second research question.Students took up an awareness of genres/contexts, research methods, and self-knowledge.This chapter also examines the extent to which the students took up conscious writing researcher identities. The thesis concludes with recommendations about co-research as methodology and pedagogy. WAKING DORMANT RESEARCHERS: STUDENT CO-RESEARCH AS WRITING RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY ANGELA R. SHEETS WAKING DORMANT RESEARCHERS: STUDENT CO-RESEARCH AS WRITING RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY ANGELA R. SHEETS COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Joyce R. Walker, Chair Bob Broad i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS As my co-researcher Wes points out in his study, writing is never a solo sport.With that in mind, I would like to acknowledge the support and help of several people who helped make this thesis project possible.First, I owe a great deal of gratitude to Dr. Joyce Walker for both her scholarship and her support as a mentor on this project. Thank you for equipping me with both the framework and opportunity I needed to set this project in motion. I don't think I can ever un-be the person I became when I crossed the CHAT threshold.I am also deeply indebted to Dr. Bob Broad. Thank you for assigning the readings that got me started thinking about co-research in the first place and for your calming assistance through the IRB process.A few colleagues that I c...

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