Gen Ed Institute Workshop

Writing and Oral Communication in the Disciplines

July 16, 2002

Background: Some 20 faculty from various disciplines met to discuss what we need to be pay attention to at UD if we want a successful initiative. The suggestions were consolidated and organized at the workshop for presentation to the University Task Force on Oral and Written Communication.

Leaders: Steve Bernhardt, Debby Andrews, and Deborah Bosley (UNC-Charlotte)

Question: If we are to be successful in moving writing and oral communication into the disciplines, what do we need to pay attention to?

Pedagogy
Student attitudes	· Need to develop within students an appreciation for the importance of good writing and communication skills. · Need to get buy-in from students to make initiative successful. · Need to create culture at UD that values strong writing and communication—so students learn what they need to know, are prepared to work productively, are able to express themselves creatively, and are ready to contribute to the community.
Teaching Strategies	· Need to find ways to balance attention to writing and speaking activities (we tend to privilege writing) · Students need to write and speak in a variety of ways for different audiences and purposes (expressive, creative, persuasive, technical, expository, scientific, electronic, multi-media). They should be able to act on both the differences and similarities among different forms of communication. · Instruction should accommodate and reflect different learning styles (visual/verbal/kinesthetic/active/reflective) · We should provide opportunities for practice, feedback, revision, and publication. · It is important to accommodate shifting media and communication practices: visual, computer based, internet influenced (we should try to be ahead of the curve)
Writing Basics	· Need for shared definitions (in general) on good writing · Control of standard English grammar · Clear, concise writing · Awareness of opposing points of view: audience. · Addressing issues of plagiarism and appropriate use of sources.
Discipline-specific	· Need for discipline-specific standards of good writing · Must recognize how writing and communication change or are used differently within different disciplines · Address issues of how citations are handled by different disciplines
Faculty Roles and Responsibilities
Faculty Buy-In/Incentives	· How might the institutional commitment to this communication initiative be reflected in the process of hiring new faculty? · What rewards need to be built in? What will motivate and reward faculty? · Promotion and Tenure · Grants of money and/or time · (What stock options will faculty receive?) · What might help faculty internalize and commit to a new set of shared standards for communication?
Development of Faculty	· What preparation and support do faculty need to successfully incorporate writing and oral communication into their classes and programs? Will there be workshops, coaching, team teaching, and/or grant activities? · What instructional design activities should support faculty efforts (setting objectives, instructional content and strategy, measuring outcomes)? · What role might technology play in the support of this initiative? · What resources will be available for faculty (e.g., library, media specialists, etc), so that individual faculty members do not feel like they are in it alone?
Faculty awareness	· How would class size limits be created to allow sufficient time to focus on writing and oral communication activities? · What should be the role of TAs and S-contract teachers of writing? Instilling communication skills should also be the responsibility of the full-time faculty. · How do we reach shared standards and avoid problems of individual bias concerning effective communication practices? · How can we communicate shared standards to students? · How will we address issues of academic honesty?
Program Administration and Logistics
Assess current practice	· What baseline measures do we need? · How well do students perform now? · What practices are common across the curriculum? · What types of writing assignments currently given? What amount of writing and oral communication activities are students experiencing? · Where do we find good practices currently on campus? · What are we doing now through special initiatives? (Writing Center, Writing Programs, Writing Fellows, Life/Pathways, Gen Ed instruction) · What are our current costs for supporting writing and oral communication on campus? · What are current student opinions, attitudes, experiences? How can we capture the student perspective?
Program assessment	· Does the initiative improve student skills? What will we measure and how? · How does the initiative change student attitudes or practices? What will we measure and how? · What are the costs and benefits? · What on-going data collection do we need to keep the initiative on track? How should the initiative be assessed and evaluated?
Program design and implementation	· How will the initiative be institutionalized? · What is relation of new initiatives to existing GenEd requirements and disciplinary requirements? · How will writing or communication intensive courses be certified and what will control their quality? · What will be the place and connection of writing or communication-specific courses (introcomp, advanced writing courses, oral communication courses) to communication-intensive courses in the disciplines? · How can instruction be supported through instructional design activities, use of technologies, and help with assessment and program evaluation? · What can be done without creating new layers of requirements? Many programs already have a lot of requirements. Many students are having trouble getting all their Gen Ed requirements met in a timely fashion.

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