Final Paper Proposal: Responding to Students in Online Environments

 Since I took over as coordinator/supervisor for the English Supplemental Instructors in Spring 2009,it has been my aim to accomplish two goals. First, I wanted to make English supplemental instruction more accessible. Currently, we are able to cover with an SI only about 10 sections of English 100 each semester, and, unlike the SI programs in other subjects, English SI cannot offer services to students who are not enrolled in a covered section. (In other words, an SI for math offers a session outside of class each week that students in any section of that math class can attend. English SIs do most of their work in class, so this is not a possibility for other English 100 students.)

Second, I wanted to encourage SIs and other SADC employees to use the technological tools available to them to both encourage more students to utilize our services and to work with the students in an environment that might be more comfortable to them. In my tenure as SI coordinator/supervisor and SADC research and publications coordinator, I have created a Facebook page for SADC, engaged in a long-term project to better their web site, and enrolled my SIs in a Facebook group and Google group to communicate with them online. I also served as the first English SI in an online composition course last summer.

All of this has lead up to my premiere project, an online SI portal for all English 100 students. After discussing my vision with Jackie Reason of SADC and Dr. Bishop Morris last week, I am hoping to pilot the program this spring and launch the program for all ENG 100 students in the fall.

My vision is this:
All ENG 100 students will be enrolled in a Blackboard course upon registration. The course will be stocked with reference materials that the SIs have been developing and will be developing over the course of the semesters that they work for SADC. It will also be "staffed" by one to two SIs who will be available for synchronized chats during certain hours. Asynchronous forums will also be set up--at least one for responses to papers and the other for general questions. In the future, I hope to also establish labs--such as labs for ESL students, students who exhibit difficulties with grammar issues, students who need supplemental instruction in the area of research, etc. Students will also be encouraged to answer their own questions through interaction with each other using the chat and forums feature.

For the final project, then, I plan to research similar programs that may be in use at other universities. I also plan to look into the issues inherent in using digital modes to respond to student writing. Some of the questions I plan to answer include:

1) What challenges is this program likely to face during it's pilot?
2) How should tutors respond to student papers--in the forum itself, by e-mail, using the comment feature in Word, etc.
3) What different challenges will students face during synchronous and asynchronus tutoring sessions.

For the multimodal component of this project, I would like to create a video that will be shown in all ENG 100 sections as an orientation to the new program. The video will explain the reasons behind instituting the program, its benefits, and how to use it.