Background on the Redesign
Why Redesign Your Course?
- Course Characteristics: Writing, revising, writing, revising, peer review, conferencing, writing, revising
- The Learning Problem: Some students have a difficult time staying on top of the multiple and complex writing tasks required to successfully complete English 103, which is an A2: Writing General Education Requirement. In order to succeed in the class, students must write and revise multiple drafts of their work. Less organized and less prepared students often struggle to meet their drafting and revision requirements, and/or misplace their drafts. Students who cannot successfully navigate these challenges are at a higher risk of failing the course, which, in some cases, prevents them from moving on to upper division classes, and sometimes results in students failing to maintain the required 2.0 GPA to remain at the university.
Course History/Background
- All students must complete First Year Writing in order to graduate
- There are no prerequisites for the course, though this course is a prerequisite for many other courses.
High Demand/Low Success Issues
- Many students are unaccustomed to having to write multiple drafts of essays, along with making substantial revisions, which is crucial for success in English 103. Our current portfolio system, while successful for most students, does allow students less prepared, motivated or committed students fall behind on the drafting and revision process. Converting to electronic and cloud based documents will increase student ownership of the drafting and revision process by making it more visible, as well as making it easier for instructors to determine, earlier in the semester, which students are falling behind, in order to intervene earlier, and increase the odds of students’ success.
Syllabus
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