In 1993, when we began work on the Online Writing Center at Colorado State University, we envisioned it as the focus for WAC activities on campus, leading to increased use of writing in disciplinary courses, support for faculty, and direct support for student writers. We hoped (and continue to hope, with some reason for optimism) that the Online Writing Center would help us create a campus-wide community of writers. To date, the Online Writing Center (www.colostate.edu/Depts/WritingCenter) supports courses in seven disciplines, with additional courses slated for support in Spring 1998. The site provides access to class web pages, e-mail to instructors and writing center tutors, web forums (message boards), reference materials, and links to external sites. Reference materials support both students and faculty; over 50 references, ranging in size from 50 to 350 screens, are available on the site.

As the number of people working on the project has grown (over 40 faculty and graduate students have been involved in the project over the past four years), our goals have been shaped and reshaped by the varying agendas each has brought to the project. Moreover, as the Online Writing Center has been implemented, the project team has been forced to re-examine its goals in light of reactions from classroom teachers, students, and writing center tutors. In this talk, I will focus on how we've shifted our goals in light of the reactions from classroom teachers, students, and new members of the project team. I will also discuss how our efforts to date have helped us redefine, at least to a limited extent, the academic culture on our campus.

Presenter: Mike Palmquist

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Target Audience: Not Applicable

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