The Course

Description | Main Features | Challenges

Description

The first full attempt to put my intentions into action occurred during Spring Semester, 1997, with the establishment of "English 103 on the Internet" at Ball State University. Subtitled "Composition 1," 103 is the first of two three-semester-hour general studies writing classes, required of all students for graduation; 103 is taken by most first-year undergraduates, usually in their first or second semester. Six essays are required, with the focus on general topics and fundamental kinds of written-communicative purposes--description and narration, informal persuasion, formal argumentation, and a research project of about 750-1,000 words. Normally, classes hold 20 to 25 students.

Section "800K," our dual-enrollment offering, was exceptional in several ways ("dual enrollment," in this case, means that traditional on-campus as well as off-campus distance education enrollees participated). It contained fewer students (ten) with a wider variety of backgrounds and personal situations. Four were on-campus BSU students, two were BSU off-campus students (those seeking degrees via distance education), and four were non-BSU students who had signed up for the course through the Indiana College Network, the common distance education coordinating body in the state. All but two of this group had children, and most lived in families where both spouses worked; the on-campus students had a full load of classes--one also worked. Some weeks into the course, one BSU on-campus and one non-BSU off-campus student dropped the course for personal reasons, leaving a final core group of eight who completed the course.

Our full class community consisted of these undergraduate enrollees, three graduate participants who were doctoral students in Composition and Rhetoric at Ball State, and myself as instructor. I was responsible for the course design, for organizing on-line conferences, and for processing and grading all essay projects. Jeff White was the main graduate course assistant, being present for almost all on-line sessions, communicating with and assisting students, compiling conversation logs, and contributing an example essay. Xiao Wang joined us occasionally from Los Angeles where she was doing dissertation research (she also contributed two example essays). Marc Wilson logged in when he could, and later gathered conversation data for a course project that helped me organize transcripts for this essay. These folks were learning the ropes in regard to on-line teaching, and they lent a valuable "teacherly" presence to our conversations. They also worked with individual students to support them much in the way that writing center tutors do, and occasionally commented on rough drafts. But the course syllabus, all the planning, and the session-to-session management and guidance were my responsibilities.

To serve this diverse and busy group, the Internet and Web were our means of communication and interaction--our meeting place and reimagined classroom.

Main Features

The freedom from time and space that electronic distance education promises is its main attraction for educators and administrators, the "place" being an especially expensive component. "Asynchronous instruction" has for this reason been a focus of attention in distance education (DE) circles, and many such courses exist worldwide to take advantage of the flexibility in time and location. But asynchronous modes of study lack the essential ingredient of immediacy--the actual, not virtual, presence of a human being at the other end of the wire. Just as education in years past could make do in a correspondence mode when it had to, asynchronous computer-based study can supply the needs of many students who are focused and motivated, and who have internalized the conventions of formal language and discourse to the extent that they grasp fairly quickly the concepts and processes in a course; they are usually self-directed in finding answers to questions, and self-assured in reading, writing, and studying independently. But many DE students today are enrolling in general studies courses such as ENG 103; they frequently lack academic experience and self-assurance to study on their own. They need the advantages that first-level students on campus have of communicating often with their mentors and each other as they feel their way forward in the strange world of academe.

The primary feature of this on-line course, then, is its inclusion of real-time contact within a basically asynchronous structure, so that live human interaction is maintained at the heart of a self-activated learning process. Once a week, on Thursday evenings, we gathered on the Web using the IRC-based program Netscape Chat. Sessions usually lasted for about two hours and involved four to six persons (schedule conflicts, family demands, and technical problems made a full gathering of all eight students at any single time impossible). During these sessions we discussed the readings for the week and dealt with questions and confusions arising from major concepts. We also discussed individuals' rough essay drafts, and tutored them in aspects of content and rhetorical strategy. (See applications of transactional theory to teaching and learning writing.)

Basic communication and text transfer was carried out via text-based e-mail. Students would send me their drafts and final versions. In some cases I would format the texts for display on course pages and responses by peers and assistants. We would occasionally discuss the displayed texts on-line in a group conference, but usually I e-mailed drafts directly to the writers with both interlinear and summary comments. Because of the variety of mail system software in use among the class, a more sophisticated means of communication beyond ASCII text characters was not feasible. But this limitation did not prove a serious detriment to either the students or me, since I could easily carry out text interventions such as bracketing instructor comments in all capitals within a sentence or paragraph.

Particular Challenges of ENG 103

Just as the teaching of each course in any university or program is unique, ENG 103 on the Internet posed some unique challenges and difficulties. "Making the Web a Workable Environment" and "Getting It All Together for Real-Time Interactions" discuss obstacles growing particularly out of our particular mix of people and technology; "Designing a Web course" reflects on broader issues faced by the instructors who would transform their standard classroom practices into the new medium.