Table 2 Two Approaches to Online Comp

The History of Online Course Development:
Individual Composition Instructors Teaching Online

Table 2: General Characteristics of Two Approaches to Online Composition Instruction

Distance Learning Online Composition Courses	Individual Instructors’ Online Composition Courses
Fully online courses	Hybrid courses
Mostly large general education composition courses	Variety of courses, including many small specialized courses and some general education composition courses
For profit	Non-profit
Large-scale, top-down approach	Small-scale, bottom-up approach
Administered by university distance learning department	Administered by individual instructor or English/Composition department
Ample funding from university, government, and/or corporations	Little or no compensation for instructor time spent developing course or learning skills
Utilize extensive and impressive programming, video segments, etc.	Utilize less expensive discussion boards, MOOs, e-mail, etc.
Based on business model of education	Based on university model of education
University ownership of course	Faculty ownership of course
More likely to collaborate with businesses	Less likely to use expensive educational software
Much assessment/evaluation	Little or no assessment/evaluation.
General evaluation conducted through distance learning programs, sometimes WPAs	When evaluation is present, performed by individual instructors, sometimes WPAs

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