Form adapted from Smith, R. M. Conquering the Content.

San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,

2008.

Form 3: Introduction

Description:

Students will take Online Literacy & Citizenship as a companion course to English Composition.
The point of English Composition is that students master the critical reading and writing skills
necessary to succeed in college; the point of Online Literacy & Composition is that students master
the effective, thoughtful use of Internet resources necessary to succeed in English Composition. By
the time they complete this course, students will know what resources are on the web for them to
use, distinguish between trustworthy and not-so-trustworthy resources, and identify the purpose,
genre and worth of any given website. Finally, as students explore and improve their use of the web,
they will also work to improve their awareness of and interest in current events, through regular
reading and discussion of online articles.

Because this is a companion course, it is by definition part of a blended course: Instruction in reading
and writing skills will be offered during my face-to-face sessions with students, and instruction in
online literacy will be offered online. I will likely cancel up to three classes a month in order to allow
students more time to complete online assignments.

Learners:

Students are mostly 18-19 year olds, incoming freshmen, though we also have a few older freshmen,
usually in their mid- to late-20s. All students identify as a Christian, and while a few come from non-
religious families, the majority are from an evangelical background. Most students have basic reading,
writing and critical thinking skills, though they may struggle when they are asked to perform higher-
order thinking skills, such as finding and summarizing the main idea of an essay, locating trustworthy
research using the Internet, supporting their ideas with logical reasons and plenty of evidence, and
handling multiple points of view.

One concern I have about students is their increasing unawareness of newsworthy topics. When
students are asked to name controversial issues which they find interesting, they often struggle to
come up with something besides youth group or gay marriage. Their struggle suggests that
theyre largely unaware of issues outside of their high school experience, or issues that are
extraordinarily visible throughout the media including, importantly, religious news media (such as
WORLD magazine). In fact, students are often entirely unaware of other important issues such as
the UC Santa Barbara shooting, the release of Google Glass to the general public, or the significance
of the Berlin Wall. My hope is that a course in Online Literacy & Citizenship, by asking students to
page through lists of important issues, read widely online, and discuss what they read will inform
them about the broader world, and hopefully, help them develop an interest in staying informed.

A second concern I have is that students learn to use technology professionally. I am not surprised
they dont know this; for most students, college is the first professional environment theyve been in.
But I also feel that college is the time to learn to attach documents to emails, to teach yourself new
skills on the Internet, to perform quality research and find trustworthy information, and to respond
appropriately to the multiple points of view on the Internet. Online Literacy & Citizenship helps
students learn this in several ways. Since they will be navigating an online program (Course Sites, by
Blackboard), they will need to become self-sufficient in using this program, or seek out appropriate
help (fellow students) to assist when necessary. They will also master effective research skills, learn to
evaluate web-based information for reliability, and handle the various perspectives on newsworthy
issues as they work through the content in this blended class.

Form adapted from Smith, R. M. Conquering the Content. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
2008.

Things that are working well in my course:

By its nature, Composition is a flexible class. If students are going to learn, they have to write papers,
and since those papers have to be about something, we get to talk about a wide variety of subjects. In
particular, I appreciate these opportunities:
Students can connect writing assignments with their real-life experiences and interests. This
automatically makes assignments more authentic, it stimulates student interest in writing, and
(perhaps most important) it gives students a chance to study their beliefs and habits in detail.
I also use writing assignments as a chance to introduce students to meaningful real-world
issues, such as feminism or income inequality. I consider it a sign of intellectual growth on
the students part when they change, or even reconsider, their perspective on these issues.
Students writing on topics they care deeply about gives me the chance to get to know them
as a person.

Moving the class online will make these strengths more prominent, I believe. Since Online Literacy &
Citizenship asks students to read widely online, they are likely to learn more about their interests (or
even develop new interests!). They will also learn more about real-world issues; hopefully, reading a
wide range of perspectives on hot topics in our culture will help them rethink assumptions theyve
made about these topics and seek out the truth.

I am also satisfied with the one-on-one conferences I currently rely on in English Composition.
These conferences give me a chance to target learning more directly towards students personal
learning styles, which makes these conferences extraordinarily productive. I hope that when I move
the course online, where students can access material at their own pace, through a variety of different
mediums (text, video, etc), they will benefit from the opportunity to learn in a way that makes sense
to them.

Things that Id like to change about my course:

Because I teach freshmen-level courses, Ive assumed its partly my responsibility to make them
aware of and help them master whatever academic skills are necessary to succeed at college. Yet I am
also frustrated when students so frequently enter college wholly unprepared for the demands of
English Composition. Some of the most frequent gaps students have are these:

They may be unaware of current events and struggle to find a controversial issue thats
personally meaningful to them.
They have no idea what trustworthy, reliable research looks like, especially on the web.
When they try to use wholly unreliable sources in their projects, it takes time to get them
pointed in a different, better direction.
They sometimes get confused easily and dont know what steps to take (contacting me, re-
reading the directions, talking to peers) to get themselves un-confused.
They sometimes lack the responsibility to contact me in advance if theyre struggling or
wont be completing an assignment in time, which means I sometimes show up to class
expecting them to have done the work to participate in class and they havent.

I see an online course being useful in helping students overcome these challenges, since it will teach
them which online tools are worth their time and how to use these, as well as how to evaluate online
information, and since students will also be asked to read widely and frequently on the web and
comment on what they read.

Form adapted from Smith, R. M. Conquering the Content. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
2008.

The most frustrating or irritating aspect of my course as I am currently teaching it is:

When students struggle to pick a topic or find reliable information, their difficulty slows progress
towards our course goals and takes time away from critical reading and writing skills that are
important for them to master. My hope is to offer a course that will streamline English
Composition, allowing students to build needed skills without delaying progress in other areas of the
class.

The most time consuming aspect of my course as I am currently teaching it is
Evaluating student work with fairness and attention to higher-order concerns, rather than
lower-order ones.
Rewriting projects or writing new projects can also take a great deal of time.