Writing Center Pedagogy in the Online Environment

We've designed our Online Writing Center so that pedagogy drives the technology. We've retained important features of face-to-face tutoring while taking advantage of additional opportunities afforded by asynchronous technology. As in onsite tutoring, the online system underscores the student's role as owner and controller of a text and situates the tutor as an informed reader and respondent. While bound by constraints of time and distance, our software transcends the problems of a 'dry-cleaning' model in which students simply drop off a draft and expect to pick it up later with corrections. To begin, the application asks students for lots of information about their writing context. Filling out our web form causes students to reflect a bit about what they've written, why they've written it, and whom they are writing for. Even before a student receives a response from a tutor, he or she has begun to think about the draft and potential revisions. When we receive the student's submission, which includes the student's answers on the web form as well as his/her attached draft, the tutor reads both and then writes a response with suggestions for revision. While we could write and comment within the draft, we've elected not to, preferring instead to respect the integrity of the student's writing by responding as a reader in a separate text. Tutors often attach handouts to their responses; these documents elaborate or underscore points made within their responses. For the tutor, e-tutoring differs significantly from face-to-face tutoring, and tutors need training and practice to learn to do it well. It's most challenging because it situates the tutor as a writer with all its inherent challenges and benefits.

The Online Tutor does not replace traditional, face-to-face tutoring - in our writing center, face-to-face tutoring remains the central focus of what we do. In the 2003-2004 academic year, tutors at the UNC-CH Writing Center helped almost 4,000 students in our physical writing center and 600 students through the Online Tutor. The Online Tutor provides an alternate format for students who do not choose to use our face-to-face services or who need to access services from a distance. In our preliminary investigation of the effects of online writing support, which included a focus group meeting of volunteers who had used our system and a web survey, we've learned these two things:

• Users: A new and exclusive group of students use the OWL. We draw students who might not otherwise seek help face-to-face, and they are often frequent users. In other words, those students who use the online version of our service are likely not to have used the face-to-face service (because of time constraints, personalities, etc.) and prefer to continue online interactions. These students plan ahead (i.e. draft) in order to get a response from us. Contrary to what we had expected, we receive few last minute requests for help online. Most students who submit online do so several days in advance of due dates.
• Process: The online version of our services provides more time for reflection and choice for both the students who submit drafts and the tutors who respond to them. Without the obligations of social interaction, the student can digest the tutor's comments at his/her own pace and refer back to them as needed in the archive or by printing them out. The student can easily accept or reject the tutor's comments without social consequence. Students sometimes share their responses with their instructors and continue conversations about their drafts by using their tutors' responses as a reference point. Tutors also have time to reflect on the student's needs and submission as a whole before choosing and prioritizing which revision strategies to suggest.