Archives: Event Archive

On October 29, 2020, Jenelle Dembsey, Sarah Prince, and Elle Tyson (the OWCA Executive Board) hosted a special interest group at the International Writing Center Association’s Listen. Learn. Lead. online event.

On October 26, 2020, Eric Camarillo presented on “Enacting Antiracism in Asynchronous Writing Consultations.” Over 140 professionals attended. The goal of this presentation was to reframe the value of asynchronous writing center work and to demonstrate why it should be seen as an innovation rather than a disruption, a valid option for students, rather than a subpar alternative. In …

On October 2, 2020, Zandra L. Jordan presented on “Racial Justice and Online Writing Center Practice.” Over 145 professionals attended. Zandra introduced the theoretical frame of Womanist Ethics and facilitated attendee reflection on racial justice in their online writing centers.

On September 8, 2020, Lisa Eastmond Bell presented on “Shaping Online Tutoring Practice: Research and Reflection over Replication.” As Lisa explained, online tutoring at its best is shaped by learners and learning and not simply an attempt to replicate in-person tutoring practices.

On February 21, 2020, Bethany presented “Branching Out for Better Marketing” for the OWC Community, sharing strategies for marketing to students, faculty, and within/for institutional partners.

On November 15, 2019, Anne Shiell guest hosted a Virtual Conversation Hour on assessment and reporting in OWC tutoring. As one of the managers for instructional services at the Walden University Writing Center, Anne discussed metrics collected at her center, as well as the benefits, barriers, and difficulties of collecting this data.

On September 13, 2019, we hosted a reflection and discussion about how to identify institutional context and how that institutional context can impact decisions we make for our OWCs.

During this August 20, 2019, conversation hour, attendees focused our discussion on OWC-related readings that we and our tutors have found most helpful. This was a timely discussion since this question had just come up on the WCenter listserv. 

During the hour, we discussed the following questions: What unique training, if any, do you offer staff engaging in online writing tutoring? How do you structure your training (is it integrated with your face-to-face training or is it an additional “level” of training?) What training materials or activities have you found especially effective? What barriers are you facing in terms of training staff engaged in online writing tutoring?

During the hour, we discussed the platforms attendees use for their synchronous and why they chose their platforms, exploring: What are the successes or benefits to each of these platforms? What are the weaknesses or failures? What other questions do you have regarding technology platforms?