Distance Learning Technologies and Writing Center Conferences: A Comparative Analysis of Two Methods of Delivering Consultations at a Distance (2008)

Abstract

As distance education programs proliferate at a steady pace, writing centers are poised to provide crucial support services. Thus far, most writing center-specific research has focused on asynchronous or synchronous all-text environments. This project investigates two tools for providing online writing center consultations, both of which incorporate an audio link and application sharing. Its methodologically diverse design examines the scope, content, and structure of one-to-one writing center conferences across two synchronous delivery tools and compares them with f2f sessions conducted by the same consultants.

This dissertation’s five chapters first situate the research then report the results of three distinct analyses and finally sketch implications for current writing center practice and future research. Chapter One outlines impediments to pedagogically sound practices for writing centers seeking to support distance education efforts. Chapter Two analyzes survey data and case studies to determine the broad outlines of writer and consultant preferences and consultant practices in online writing center consultations that employ the technologies studied here. It generates a narrative off effective performance by consultants in both technology conditions and identifies differences between writer and consultant evaluations of online tools. Chapter Three examines consultant control of consultations in this quasi-experimental study and complicates the narrative generated in Chapter Two by focusing on specific participant behaviors that differ between the two technologies. Chapter Three suggests that the tablet PC technology is more likely to produce problematic outcomes than the Wordshare technology.

Chapter Four introduces practitioner knowledge as an evaluative tool and reports results consistent with the narratives generated by qualitative and quantitative analyses in previous chapters. In addition, it identifies consultant behaviors that may contribute to differences between consultations using the two technologies. Inconsistencies between the narratives in chapters Two through Four generate productive questions for future research.

Chapter Five identifies productive next steps for online writing center practice and research and argues that the critical perspectives brought to bear on the technologies investigated here are relevant to all modes of consultation, including face-to-face. Chapter Five concludes that the technologies studied here offer valuable and pedagogically sound tools for providing writing center consultations at a distance.

Citation Information

Type of Source: Dissertation

Author: Jo Ann Griffin

Year of Completion: 2008

Title: Distance Learning Technologies and Writing Center Conferences: A Comparative Analysis of Two Methods of Delivering Consultations at a Distance

Institution: University of Louisville