Online Writing Instruction

My Introduction to OWI

After my first teaching experience, I signed up for the OWI program to further reflect on my experience and improve as a future educator. With a lot of flexibility, learners get to choose the situation they address. The class I focused on creating for was Composition 1 (or a first-year writing course).

Program Learning outcomes blah and what my goals were for leaving the program

Below are snippets of my work throughout the OWI program. They include:

  • Learning Outcome Sheet
  • A Google Site project for an online course creating project
  • The rough draft lesson plan behind the Google Site
  • A revised Composition 1 course syllabus
  • Learner Audience Analysis - Scenario Planning

Reflection

The work in this course taught me how to use different modes of communication to work with students in an online environment. This communication can go beyond an online-only environment to a hybrid environment. This allows me, as an instructor, to communicate with my students in different ways (e.g., video lessons) to reach them more effectively than just comments on a paper or written feedback.

I was able to take what the introduction course taught and work these goals into specific assignments. I didn’t learn as much about accessibility as I wanted to, which may require me to use the software or work with disability services to “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes.” In terms of making content available for students, I utilized Working in Google Sites to build an online class in such a short time felt vastly different from teaching in a hybrid course.

Outside of the Composition class, the work throughout this program helped me to be a better technical writer. Working with learners from across the world, I couldn’t just send SOPs covering software functionality. To successfully teach new processes, I had to work with learners to gain insight into their duties and responsibilities to contextualize the software solution. Without a Learning Management System (LMS), I only had access to email communication and document organization to create a full training plan.