"Keep This Up!" Building in Support for Graduate Students' Writing in Online Courses

• In Event: Exploring Approaches for Authentic Self-Expression in Online Environments

Abstract

This paper reports on research undertaken in two fully online, asynchronous university courses. Representing two masters’ programs, one course led to a reading specialist certificate, and the other, to a credential in educational diagnostics. This investigation explored how writing conferences helped graduate students to better communicate within their new professions. This comparative case study, framed by social presence theory, was conducted across a semester. Results point to 1) safe and supportive environment, 2) metacognitive thinking, and 3) building professional identity. This proposal addresses the 2023 conference question of what is truth and who decides it: graduate students in these two courses may have believed one “truth” about themselves as unworthy professional writers and emerged with a different truth.

Authors

• Annamary Consalvo, University of Texas - Tyler
  Presenting Author

• Jessica Rueter, University of Texas - Tyler
  Presenting Author