requests for evaluation techniques and for information on teaching strategies, conference announcements, example forms for evaluation of writing centers by both faculty and students, mailing list
"Evaluation/Accountability for the Writing Lab" (on assessment, usage data, student grades, faculty response); "Do We Need Materials for ESL and Engineering Students?" (self-instruction materials); "A Note on Lab Layout" (space design); mailing list
An annotated bibliography covering relatively recent books and journal articles; topics include philosophy, theory/practice, pedagogy, evaluation, assessment, and graduate writing support
book announcement, report on grammar workbooks, report on faculty outreach; "Questions Which Need Answers," a questionnaire for directors covering scope of writing labs, staff, problems, materials, financing, details of operation, evaluation; mailing list
Basic Writing e-Journal (BWe) is a peer-reviewed, online, open-access journal.
BWe publishes scholarship on teaching and learning in various basic writing contexts. Since basic writing programs often enroll economically disadvantaged students from diverse backgrounds, these students, their teachers, and the policies that influence their access to higher education are often the focus of this journal. Other key topics of concern to BWe readers include curriculum, instructional practice, teacher preparation, program evaluation, and student learning. Additionally, reviews of current scholarly books and textbooks appear regularly in BWe.
Currently based at the City College of New York, BWe was founded in 1999 by the Council on Basic Writing (CBW) and continues to be sponsored by CBW.
"Post-secondary writing centers have struggled to produce substantial, credible, and sustainable evidence of their impact in the educational environment. The objective of this study was to develop a college-level writing self-efficacy scale that can be used across repeated sessions in a writing center, as self-efficacy has been identified as an important construct underlying successful writing and cognitive development. A 20-item instrument (PSWSES) was developed to evaluate writerly self-efficacy. 505 university students participated in the study. Results indicate that the PSWSES has high internal consistency and reliability across items and construct validity, which was supported through a correlation between tutor perceptions of client writerly self-efficacy and client self-ratings. Factor analysis revealed three factors: local and global writing process knowledge, physical reaction, and time/effort. Additionally, across repeated sessions, the clients' PSWSES scores appropriately showed an increase in overall writerly self-efficacy. Ultimately, this study offers a new paradigm for conceptualizing the daily work in which writing centers engage, and the PSWSES offers writing centers a meaningful quantitative program assessment avenue by (1) redirecting focus from actual competence indicators to perceived competence development and (2) allowing for replication, causality, and sustainability for program improvement. "
"Are Machines the Answer?" on the benefits on one-on-one human compared to computer interaction; "Evaluation and Instruction"; "Some Tutoring Guidelines," a list of Dos and Don'ts for tutors; mailing list
This video, produced by Mountwest Community and Technical College, demonstrates a typical tutoring session, including the greeting, the assessment of the student's needs, the creation of an agenda, the evaluation of the writing, the confirmation of the student's ideas, and the creation of a plan of action.
Grand Valley State University's Self-Study Format.
Self Study Format
The University Assessment Committee, in consultation with the Dean's Council and the Provost, have identified the following attachments as the format for the GVSU Program Self-Study. This document is intended as an opportunity for a unit to examine its Strategic Plan as well as identify and evaluate its progresses, successes, and areas of concern.
From Praxis: "Susan Mueller - A corporate assessment model offers a fresh approach to evaluating consultant training programs and consultations themselves. How many times have you watched struggling students leave your writing center and wondered how much they got out of the conference you just had with them? It is hard to know."