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Online Learning News and Research
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Saturday, June 29, 2002
http://imej.wfu.edu/articles/2002/1/07/index.asp The Online Writing Lab (OWL) and the Forum: A Tool for Writers in Distance Education Environments Karl Terryberry, Daemen College Abstract Many colleges and universities have an online writing lab (OWL), yet many different species of OWLs exist, and some serve students better than others. For example, on some campuses, instructors have transferred many of their course handouts into HTML documents and uploaded them onto the department web pages on the main server. This attempt at creating an OWL works well if instructors only need to re-establish class materials in rich, electronic format or in a multimedia presentation; it works poorly as an OWL if students need some type of feedback or interaction. Other OWLs include an email address in conjunction with these static web pages, and through email messaging, students can submit papers for feedback or ask questions of tutors or instructors. This type of OWL may work well for asynchronous communication, but it is difficult for the instructor to maintain quality control and manageability of documents as questions are submitted. Email messages, if they are to be reviewed later, must be saved on already crowded email servers; more important, instructors have no way of assessing the responses of tutors, checking the work of tutors, or chronicling the students' progressions. Consequently, static web pages and email services do not make an effective OWL. I propose integrating the web pages with web courseware to take advantage of threaded discussion groups that offer quality control over asynchronous environments and collaborative learning environments that writing students need....
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