Writing in Web-based Disciplinary Courses: New Media, New Disciplinary Composing Expectations

Scholarship in Online Writing Instruction has offered many suggestions to facilitate web-based writing pedagogy; however, little research examines how faculty in other disciplines use writing assignments and related technologies for web-based courses in their own discipline. This article reports on the findings of two surveys of disciplinary faculty at a large Midwestern, state-supported university regarding composing assignments they use in upper-division courses, particularly differences in assignments and assessment criteria related to the course delivery mode—classroom-based versus web-based. I identify a handful of distinctions of writing assignments used and expectations of composing skills in web-based upper division disciplinary courses compared with such classes delivered via the classroom environment. These include: the kinds of composing assignments used, digital literacy expectations and where such skills ought to be learned, and criteria deemed important. Also, I discuss how class size, instructor training in web-based pedagogy, training in assessment of multimodal projects, and the degree to which a program has web-based offerings can affect these attributes. These findings and related discussion encourage further focused study on composing demands in web-based coursework. Such research can help writing faculty understand on which particular skills to focus instruction in first-year writing courses, given the proliferation of web-based courses, and it can help program administrators develop strong survey instruments to facilitate assessment at their own institution.