Incorporating Group Writing Instruction in Engineering Courses

Schulz, Kirk H.; Ludlow, Douglas K.

doi:10.1002/j.2168-9830.1996.tb00237.x

Cited by 26 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…There are many ways to manage how students will perform collaborative writing. For example, Schulz and Ludlow (1996) developed group writing models in which the instructor allowed students to divide the topic into sections and let each student in the group individually take responsibility for finishing his or her own section. Another model is one in which the instructor singles out one student in the class to start writing on the assigned topic, while the other students in the group proofread and edit the content.…”

Section: Group (Collaborative) Writing In the Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Alternatives for a MediaWiki to Support Collaborative Writing

Kasemvilas¹,

Olfman²

2009

JIITO

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Web 2.0 technologies are having a considerable influence on the learning industry. Constructivist learning processes, such as collaborative writing, have emerged as a result of the development of Web 2.0 technologies. We define the term "mandatory collaborative writing" to describe a writing task where the group has a firm deadline. This article focuses on how a wiki can fully support mandatory group writing. The motivation of this design science research study emerges from a graduate Knowledge Management class assignment to write a wiki book. The main finding shows that the wiki instance used for the project, MediaWiki, could better facilitate the collaborative writing process with a set of extensions that support discussion and project management. We outline designs for these processes: 1) a discussion process that changes the way users discuss content on a wiki page and increases group awareness; and 2) a project management process that increases awareness of the status of each component of the writing project and provides an overall summary of the project. A demonstration of the principles to a focus group provided a basic proof of the validity of this design. The significant contributions of this study are these processes, which can facilitate group writing and constructivist learning processes. Contributions of the study to several streams of research are discussed.

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Section: Group (Collaborative) Writing In the Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Alternatives for a MediaWiki to Support Collaborative Writing

Kasemvilas¹,

Olfman²

2009

JIITO

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There are many ways to manage how students will perform collaborative writing. For example, Schulz and Ludlow (1996) developed group writing models where the instructor allowed students to divide the topic into sections and let each student in the group individually take responsibility for finishing his or her own section. Another model is where the instructor singles out one student in the class to start writing on the assigned topic, while the other students in the group proofread and edit the content.…”

Section: Group (Collaborative) Writing In the Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Design Alternatives for a MediaWiki to Support Collaborative Writing in Higher Education Classes

Kasemvilas

Olfman

2009

IISIT

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Constructivist learning mechanisms such as collaborative writing have emerged as a result of the development of Web 2.0 technologies. We define the term mandatory collaborative writing to describe a writing activity where the group has a firm deadline. Our study focuses on how a wiki can fully support mandatory group writing. The motivation of this design science research study emerges from a graduate Knowledge Management class assignment to write a wiki book. The project outcome shows that the wiki instance used for the project, MediaWiki, could better facilitate the process with a set of extensions that support discussion, evaluation, and project management. We outline designs for these mechanisms: 1) a discussion mechanism that changes the way users discuss content on a wiki page and increases group awareness; 2) an evaluation mechanism that provides a tool for the instructor to monitor and assess students' performance; and 3) a project management tool that increases awareness of the status of each component of the writing project and provides an overall summary of the project. A demonstration of the principles to a focus group provided a basic proof of the validity of these mechanisms.

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“…The work that has been done in the engineering context with writing has included current theories of writing to learn [5,6,17,23], as well as the importance of informal writing such as journal writing [5,8,25,26]. In addition, studies of various forms of writing instruction have informed the research [27], as well as grading and assessment practices of writing [8,[27][28][29][30]. In this paper, we are extending the research to include all four elements: writing, critical thinking, learning communities and engineering.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovation in linking and thinking: Critical thinking and writing skills of first-year engineering students in a learning community

Damron

High

2008

2008 38th Annual Frontiers in Education Conference

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For the engineering educator, implementing and integrating professional, institutional, and pedagogical goals into a course is complex and becomes more so when working with first-year students. These students are not always comfortable with problemposing situations, and as tasks increase in complexity, so does the difficulty in thinking and writing. The question then arises as to how to help students become more comfortable with problem-posing as they write and think in a new academic community. This paper reports on a study integrating learning communities with problemposing by using a model of critical thinking to structure writing assignments that require students to report about in-class, team-based activities applied to engineering concepts. The effectiveness of this approach was measured by assessing writing and critical thinking skills and surveying engineering and writing attitudes. Students in three sections of an Introduction to Engineering course were paired in two sections of English composition, and one section was not paired. The study also included several students in a female only composition class (total n=68). Results of the study show that mean scores of paired students were generally higher in both writing and critical thinking and significantly higher on one subscore of critical thinking. Paired course students also showed significant positive changes in viewing themselves as writers.

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Incorporating Group Writing Instruction in Engineering Courses

Cited by 26 publications

References 4 publications

Design Alternatives for a MediaWiki to Support Collaborative Writing

Design Alternatives for a MediaWiki to Support Collaborative Writing

Design Alternatives for a MediaWiki to Support Collaborative Writing in Higher Education Classes

Innovation in linking and thinking: Critical thinking and writing skills of first-year engineering students in a learning community

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