Assessing Writing Center Work with Digital Tools

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Assessing Writing Center Work with Digital Tools
Assessing Writing Center Work Why We Need to Do
It, Why We Have Such a Hard Time Doing It, a
Couple of Interesting and Potentially Useful Ways
of Doing It and Presenting the Results, with a
Few Comments If Theres Time Left at the End
about Some Digital Tools that Can Help Us Gather
the Information We Need.
Michael A. Pemberton Georgia Southern University
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Some Factors that Inhibit Writing Center
Assessment Globally and Locally (Jones 2001)

• Differences in writing centers
• WC work as customized, individual interactions
• Difficulty separating writing center work from
  other influences (such as what theyre being
  taught in their comp classes) in order to
  generate a control group/experimental treatment
  dynamic.

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Question 6, Choice 7 To satisfy an
institutional requirement for assessment
(mandated by administration or by some other
external pressure) 41.1
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Question 1 Has your writing center
participated in a self-study or submitted other
assessment data to your institution as part of an
institutional accreditation application (e.g.
SACS, North Central, Middle States, etc.)?
Yes 46.5
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Question 18 I would like IWCA to continue
developing self-assessment tools for writing
centers. Agree 33.9 Strongly
Agree 59.4
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Designing A Writing Center Assessment
Plan (Thompson 2006)
1.) Prepare a writing center mission
statement 2.) Develop goals, objectives, and
intended outcomes a.) student learning
outcomes b.) use statements c.) satisfaction
statements 3.) Appropriate assessment
methods a.) Outcome measures b.) Counts c.)
Satisfaction surveys 4.) Conduct assessments 5.)
Analyze results 6.) Use results to implement
change
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Documenting the Writing Centers Effects on
Students
a.) student learning outcomes c.) satisfaction
statements

• Cognitive contributions additions to student
  learning repertoire, new strategies, new content.
  Tie to features of cognitive development (via
  student surveys)
• (b) Affective contributions changes in attitude
  about writing, ability to write successfully,
  positive associations with institution.
  Increased sense of self-efficacy.

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Documenting Cognitive Gains
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Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
2001 Revision of Blooms Taxonomy by Lorin W.
Anderson et al
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Student and Tutor Conference Report Forms Francis
Marion University
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Cognitive Development Skills Exercised in
Tutorials (Kunka, et al. 2007)
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Idea-Level Tutorials
48.8
18.0
30.8
44.0
17.9
26.1
52.6
30.0
22.6
(Kunka, Nelson, Gardner, and Ramsey 2007)
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Some Findings of the Kunka, et al. Study

• Student writers are engaged in cognitive
  development activities in tutorials that
  contribute to their conceptual and procedural
  knowledge.
• Student writers engage in more cognitive
  activity during tutorials than can be simply
  observed by tutors.
• Students identified cognitive activity like
  generate ideas, explain ideas, and organize
  ideas/text in 18 more tutorials than tutors
  did.
• Writing centers can engage in assessment
  activities that go beyond numbers of visits and
  student satisfaction rates.
• Writing center directors can use a methodology
  to show what really happens in writing center
  tutorials.

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Documenting Gains in Self-Efficacy
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Why Should We Care How Students Feel about the
Writing Center?
Thats the wrong question. The right question is
What do students believe about themselves as
writers after visiting the Writing Center?
We find a number of empirical research efforts
in which attendance at a writing center has been
found to have a significant direct association
with improvements in student attitudes/self-percep
tions related to writing. (Jones 11)
Researchers have reported that students
self-efficacy beliefs are correlated with other
motivational constructs and with students
academic performances and achievement. (Pajares
141)
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What Factors Contribute to a Sense of
Self-Efficacy? (Pajares 140-41)

• The interpreted results of performance.
  Successful outcomes raise it failure lowers it.
• Vicarious experience watching others perform
  tasks (peer modeling). Social comparisons with
  other individuals as well.
• Verbal messages and social persuasions from
  others.
• Psychological states such as anxiety and stress.

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Revised Mission Statement for the Writing Center
at Western Oregon University

• The WOU Writing Center maximizes the individual
  and professional development of student-writers
  by offering personalized learning opportunities
  to advance writing self efficacy
• we highlight personal writing strengths and aid
  in demystifying personal writing challenges
• we promote student success in both
  school-sponsored and self-sponsored
  writing-related endeavors
• we offer routes for navigating the range of
  college-level writing assignments that exist

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Excerpt from a Writing Self-Efficacy Survey,
Administered to Writing Center Students, Fall
2006 (Katherine Schmidt Joel Alexander, CCCC
2007)
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Self-Efficacy and Retention Four Factors with a
Demonstrated Effect on Retention

• the campus environment, in particular, students
  ability to establish affiliations with distinct
  parts, units, and programs within the university
  rather than seeing the university as a monolithic
  entity.
• Interaction with campus representatives not
  just advisors or administrative functionaries,
  but faculty, caregivers, counselors, and tutorial
  services.
• A focus on academics programs of study,
  emphasis on learning and excellence
• Alternatives to the traditional classroom not
  just lab work and field trips, but strategies
  that encourage student engagement, active
  learning, individual attention. All the things a
  writing center is especially good at.

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Research examining what programmatic
characteristics contribute to retention across a
broad range of institutional types indicates that
when carefully implemented, peer tutoring
programs have a significant and positive effect
on student persistence. In an extensive
examination of survey data supplied by more than
900 institutions, Beal and Noel (1980) find that
peer tutoring is considered to be one of the most
effective retention efforts reported. (Griswold
279)