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In this phenomenological case study, I elicited the perspectives of first-year community college second language (L2) students enrolled in an online general education course, Studies in Applied Ethics. Four L2 participants narrated their lived experiences and impressions of distance learning via Skype interviews at early, mid, and end-of-semester junctures. The Distance Education instructional model Community of Inquiry (COI) served as the theoretical framework for the inquiry. The multilingual participants suggested the COI components Teaching Presence (design and facilitation of the course) and Learning Presence (self-regulated learning behaviors) led to Cognitive Presence (the understanding of and ability to demonstrate content knowledge). Social Presence, the concept of collaborating with classmates in a virtual community, seemed less desired or effectual for the L2 participants in this general education online course. Discoveries in this phenomenological case study add qualitative data and diverse perspectives to the extant research on Community Colleges, Online Teaching and Learning, Writing Across the Curriculum, and English for Academic Purposes

<p>The Elon Research Seminar, <i>Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer</i>, was a coalition of rhetoric and composition scholars’ attempt at codifying writing transfer knowledge for teaching and research purposes. Although the seminar was an important leap in transfer research, many ‘behind the scenes’ decisions of writing transfer, often those not involving the writing program, go unnoticed, yet play a pivotal role in how writing programs encourage and reproduce writing transfer in the classroom. This dissertation study, inspired by a pilot study conducted in Fall 2018 on writing across the curriculum programs and their role in writing transfer, illustrates how an institution’s context systems (e.g., macrosystem, mesosystem, microsystem, etc.) affect writing programs’ processes—i.e., curriculum components, assessment, and administrative structure and budget—and vice versa. Using Bronfenbrenner and Morris’ (2006) bioecological model, I show how writing programs and their context systems interact to reproduce writing transfer practices. Through ten interviews with writing program administrators at state comprehensive universities, I delineate specific actions that each writing program could take to encourage writing transfer. I develop a list of roles and responsibilities a university’s context systems play in advocating writing transfer practices. The results of the study show that research beyond the writing classroom and students is necessary to understand how writing transfer opportunities arise in university cultures of writing.</p>

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The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine Virginia Standards of Learning 8th grade writing assessments to determine if there was any association between school passing rates and the recommendations suggested by the 2003 National Commission on Writing to improve writing proficiency. This study further examined the possible differences in school passing rates that may exist due to the grade configuration of a school, the location of a school, the availability of a comprehensive writing plan, and the student percentage on free and reduced-price lunch. Data collection consisted of a self-administered survey sent to all 364 schools in Virginia that administered SOL writing assessments during the 2006-2007 school year./p> This study showed no significant differences in 8th grade writing passing rates between schools with a comprehensive writing plan and those that do not. However, there was a significant difference in 8th grade teacher support for writing, division-administrative support for writing, and the understanding of writing scoring criteria in those schools with a comprehensive plan. There was little association between SOL writing scores and the implementation level of the 7 dimensions related to the National Commission on Writing recommendations. When controlling for socioeconomic status, there was no significant difference in writing scores. The addition of 4 multiple-choice questions to the SOL test two years ago without a change in the cut score necessary for a student to pass appears to have had a larger impact on the passing rates of schools than the variables included in this study.

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