Programs and Areas
First Year Writing Program
As part of the three-tiered writing component of the General Education Curriculum, first-year writing courses emphasize ways that writing is a primary element of active, creative learning in literate cultures. These courses provide students with opportunities to practice and reflect critically upon various processes of composing, forms of discourse, and methods of problem-solving, inquiry, and judgment. Further, first-year writing courses provide students with opportunities to engage with others' ideas and to reflect on the institutional and cultural contexts that both constrain and enable meaningful communication with others.
What's New?
First-Year Writing Program Profiled in National ProjectThe First-Year Writing Program is the subject of a national project profiling university course re-design. The Merlot ELIXR project was funded by The Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), and Ohio State was chosen as one of the schools to participate.
The Digital Union and Faculty and TA Development are leading the OSU project. FYWP was originally approached because starting in the fall, all sections of English 110.01 will be meet one day a week in a digital media technology classroom.
"The timing is perfect to blend First-Year Writing and the Digital Media Project," said Scott Lloyd DeWitt. DeWitt has served as the Director of the DMP for five years and is the new Director of FYWP. "This move will allow us to fully integrate digital media technology into our curriculum."
Liv Gjestvang, Coordinator for the Digital Union, will be interviewing the FYW staff and new instructors throughout the first year of the course re-design, approaching the project very much like a documentary. Gjestvang, a videographer, and the staff at the Digital Union will produce 10-12 short streaming video profiles of the program in transition. Filming started Summer 2007.
Information about the Merlot ELIXR project can be found at: http://elixr.merlot.org/wiki/FIPSE_ELIXR
