Request a Workshop

An effective learning activity is having students read and discuss one another's work in progress. Deriving from the academic mainstay of peer review for scholarly submissions, classroom peer review sometimes involves judging quality. However, more often--and generally more effectively--peer review means providing feedback: What's working well? What's confusing or undeveloped? What revisions are available? The online environment can make things more complicated--but also open some options. This 50-minute workshop will provide useful ideas and strategies for incorporating peer review activities in online settings across the curriculum.

​​​​​​Once upon a time, responding to and grading student writing was pretty straightforward: collect physical papers, jot marginal comments, provide a final comment, and insert a grade. Sure, there were issues of What To Say and How To Say It, as well as endless issues of faculty time. But the actual medium of responding was clear. Most of us haven't handled physical papers in years, but with everything online--and usually in Canvas--there are lots of questions. Do I use speed grader? How? Do I annotate papers? Do I download and use track changes, then re-upload? Do I use rubrics? How do I know students are reading my feedback? And, universally still, how am I commenting effectively and efficiently online? This 50-minute workshop will explain the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to responding to writing in online courses.

​​​​​​Courses that take place significantly or entirely online have altered channels of exchange between students. One obvious solution has been discussion boards within Canvas. Many faculty have enjoyed considerable success with that feature. Yet many others wish the feature were more productive. Some students perceive discussion boards as "busy work." Many produce substandard contributions. Sometimes interactions among students are problematic or lacking. Atop everything is frequently the question from professors: "OK, what do I DO with the writing in these boards?" This 50-minute workshop will provide useful ideas and strategies for using discussion boards well.

​​​​​​Good assignments not only contribute to student learning but also save professors time and energy, especially in teaching, responding, and grading. You'll learn principles for making effective writing assignments, illustrated by examples of good ones--and of ones that foster hair-tearing: students and your own.

​​​​​​Probably nothing dismays professors more than the prospect of spending endless hours responding to or grading student writing--all the while worrying if they're doing any good. This workshop will teach practical strategies for responding efficiently and effectively to student writing. More isn't necessarily better.

​​​​​​How can you use short, often informal and low-stakes writing assignments to help teach your course content? One of the tenets of Writing Across the Curriculum is that writing is a mode of learning: it's a high-impact practice that actively engages students. Even better news? These writings require little of professors in terms of response time or energy. Learn some assignment types and strategies.

​​​​​​Students are often pretty good at drive-by citations: merely dropping in quotations or references without making productive use of them, sometimes integrating them poorly into the surrounding text. This quick workshop provides resources you can use with students to integrate through analysis, synthesis, and commentary.

The University of Denver Writing Program invited 20 DU faculty teaching First Year Seminars during fall 2014 to participate in a discussion of successes, strategies, and challenges related to student writing in their courses. Doug Hesse led this workshop, which focused on issues and questions raised by its participants. All participants addressed a set of questions and provided at least one writing assignment from their course. Responses were collated to discover common issues and opportunities.

The University of Denver Writing Program invited DU faculty from all departments to participate in a week-long institute on student writing in content courses. The focus was on on writing in general education courses such as FSEM and ASEM. The Institute, which was led by Doug Hesse and other writing program faculty, was open to any DU professor who has taught FSEM or ASEM in the past two years and who planned to teach either course again in 2013-14.

Participants read selected current research and teaching practice in writing across the curriculum. Meeting three times for three hours, they discussed readings, discussed their courses and matters related to writing in FSEM and ASEM, and shared work in progress. They completed brief writing projects related to their course or to a topic related to student writing.

How can writing foster learning in FSEM?

How can I respond to writing effectively AND efficiently?

What are qualities of good—and bad—assignments?

What writing abilities do DU students bring from high school?

How does writing develop during the college years?

What are—and aren't—reasonable roles for disciplinary faculty when it comes to student writing?

What happens in WRIT classes after FSEM?

The Writing Program sponsored a two-day workshop to address these and related questions. Participants were asked to compete brief readings before the first meeting and to complete a brief writing (drafting one or more writing assignments) before the second meeting.

The Writing Program offered four 55-minute informal workshops, each of them twice. Our format: pizza and fruit at noon, followed by a 15-minute presentation of practical advice (accompanied by handouts or resources), then 25 minutes for questions or discussion. All workshops were held in the Nelson Hall Private Dining Room.

You assign a paper with a heavy heart, fearing that you've just simultaneously sentenced yourself to a weekend of grading. But not necessarily. This workshop focuses on responding effectively but efficiently.

So you've made an assignment that requires analyzing or synthesizing sources, but several students are unable to do anything substantial with the readings beyond stringing together summaries or quotations. What do you do? We'll provide some practical advice for helping students do more than haphazardly cite or share glib opinions.

​​​​​​Our five-year longitudinal research on 60 DU undergraduates yielded interesting findings about writing experiences they found most valuable. For example, "easy" doesn't necessarily equal "good" in their minds.

​​​​​​Traditional academic papers are the bread and butter of college writing, but they aren't the only kinds of assignments faculty might make to further teaching and learning goals. This workshop will present some ideas for incorporating visual or other elements in assignments, perhaps in pieces meant to be published digitally.