Supporting Graduate Students’ Writing in Online Courses

ABSTRACTThis paper reports on research undertaken in two fully online, asynchronous university courses. Representing two masters’ programs, one led to a degree in reading as a reading specialist, and the other, to a degree in special education as an educational diagnostician. This investigation explored how writing conferences helped graduate students to better communicate within their new professions. This comparative case study, framed by social presence theory, was conducted across one semester. The findings of this study point to three themes, (1) Components of the Online Learning Environment, (2) Metacognitive Thinking, and (3) Building Professional Identity. The three themes provide glimpses into graduate students’ perceptions of synchronous writing conferences. The purpose of these conferences was to provide graduate students with the tools and support needed to encourage professional writing for their soon-to-be careers.KEYWORDS: Asynchronous graduate coursescollege writingdistance learningonline writing conferencessocial presence Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsAnnamary ConsalvoAnnamary Consalvo, Associate Professor at The University of Texas at Tyler where she teaches undergraduate, masters, and doctoral courses in adolescent literacy and research methods. A former middle and high school English teacher, her research interests include the teaching of writing, and aspects of literature for young adults.Jessica RueterJessica A. Rueter is an Associate Professor of Special Education and serves as the Program Coordinator of the Master of Education in Special Education at The University of Texas at Tyler. Dr. Rueter has 29+ years of experience as a special education teacher, educational diagnostician, and as a university professor. Her research interests include best practices of assessment of students with disabilities and translating assessment results into evidence-based instructional practices.