Program Training & Professional Development

Because OSU is such a large, resource-rich school and has had a PhD program with faculty whose focus is digital writing for many years, the First-Year Writing program benefited from having numerous resources for teaching digital writing available to their faculty and graduate students. Within the FYW program, there were six main professional development opportunities: 

• A six-day pre-semester workshop that was required for all new GTAs
• A required practicum course for first-year GTAs (Fall semester)
• A First-Year Writing Handbook, which was a 34-page document that included course materials as well as more general teaching considerations and advice
• Ongoing workshops
• Opportunities for two graduate students to serve as Assistant WPAs
• Professional development funds to attend conferences like the Council on Writing Program Administrators's National Conference 

The first two items in the above list are detailed below. As for the ongoing workshops, at the time of our visit, WPA Edgar Singleton noted that they were currently rethinking their workshops in part because it was difficult to get people to attend workshops and in part because “a lot of what we’re doing in the practicum kind of amounts to a series of workshops.” 

Of the graduate student WPA positions, Singleton explained that his view was that the people in those positions “need to have creative input and productive input into what we're doing based on their experience,” which he noted can have a significant impact on how they might change pre-semester and ongoing training and professional development opportunities from year to year.

The sections below highlight 3 unique aspects of how OSU’s First-Year Writing program trained and supported educators to teach digital writing in English 1110 and beyond.

Each year in late summer, the FYW program held a six-day pre-semester workshop to prepare Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) to teach English 1110. The workshop was considered part of graduate students’ employment, which meant it was both required and compensated.

In this workshop, GTAs were introduced to the English 1110 course, assignments, and expectations for GTAs. GTAs also had a significant amount of time to develop materials. For instance, they had time to work on and received feedback on their course theme, syllabus, first week's lesson plan, and Canvas (LMS) shell. Additionally, GTAs gathered materials and developed plans for 20-minute lessons ("microteachings") that they would eventually use in their English 1110 classes. Every GTA designed multiple microteachings and practiced and workshoped them during the pre-semester workshop.

An educational technologist from the College of Arts and Science’s Technology Services also joined the pre-semester workshop to discuss integrating technology into English 1110 and to help GTAs learn to use Carmen, the OSU-specific version of Canvas.

Importantly, the pre-semester workshop also devoted time to consideration of non-English-1110-specific topics such as “handling identity and power in the classroom” and “work/life balance.”

After completing the pre-semester workshop, first-year GTAs then took a practicum course during the Fall semester. As the syllabus for the class explained: 

“English 6781 continues the professional development of graduate teaching associates who have completed the Pre-Semester Workshop during the summer. The course focuses on the first-year writing curriculum and best practices in the classroom while situating both in the theory and traditions of composition studies. Students will read and discuss composition theory, participate in assessment workshops, work with sample student writing, increase their familiarity with the English 1110 curriculum, and consider how their teaching will evolve beyond the first semester of first-year writing.”

The requirements and assignments for this course included 1) regular attendance, reading, and participation in discussion and class activities, 2) two teaching reflections posted on the discussion board, 3) a teaching observation and reflection, and 4) a final teaching portfolio.

As noted elsewhere in this site, our research revealed it was common for people who had started out in English Departments and first-year writing programs to end up in other roles and locations on campus that dealt with digital writing in another capacity (e.g., a CTL, Academic Technology offices). This is exactly the case for Mike Bierschenk at OSU. Mike previously served as a program coordinator for FYW at OSU before the College of Arts and Sciences Technology Services recruited him to work for them. 

While Mike’s role was redefined and relocated and he wasn't reporting to anyone in the English department, his work still focused on supporting the English department. He explained that he continued to work closely with FYW WPA Edgar Singleton and that he felt his work with graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) was especially important because, as he explained, “If they’re going to learn how to use [educational technology], it’s going to be from me, and it’s going to be as part of the first-year writing program.” Mike supported GTA techno-pedagogy in multiple ways: 

• Helping to lead parts of the pre-semester workshop and the practicum course
• Creating and managing a Carmen template for FYW (Carmen is OSU’s tailored version of the learning management system Canvas) 
• Helping with tech support for the English 1110 symposium project
• Offering ongoing support to GTAs throughout the academic year

Below, find direct links to professional development materials used for this particular institution. Note, you can also find all professional development materials for all institutions in the resource repository by clicking here.