Ronald E. Maynard's Senior Dissertation - Using Online Resources to Learn the Art of Effective Writing

Using Online Resources to Learn the Art of Effective Writing

Ronald Maynard, B.A., A.A.S.

PRO 4970-02 Senior Project

Lana Rotellini, M.Ed.

April 20, 2013

Ronald Maynard

PRO 4970-02 Senior Project

Spring Quarter, 2013

Using Online Resources to Learn the Art of Effective Writing

Abstract

This senior project, entitled, “Using Online Resources to Learn the Art of Effective Writing,” was an outcome of the two years of academic growth that I experienced at Antioch University Midwest (AUM). I found personal and professional rewards in the time spent refining my writing and editing skills at AUM. My completion of this course sections were a requirement to gain a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing and Literature. My overall goals for this senior project was to gain credibility for my efforts in the completed program at AUM, and to offer others a resource that would assists their needs in becoming better writers and communicators in their professional lives.

The website I built as my Product would exist online to contribute to the ongoing writing and editing achievements of aspiring students and professionals. Using online resources have valuable tools to assists students from a distance. Having resources such as The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White does contribute to learning the rules for writers. However, web-based learning does provide additional opportunities for adults to become lifelong learners. Teaching English competency as an online resource allowed adult students who lack refined academic writing and editing skills to grow as a result. Students who use such resources avoid embarrassment and the rejection from their peers and instructors. In my Literature Review, I found studies that suggested that in 2009, 29.3% of college students took at least one online course, which was up from 21.6% in the fall of 2007. One of the largest areas of E-learning was the English online learning industry, which was an industry with continued profits projected to grow to $1.69 billion by 2014.

Some educational institutions do not center their pedagogy with a strong focus on reading and writing. Adult students who received a focused center around reading and writing have no communication setbacks when entering the workforce. Having a resource that can assess student’s writing abilities would assists in understanding the writing and editing level accomplished by students. My Product would contribute to students and professionals alike, but learning to write for me was a challenge, and can take many years to achieve. I am confident that my project and the Product developed would provide future success stories for people who look to achieve higher levels of writing and editing as a daily practice.

Table of Contents

• Introduction, Background, and Need ..................................................................................... 4

• Literature Review ....................................................................................................................... 6

• Project Goals ............................................................................................................................. 13

• Project Description .................................................................................................................. 15

• Evaluation Methods and Evaluations Results ................................................................... 18

• Self-Evaluation ......................................................................................................................... 21

• References ................................................................................................................................. 23

APPENDIXES

• Timeline .................................................................................................................. Appendix A
• Project Proposal ..................................................................................................... Appendix B
• Evaluation Instrument .......................................................................................... Appendix C
• Evaluation Instrument Results ............................................................................ Appendix D
• Product Example .................................................................................................... Appendix E

Ronald Maynard

Using Online Resources

Introduction, Background, and Need

It is very important to recognize the level of English that students are capable of reaching when writing for assignments, as a professional, or for verbal communication with others. The overall outcome of my project is to promote effective, self-sufficient editors. How can a person become a more confident editor? Using available resources online or from bookstores can offer explanations of the rules for writers, but it takes real initiative to incorporate the practice into one’s daily routine. I completed this project as a requirement of my Creative Writing degree program at Antioch University Midwest (AUM) to assist people that are serious about becoming effective writers.

Learning to write is a long-term goal that a person practices through hard work and dedication to the proper materials. “Using Online Resources to Learn the Art of Effective Writing” addresses common mistakes made by students in academic, creative, and professional levels of writing. The research in the Literature Review of this project offers information and statistics on English levels in educational institutions throughout Ohio. I address topics about failing and successful educational systems both, in class, and online, who offer their educational curriculum to adult students. Long gaps in education can hinder adult students from completing assignments in an effective manner. A number of these students dropout as a result. One challenge adult students face is acquiring proper reading and writing comprehension on a university level. My Product is a resource that assists students in the process of completing and retaining valuable comprehensive knowledge while advancing their professional lives.

I participate in marketing seminars that teach such practices as media-driven advertising, and tradesmen from many occupations take part in this educational process. Businesses that learn to manage their own advertising grow as a result. Their self-reliant efforts save their businesses the burden of high cost of such marketing tool in today’s marketplace, but their need to write effective advertising is a necessary component. Students who plan to become effective leaders in any trade need to learn the art of effective writing to reinforce their success. According to my research, Ohio’s schools do not teach adequate English comprehension to their students and the long-term effects cause students to fail in higher education.

Over the course of my two-year educational experience at AUM, learning ways to implement the rules for writing into my daily routine assisted my success. Each morning I would write down one of the rules for writers on a dry erase board. During that day, I would create sentences that reinforce the usage of that rule. I would do this repetitively until I felt comfortable with the usage of that particular rule. Instructors at AUM conducted revisions on my assignments over the course of my undergraduate degree completion. It became apparent from the beginning of this learning process that I needed to seek out better practices to understand and reinforce the outcome of my academic experience at AUM. I have repetitively witnessed students during my two years at AUM with similar struggles to achieve effective academic writing.

  Most students do not think of effective writing skills as a means to aid their professional success. The truth is that every person in a professional trade has a real need for effective communication skills. Whether the trade is a plumber, carpenter, or a business executive, the need to network as a professional is a necessity of today’s technologically driven society. To market a business effectively, a person needs to have strong communication skills. Businesses have the opportunity to grow through social media, print advertising, and the word of mouth of satisfied clients.

It is my hope to assists students with the daunting task of learning effective ways to write at a higher level in academia. Online educational institutions are a growing resource, but according to my research, adult students do struggle with technology. However, the interactivity of online resources has the capability to keep adult students engaged in the process. In my research, I found that my Product would contribute to adult students who prefer distance learning. Students who contribute to their communication skills find success in leading businesses here in Ohio. Students who ignore their common mistakes in writing fail to climb to the success they desire.

My decision to develop my Product is a result of the experiences gained at AUM. Students seek effective ways to better their experience, but some need different ways to grow results. Students who felt that learning the art of effective writing meant asking question that may create shame or embarrassment can use this resource to learn without feeling such emotions. One of my main objectives after graduation is to utilize the communication skills learned at AUM in a professional setting. I think businesses would likely appreciate my efforts to become a clear and concise writer and editor, which would allow me the confidence to lead by example. I intend to copyright and offer this Product to anyone that has a need in developing the art of effective writing. 

Literature Review

This Senior Project will focus its attentions on the importance of online resources for adult learners at a university level of education. The Senior Project Product tentatively titled, “Antioch University Midwest’s Comprehensive Writing Assessments” is an interactive website that will offer a set of scenario-based assessments that promotes the best practices for effective writing. The scenario-based assessments will also assist students for their departure from academia and send them confidently into the job market. To find success in their respective fields, students should use clear and concise writing and editing as components to effective communication. Upon the completion of the website, this comprehensive resource will exist in the Antioch University Midwest (AUM) library as an alternative option for students looking to educate themselves on such topics presented in this Product.

As a successful Creative Writing student, to create the Product, I will research the book The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. The assessments I will create on the website come from the rules and principles of writing according to Strunk and White. I will create my own scenarios from the content found in the five chapters of the book. The chapters listed in the book are:  “Elementary Rules of Usage,” “Elementary Principles of Composition,” “A Few Matters of Form,” “Words and Expressions Commonly Misused,” and “An Approach to Style,” which will offer explanations to common mistakes made by AUM students. Being a successful writer and editor is a difficult task to achieve, but with the right training, a person can grow their comprehensive skills over time. Knowing how to apply the rules for writers is a key factor to achieving academic growth, however, frequent reading is also an important attribute to practice daily.

To graduate with a bachelor’s degree, I am required to complete a Senior Project. To achieve the completion of this assignment, my project will consist of a well researched written assignment and an effective Product that will assist others in a positive way. I conducted a literature search to find current and reliable information supporting my chosen topic. After using the Library of Congress link to search for effective terms, I started my research on the AUM library page. One resource where I found creditable information on my topic was the Electronic Theses and Dissertations link available on AUM’s library page. The dissertations found supporting my topic was a good collection of resources to contribute to my Literature Review. Another resource I used to acquire data was the Electronic Journal Center, also available on AUM’s library page. I searched for sources at the Greene County Library and found a few books that supported my research for my senior project.

The age of technology continues to grow better practices for students looking for educational resources to effective learning methods of English. Most adult students at AUM own laptops and smart phones. The importance of online educational tools is an ever-growing necessity for educational institutions across the state of Ohio. A student at Bowling Green State University, Cheryl Hoy, did research surrounding an English 207 online course, which assisted the institution by offering a mastery of the rhetorical principles of planning, executing, and revising prose. Online programs such as the one designed at Bowling Green State University are an attempt to reach students at a distance or even assist in in-house learning capabilities.

Hoy focused her research on two topics: online technology and composition studies. In a dissertation titled, The Adult Learner in the Online Writing Course. In 2010, Hoy reported, “Online learning is a new social process that is beginning to act as a complete substitute for both distance learning, and the traditional face-to-face class” (p. 59). An example: Ohio English teachers of adult diverse language learners should support online resources to better offer a result to effective academic writing. Hoy offered a clear example of successful learning practices for educating students by using online resources. Available online resources are important for student development at institutions where adult learning takes place.

A large factor in the process of adult learning at universities are that older students lack the necessary English skills to write at the level required by most institutions in Ohio. If adult students are to find success in higher learning then universities that house these learners must look at what best learning practices can benefit these students. In a dissertation titled, Explaining learner satisfaction with perceived knowledge gained in web-based courses through course structure and learner autonomy, Calvin, 2005, wrote, “From this research, there are indications that many adult learners are not able to adopt to online learning environments as they lack the required learning skills. Still, the flexibility offered by Web-based distance learning gives adults the opportunity to pursue lifelong learning” (p. 1). Adult students looking to find success with higher education may have technical learning problems while participating in learning programs online. Educational institutions that offer these types of online resources are in effect providing adult learners a chance to acquire the education that they desperately need to compete to find success in the job market.      

To teach English competency as an online resource, educational institutions will trust that adult learners will successfully process the provided information. One aspect to overcoming adult learning obstacles is maneuvering the effects of embarrassment or rejection by one’s peers. In a dissertation titled Help Seeking in an Online Environment, Taherbhai reported, “It seems then that people who need help may not always seek it. Some of the psychological costs include embarrassment, fear of rejection, reluctance to disclose something personal, reluctance to be an imposition on the helper, and the need to be independent in solving one’s problems. Those who do seek help often do so indirectly through nonverbal cues, subtle and not-so-subtle hints” (2005, p. 24). For adults who have a lengthy span between high school and higher education may experience these types of setbacks in the learning process. Institutions who offer students clear and concise explanations and expectations can benefit their students by incorporating this factor in the curriculum.       

Many books are a resource available for aspiring online students through Ohio’s county libraries. To become a technology perceptive individual requires work, and these library resources can assist in educating students to maneuver the online educational process. In Bowen’s 2012 book, Teaching Naked: How moving Technology Out of Your College Classroom Will Improve Student Learning, I found his statistics on adult online learners surprisingly supportive to this study. Bowen wrote, “In 2009, 29.3% of college students were taking at least one online course, up from 21.6% in fall 2007. Foreign language learning online is an established business as a $1.3 billion dollar industry in 2009. One of the largest areas in E-learning is the English language online learning industry, predicted to become a $1.69 billion industry by 2014” (p. 1 - 2). Online educational institutions are a growing business and some adult students would prefer this method in comparison to the classroom experience. It is not that adult learners taking online courses would not want the experience of a classroom or the face-to-face participation of their peers. Adults have daily responsibilities at home, their workplace, and the convenience of online resources offer solutions to their daily lives.    

Some educational programs do not center their pedagogy with a strong focus on reading and writing. Adults who receive a focused center around reading and writing have no communication setbacks when entering the workforce. In a dissertation titled, Writing Values: Between Composition and the Disciplines, Gooch reported, “Peter Elbow explained his purpose of teaching writing, ‘I teach two kinds of thinking: First order thinking is intuitive and creative and does not strive for conscious direction or control, the second order thinking is committed to accuracy and strives for logic and control’” (2006, p. 44). Having the adequate tools to think intuitively, creatively, and having the ability to think in a way that is logical, exhibiting harnessed control over thoughts gives writers’ the edge over those who do not process in the same way.

A self-assessment is an important tool a student may use in reevaluating his or her own English skills. Students who have an understanding of what level of English competency they possess tend to display strong writing skills in their academia. This self-assessment is a reflection on one’s own work ethic, which will carry over throughout a person’s whole career. In the 2008 dissertation titled, Institutional Cunning: Writing Assessment as Social ReProduction, Perry wrote, “This, however, requires workers now who can learn, adapt quickly, think for themselves, take responsibility, make decisions, and communicate what they need and know to leaders who coach, supply, and inspire them. To create the kinds of workers needed in this business model, a certain retraining and education must happen. On one level, schools prepare students by teaching skills (reading, writing, computers)” (p. 14). Businesses want employees who can effectively find successes in everyday tasks such as communicating details to clients. Reevaluating one’s comprehensive skills is a necessity that will advance a person to new heights in their career. 

To build effective online resources, educational institutions rely on librarians who focus on skill-based and purposeful informational research methods that fit the demographic for adult students. Having online resources available in the AUM library offers students such educational tools to assist in their academic growth. In a 2010, article titled, Developing theory-based, practical information literacy training for adults, these students address web-based tools. Stern and Kaur wrote, “Librarians are the subject matter experts, so they are best equipped to provide the ‘how to training of information literacy’” (p. 71). The book, The Elements of Style offers the correct information to build an effective online resource that can assist AUM students. Students who choose to use this comprehensive resource will benefit by taking the time required to review their English competency, and then use those skills for the rest of their professional lives.

This Literature Review supports the selection of topics presented in my proposed senior project, a set of scenario-based assessments titled, “Antioch University Midwest’s Comprehensive Writing Assessment” offers students an opportunity to learn effective writing and editing skills. This Literature Review explores ideas that educational assessments provide students opportunities to advance in the workplace. Educational institutions need assessments to allow students to reassess their own skill levels from the beginning of their academic careers, and academic assessments will likely continue to grow as an economic wonder. My senior project Product is an innovative solution to assist my peers in growing as students and as professionals. Other institutions have initiated online assessments to assist distance learning and academic growth within the student body. I think that AUM is the type of educational institution that cares about the learning process and outcomes of the student population. I am confident that the information provided in this project, along with my senior project Product, will assists others in their journey to overcome any negative aspects of their comprehensive skills.

Project Goals

For my senior project Product, I created an interactive comprehensive resource at Antioch University Midwest (AUM) to educate students on better practices for writing and editing in academia. My goals were to address the rules for proper usage of grammar, misused words and expressions, the principles of composition and form, and offer an approach to finding one’s own style of writing. The final Product is an educational resource titled, “Antioch University Midwest’s Comprehensive Writing Assessments,” which I built to assist AUM students as an additional option for learning and successfully achieving academic writing. 

This Product offered to AUM students is a set of scenario-based assessments that explain the rules and the exceptions to the rules for effective writing. The scenarios developed from the content found in The Element’s of Style, Fourth Edition are a resource originally authored by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White. Students using the Product work their way through the interactive multiple-choice quiz to gain knowledge about content found in this book. I developed the Product by using the Adobe Suite: Adobe Flash, Photoshop, and Dreamweaver. I used HTML code, Action Script programming, and the training that I acquired over the past ten years as an Interactive Designer. In addition, the training I received from AUM’s Creative Writing and Literature program assisted in the development of my Product’s written scenarios.

I have successfully designed the Product’s components in Adobe Photoshop, and then imported those images into the Adobe Flash library. I used the components on a Flash stage to create interactive tweens. Those tweens were then built into a fully functional website in Adobe Dreamweaver that currently house the provided information available to AUM students. The Product offered has systematic instructions that guide students through the available comprehensive quizzes. I hoped that the resource would become a distance-learning tool available to anyone seeking new knowledge to improve his or her writing practices. I believed from the beginning of this project that students using this interactive Product would gain awareness of repetitive mistakes commonly made by students.

One of my long-term goals with my Product was to educate and encourage students to write and learn effective communication skills that offered them new opportunities in higher education as well as providing success in their professional lives. I wanted students to have an opportunity to enter master’s degree programs with refined writing and editing skills. I challenged myself to encourage students who may not realize the importance of effective writing as a tool in the real world. I have experienced students in courses like Health and Wellness, Early Childhood Education, and Management who often ignored critiques on their written assignments. I hoped to provide current and future AUM students with the type of educational value and learning outcomes that I have received in my two years at Antioch University Midwest.

Project Description

The design concept for my Product occurred to me over the two years. I spent my time learning writing comprehension at Antioch University Midwest (AUM). I developed scenarios, cited the rules for writers, and wrote conclusions to incorporate into the planned assessments based on the Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White. I conducted research to reinforce the idea that my Product could be useful to adult students. During the semesters leading up to Senior Project, it became apparent that my Product could offer solutions to problems that students commonly face when practicing the art of writing. Many of the dissertations and journals that I found offered statistics on how using the English rules for writers’ are a continued challenge for adult learners. My goals were to provide a resource that offered explanations in a non-technical language to assist adult students in the process of learning the English rules and the exceptions to those rules. I came up with the idea to allow students to improve their writing comprehension with interactive media tools from a distance.

When I considered the idea for my Senior Project class, I wanted to offer other students the opportunity to refine their writing and editing skills. I knew immediately that such a Product would benefit adult students. Because of their busy schedules, the Product would allow students to learn to write on their own time. My first thoughts were to build a set of comprehensive assessments that would easily offer solutions to the many English rules for writers. I wanted to help students navigate to a resource that would offer the solutions they desire. I found it challenging to create non-technical language that would offer refined explanations to the rules according to Strunk and White’s interpretations found in their book. I sought feedback and assistance from faculty and other students to refine the verbiage found in the assessments. I collected their feedback and incorporated the necessary changes to my Product.  

By the first day of class, I started developing a section of my Product. I created the initial designs for the Product in Adobe Photoshop then imported those images into the Adobe Flash library, and then used the components on the Flash stage to create interactive tweens. I have defined tweens as an interactive function visible to users with a Flash Player or users may view the content with any Internet browser. I used Action Script programming to create the interactivity of the Product, and then export the Flash files into Adobe Dreamweaver to create a fully functional navigational website. I revised this Product repeatedly to assure user friendliness for its future participants.

After a thorough evaluation, I conducted Evaluation Instruments with faculty and students at AUM. I knew that my Product could exist as an adequate resource available for adult learners. I had formulated enough content in the assessment Elementary Rules of Usage to offer underdeveloped writers new solutions to the repetitive mistakes made when performing at a university level of academia. I realized that my overall plan was to create an outlet for individuals who have experienced an inability to write in an effective manner. Although I did research for my Literature Review, I knew that many students lacked the ability to write on this level. The information I needed to develop my Product already existed in the resource book mentioned in this report. The development of this Product was a project that took me longer then the fifteen weeks allowed to complete my Senior Project course.

I compiled the resources for my Literature Review to complete the written assignment. The information compiled was a reliable collection of dissertations and academic journals found on the library resource page available on AUM’s website. The information written in my Literature Review added statistics and concrete ideas that interactive media tools do assists adult students with their academic writing. I carefully reviewed the material found to assure that the contents of this section were a viable collection of opinionated facts. I only used one book resource to collect data for this project. My project experienced a continued evolution each week to gain the growth necessary to offer adult students a refined resource as the result.

The Timeline assisted my ability to complete the written assignments, while I continued the development of the Product. I shifted the information on my Timeline according to the changes made each week. I wrote the different sections of the written assignments as assigned by my instructor, and compiled them into a folder. As my instructor assigned each section in the dissertation process, I wrote the required papers, and then at the end of the process, I compiled all the sections into one document. This learning process assisted with each of the sections of my Senior Project.

To evaluate my Product, I set up appointments with both faculty and students at AUM. I received different feedback from each of the participants. I found similar comments about the assessment’s ability to assists student’s growth as writers. One reoccurring comment was about the explanation section found under each scenario. Most evaluators suggested strengthening the explanations to allow users more examples of correct and incorrect answers, which was my intention once I had more time. I conducted the Evaluation Instruments with AUM faculty and students, and then incorporated the collected data into a well-written section of my dissertation.

Overall, this project confirmed that I can achieve the goals I set for myself in life, but now the need to implement these acquired skills in a real world setting has become apparent to my reality. This project ran smoothly and I have met my own expectation with the requirements of this course. In the future, I can imagine that this process would be assistive to the methods conducted in my own professional career. My time spent on this project has taught me to strive for greatness and work diligently to achieve my goals. I have acquired the professional mind-set to continue the growth I desire as a writer.

Evaluation Methods and Results

In order to gain the feedback needed to further develop my comprehensive writing assessment website, I created an Evaluation Instrument consisting of open-ended questions. I developed questions that would concentrate on the content, navigation, and the target audience that this Product would assist once published. As my first goal, I wanted to obtain an overall reaction to the comprehension of the assessments. Secondly, I wanted the user’s perspective on whether the navigation of the site was easy to follow. Thirdly, I needed the opinion of the user to whether the resource fit the criteria for students learning the art of effective writing. I chose a diverse group of evaluators to assess this Product.

Initially, I spoke to faculty members and students at Antioch University Midwest (AUM) to see if there was an interest in assisting my efforts to improve this Product as a solution to effective writing and communications skills. I set up appointments with each individual instructor. I needed their expert honest opinions on this Product. Their professions ranged from education specialist, and published writers, as well as an individual with an administrative background in higher education. In the interviews conducted, I used oral prompts along with the open-ended questions to engage certain responses from the evaluators involved in the process. The feedback I received from each evaluator was a specialized contribution of their broad perspective on learning the art of effective writing.

During the period of March 4 through the continued dates up to March 20, I met with each individual instructor to allow him or her access to my design files. I provided an Evaluation Instrument, for them to fill out after they interacted with the website and the assessments. When asked a question about the Product, I would answer their inquiry, and then respond with further questions related to their delivered responses. I asked questions related to each instructor’s specialties to evoke situations to improve the Product. Each instructor or evaluator offered past experiences where they knew students or fellow educators that needed to adopt such practices in the development of their writing skills, but failed to do so.

One evaluator Diane Nelson, Ph.D., is an instructor and program chair in the Early Childhood Education program at AUM. Diane recalled an experience regarding a public school teacher who contacted her to enlist her help with some edits on an Individualized Education Program IEP document that the educator intended to send out to parents. When Nelson replied to the teacher’s inquiry about conducting such edits, the teacher had already sent out the report with many grammatical and punctuation errors. Nelson said that she explained to the teacher how such practices could lose her creditability with her student’s parents. This is a major reason why I sought the assistance of the experienced educators at AUM.

The overall reactions to my Product were positive and validated that I had created a resource that would assists students in learning the art of effective writing. Several evaluators gave the Product an excellent as a rating. Many evaluators commented that this comprehensive self-assessment resource was a nontraditional form of educating students, which was my intention based on the research found in my Literature Review. Most evaluators said that the Product is something greatly needed to assists students while completing their educational path to higher learning.

While the feedback I received was a positive reinforcement that I had created a valuable resource for enacting better student outcomes in academia, there were also some helpful suggestions to improve the Product. Mixed opinions on the amount of examples given in the assessments were a common response from the evaluators who contributed their time to this project. Some evaluators felt that more scenarios would reinforce student learning, but others who participated felt that the one scenario given had the ability to offer a sound explanation to the usage of the rules and the exceptions to the rules for effective writing. In some scenarios given in the assessment, such as rules that explain comma usage, it would benefit the Product to offer more examples. In other scenarios, such as the rules that illustrate colon usage, having one example is an adequate amount to reinforce comprehension.       

The students who participated in the Evaluation Instrument gave helpful advice from the student’s point of view, which is key to the success of this Product. The students or evaluators who participated gave advice on effective ways that offered the scenario-based assessments as both beneficial to student learning, but felt confused at times with the scenarios offered in the assessment. The opinions given by my peers are the greatest feedback collected in this process. The website and the content provided in the assessments need to reach students on different levels, but offer positive solutions as a means to academic growth with written and verbal communication. It is necessary that this Product offer solution that prepare students for a real world setting after graduation from AUM or for students participating from a distance learning setting.

Self Evaluation

I am satisfied with the outcome of my Product, and proud of the work completed in the process learned in my Senior Project course. My instructor was an inspirational supporter of the efforts I made to complete each week’s assignment. I appreciate the faculty members and the students who participated in my Evaluation Instrument, and their feedback was a great contribution to grow a more professional set of assessments that are currently housed on my website. I have considered the suggested changes as valuable assets to offer students a viable resource to learn the art of effective writing. This experience has shown me that I can achieve anything by using a strong work ethic and following the guidelines of the dissertation process. My interactive writing assessments are a resource that can improve people’s lives and offer the solutions students are looking for in academia.

References

Bowen, J. (2012). Teaching naked: How moving technology out of your college classroom will     improve student learning. (Jossey-Bass). 1-124

Calvin, J. (2005). Explaining learner satisfaction with perceived knowledge gained in web-based courses through course structure and learner autonomy. (Doctoral dissertation). Available from Antioch Dissertation and Thesis database. (ID:osu1117203568)

Gooch, J. J. (2006). Writing values: Between composition and the disciplines. (Master’s dissertation). Available from Antioch Dissertation and Thesis database. (ID:akron1153517465)

Hoy, C. A. (2010). The adult learner in the online writing course. (Doctoral dissertation). Available from Antioch Dissertation and Thesis database.

(ID:bgsu1268940771)

Perry, J. W. (2008). Institutional cunning: Writing assessment as social reproduction. (Doctoral dissertation). Available from Antioch Dissertation and Thesis database. (ID:kent1227738168)

Stern C, Kaur T. (2010). Developing theory-based, practical information literacy training for adults. (International Information and Library Review). 42(2), 69-74.

Taherbhai, F. (2005). Help seeking in an online environment. (Doctoral dissertation). (Doctoral dissertation) Available from Antioch Dissertation and Thesis database. (ID:10572317/v42i0002/69_dtpiltfa)