The Academic Writing and TEL group: developing a network of educators to explore the use of digital technologies to support academic writing

For most students in Higher Education, writing in an appropriate academic style is essential for academic success and plays an important role in developing academic identity within a particular discipline/profession. Yet it... [ view full abstract ]

For most students in Higher Education, writing in an appropriate academic style is essential for academic success and plays an important role in developing academic identity within a particular discipline/profession. Yet it is widely recognised that academic writing remains challenging for many students, in part because it is often an implicit part of the curriculum. In response, institutions have offered generic academic writing support. However, it is increasingly recognised that academic writing is shaped by disciplinary expectations and context highlighting the need for academic writing to also be addressed within disciplinary curricula.

We are a group of academic and learning support staff from two Institutes of Technology who have come together to explore the potential of digital technologies to support student academic writing as part of the What Works and Why project, funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching under the 2015 Teaching Enhancement Fund. The aims of the group are:
(i) To draw on evidence to identify effective ways to support academic writing both in terms of specific disciplinary demands and generic issues,
(ii) To produce evidence based digital resources,
(iii) To identify ways to include student voices and perspectives, particularly using technologies,
(iv) To develop a peer support network and promote dialogue around academic writing education.

In this presentation, we discuss the development and initial trialling of the first phase of resources. One institute has prioritised the production of an online bank of discipline-specific exemplars. These include screencasts where the students discuss the process of writing the piece and lecturers explain key features of the text. The other institute has focused on developing resources that address generic issues, including screencasts that explain common problems, for example in referencing and paragraph structure.