Writing Support Services Survey: Summary of Results

Table of Contents

Summary

Context/Reporting Structure
Face-to-Face Writing Support Services
Online Writing Support Services

Results

Administrative Location of Writing Support Services
Physical Location of Writing Support Services
Expectations of Location or Administrative Change for Writing Support in Next 2 Years
Institutions Currently Offering Online Writing Support
Online Writing Support Services: Synchronous/Asynchronous + Tutors
Online Writing Support Services: Training
Online Writing Support Services: Hours of Service + Turnaround Time
Face-to-Face Writing Support: Hours of Service
Face-to-Face Writing Support: Who Works with Students
Length of Face-to-Face or Online Tutoring Session
Writing Support Services that Institutions Would Like to Offer

Summary: Introduction

The WriteAway Administrative Centre conducted a survey of 27 BC post-secondary institutions in February 2012 to determine current writing support being offered to students. Responses were received from 21 institutions, a 78% response rate. The survey responses indicated a rich diversity of methods and structures being applied to writing support in the province. What follows are the highlights of the survey results. Full results are available as a PDF file.

Results were analysed to discover trends by type of institution, using the following model*:

• Urban Colleges - Camosun College (CC), Douglas College (DC), Justice Institute of BC (JIBC), Langara College (LC), Okanagan College (OC), Vancouver Community College (VCC)
• Rural Colleges - College of New Caledonia (CNC), College of the Rockies (COTR), North Island College (NIC), Northern Lights College (NLC)
• Regional Universities and Institutes with 4-Year Programs – British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU), University of the Fraser Valley (UFV)
• Small Universities - Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECUAD), Royal Roads University (RRU), Trinity Western University (TWU), University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC)
• Large Universities - Simon Fraser University (SFU), University of British Columbia (UBC), University of Victoria (UVic)

In some cases more than one response was received from a single institution, i.e. UBC and UBC-Okanagan both submitted responses.  As the purpose of the survey is to gather information about the range of writing support services offered at BC post-secondary institutions, the responses from different campuses were counted separately.

Context/Reporting Structure

Writing support services are housed physically and administratively in different departments of the institutions that responded, with some having more than one location.

• There is a trend towards Learning Commons model: More than half the sites, all large universities or urban colleges, house writing support within the library or Learning Commons. Of the 6 sites anticipating that writing support services will change location or reporting structure in the near future, 3 sites (DC, LC, UFV) report that writing support will be/may be moving to a Learning Commons or library location/reporting structure.
• Almost half of the respondents report that at least some writing support services are located administratively within Student Services.
• Some colleges report that writing support is located administratively within the English Department, however no universities report having this structure.

Supervision of the service is structured differently across institutions; faculty members and coordinators are mentioned frequently as supervisors, with some mentions of reporting to a head or director.

Face-to-Face Writing Support Services

A large number of institutions report that they offer face-to-face writing support from Monday to Friday, with some offering evening hours (until at least 7 p.m.). Six institutions report that their services are offered only in the fall/winter terms, and another six report offering year-round service.

A range of providers assist students with face-to-face tutoring, with undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty members the most common providers.

• Faculty are most popular with rural colleges (all rural college respondents report using faculty), and are not used at all in the large universities that responded.
• Undergraduate and graduate students are fairly common providers among small and large universities, which is understandable given the likelihood that these offer graduate programs.

Length of writing support sessions (online and face-to-face) tends most often to be between 30-60 minutes, with some colleges and one small university offering sessions that are longer than 60 minutes.

In terms of policies on what can be submitted for feedback, parameters range from restrictions on helping with personal writing (e.g. no resume assistance), to no restriction on type of work whatsoever. In some cases the only restriction is the length of time allowed for the session.

Online Writing Support Services

Eight respondents (UFV, VCC, COTR, ECUAD, DC, RRU, UNBC, UBC-O) indicate that their institutions offer online writing support services. What we learned from these responses is that the nature of online writing support can vary significantly from institution to institution.

• While writing support is often asynchronous (e.g. via email), half of the respondents (all either small or large universities) indicate they either offer synchronous support (e.g. via Skype) or a mix of both types.
• Peer tutors, coordinators, professional tutors, faculty members, or staff members are listed as online tutors.
• Length and type of training for online tutors varies, from one hour accompanied by ongoing monitoring and feedback, to several weeks including pre-service orientation, training meetings, assignments, and certification.
• While respondents commented on different aspects of when online writing support is offered, we saw ranges from 9 hours a week to 50-75 hours a week. In addition to weekday coverage, a few respondents indicate that support extended to weekends. It is also not uncommon for institutions to offer online support for students that extends into the evening hours.
• For those that offer asynchronous online writing support, turnaround time for assistance ranges from 24 hours to 3 business days.

*This model is based on BC ELN Governance Categories

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Results

CONTEXT/REPORTING STRUCTURE

Administrative Location of Writing Support Services (23 responses)

Physical Location of Writing Support Services (22 responses)

Expectations of Location or Administrative Change for Writing Support in Next 2 Years (14 responses)

• No - 43% (6/14) (VCC, CC-Lansdowne, BCIT, TWU, RRU, OC-Salmon Arm)
• Yes - 43% (6/14)
• Location Change: (UFV, ECUAD, DC, LC)
• Administrative Change: (JIBC, UFV, ECUAD, SFU)
• Maybe - 14% (2/14) (COTR, UNBC)

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TYPES OF SERVICE & STAFFING

Currently Offering Online Writing Support (22 responses)

• 36% Yes (8/22) (UFV, VCC, COTR, ECUAD, DC, RRU, UNBC, UBC-O)
• 64% No (14/22) (NLC, CC-Lansdowne, KPU, JIBC, BCIT, UBC, TWU, OC-Salmon Arm, CNC, CC, SFU, LC, UVIC, OC-Penticton)

Online Writing Support Services - Synchronous/Asynchronous + Tutors

Institution	12. Please specify how you offer online writing support (i.e. synchronous chat, Adobe Connect, email, online writing lab, etc.)	13. Who provides the online tutoring?
College of the Rockies	Online writing lab: students submit work through Moodle and/or email and the lab tutor provides suggestions either through Moodle or via the Word document that was emailed to her.	A writing lab tutor, with a background in English and/or ESL, hired specifically for this position.
Douglas College	email (asynchronous) tutoring, and Self Help materials online	Peer Tutors
Emily Carr University of Art + Design	Skype and only to Low Resident Graduate students	Coordinator
Royal Roads University	Online writing lab, email, Blackboard Collaborate, Skype	Writing Centre Coordinator
University of British Columbia - Okanagan	Online - WC online system and Skype once discussed between tutor and student	One of the 25 tutors
University of the Fraser Valley	Through the Writing Centre scheduling software, WCOnline.	The 5 faculty members who staff the Writing Centre.
University of Northern British Columbia	We use an AskOnline tutoring shell for asynchronous tutoring. Students upload their documents, and tutors review the documents and respond to the students within 48 hours.	Both the writing tutors and the Writing & Study Skills Advisor.
Vancouver Community College	email	the same professional tutors who do the face to face tutoring

Online Writing Support Services - Training

Institution	14. Who provides the training to online tutors?	15. Please describe the training that online tutors receive (i.e. duration, focus, pre-service versus in-service).
College of the Rockies	The Learning Support Coordinator	* Training in Moodle: approximately one hour *Training in the expectations for student use of the service: 30 minutes *Training in any aspect of writing on an as needed basis: varies
Douglas College	Learning Centre Faculty	Two weeks of pre-service orientation to online writing tutoring, followed by weekly 2.5 hours of a combination of training meetings, Blackboard discussion, and completion of assignments; tutors earn three levels of CRLA tutor training certification (one level per term)
Emily Carr University of Art + Design	(No answer)	(No answer)
Royal Roads University	Not yet applicable	Not yet applicable
University of British Columbia - Okanagan	The Language and Writing Centre Manager	Duration - 1 week Focus - Policies Pre service - 1 week In-service - on a continual basis
University of the Fraser Valley	“Training' arises through self-motivated professional development opportunities, which include conference attendance, knowledge of current theory and best practices in the field of Writing Studies, publishing research in this area, editing a scholarly journal in the field, and through collaboration amongst colleagues.	Pre-service 'training' includes graduate studies in writing, rhetoric, composition, and critical theory. In-service 'training' arises from the professional development opportunities described above.
University of Northern British Columbia	The Writing & Study Skills Advisor	The tutors receive 1 hour of pre-service training for online tutoring. The tutors' work is monitored by the Writing & Study Skills Advisor, and feedback is provided on an ongoing basis.
Vancouver Community College	Part of the job description, new hires must demonstrate some experience w online learning. when we introduced the service, the learning centre coordinator was responsible for training the tutors, planning professional development activities	online tutoring is part of all the tutors' job descriptions, so it's included in new hire training but tutors are hired already having some familiarity w online learning. Formal training is usually the first week in the job, probation is first three months.

Online Writing Support Services - Hours of Service + Turnaround Time

Institution	16. What hours/days/times of the year do you offer online writing support?	17. If you provide asynchronous online tutoring, what parameters are used to structure turnaround time on providing feedback?
College of the Rockies	Up to nine hours per week. The tutor accesses Moodle at times that are convenient for her. This service is only offered during the Fall and Winter semesters, so from September through April. The service is not offered during exam weeks.	24 hours during the week; 48-72 hours over the weekend
Douglas College	Students can send in requests for tutoring 24/7, but tutors actually do tutoring from Saturday to Thursday (Friday there is no tutoring), and hours cover a range from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Hours of online tutoring provided per week range from 50 – 75 hours depending on the term.	48 hours, which is an administrative boundary for allowing the Services Coordinator to have two days off each week? Most requests are easily responded to within a 24 hour turn around time.
Emily Carr University of Art + Design	(No answer)	Depends on the situation.
Royal Roads University	Currently, the Writing Centre's hours are Monday-Friday, 10-5, closed weekends and stat. holidays.	Turnaround time is negotiated with students. Usually, emails are answered same-day/24 hours, though a response is promised within 3 business days. Turnaround for feedback on writing may take longer, depending on other time demands.
University of British Columbia - Okanagan	A few hours a day. The tutor has made herself available until 6pm. if students need to meet at a different time, she can work in the evenings.	(No answer)
University of the Fraser Valley	We offer online writing support Monday through Friday, generally from 9am-7pm.	We do not currently offer asynchronous writing support.
University of Northern British Columbia	We offer online tutoring with a 48-hour response guarantee during the fall and winter semesters. During the May semester (April-August), online tutoring is available on weekdays.	The Writing & Study Skills Advisor checks the online system at 8:30am and 4:00pm and assigns the tickets to tutors based on tutor availability. To reduce tutor wage costs the Writing & Study Skills Advisor answers some of the tickets. The online system is monitored on weekends by a tutor with an administrative account.
Vancouver Community College	year round, 9 - 7 weekdays	one working day

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Face-to-Face Writing Support: Hours of Service (22 responses)

Snapshot of responses: Please note that because respondents commented on different aspects of their face-to-face writing support, this snapshot only points to what was reported.

Hours/Days/Times of the Year	Institutions
Monday-Friday	BCIT, CNC, DC, ECUAD, KPU, LC, OC-Salmon Arm, RRU, SFU, TWU, UBC, UBC-O, UFV, UVIC, VCC
Weekend days	BCIT, KPU, UVIC (Fall/Winter terms)
Fewer than 5 weekdays	CC-Lansdowne, COTR, JIBC, NLC
Certain number of hours a week	17.5/week (OC-Penticton), 25/week (UNBC)
Fall/Winter terms only	COTR, LC, OC-Penticton, OC-Salmon Arm, TWU, UNBC
Year-round	CC, CC-Lansdowne, RRU, VCC, SFU, UFV (with breaks)

Face-to-Face Writing Support: Who works with Students (22 responses)

		Faculty	Volunteer	Coordinator	Undergrad. tutor	Grad. tutor	Prof. tutor	Other
Totals across all institutions:		9	4	3	10	7	2	6
Urban Colleges	CC							×
	CC-Lansdowne							×
	DC				×
	JIBC	×
	LC	×	×		×
	OC-Penticton			×
	OC-Salmon Arm				×		×
	VCC						×
Rural Colleges	CNC	×
	COTR	×				×
	NLC	×
Regional Uni. & Inst.	BCIT				×
	KPU	×	×		×
	UFV	×
Small Universities	ECUAD	×						×
	RRU			×
	TWU	×			×	×
	UNBC				×	×		×
Large Universities	SFU				×	×		×
	UBC		×		×	×
	UBC-O		×		×	×
	UVIC			×		×		×

Length of Face-to-Face or Online Tutoring Session (22 responses)

For more information about WriteAway please contact the WriteAway Administrative Centre
or the individuals listed on the eTutoring BC Concept Committee page.

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