With class sizes increasing, it is becoming increasingly difficult to support research and writing activities. The extra workload associated with grading, checking assignments, and providing support outside of the classroom can become overwhelming. Through my experience in the Course Design Institute, I have learned about several tools that will be useful for increasing research and writing activities while maintaining a manageable workload. I have incorporated the use of online tools to support writing activities in a large undergraduate course, including Blackboard, Google Docs, and Wimba Classroom. In this session I will describe what worked and what didn’t work, and I will provide a brief demonstration of the techniques that have been most useful.

1. Providing Online Support for Student Writing …a case study

14. Results: Online Support for Writing Papers Did Google Docs work? Did peer assessment work? Was there a decrease in overall workload? Was there a decrease in grading workload?

15. Average Ratings from the SALG 4.04 4.13 3.42 Avg rating of Professor Feedback Avg rating of Individual papers Avg rating of group papers