DEVELOPMENT, EXECUTION AND EVALUATION OF A DIGITAL COURSE IN ACADEMIC WRITING SKILLS

Author(s):  
Henk Van Der Molen ◽  
Henk Schmidt ◽  
Eveline Osseweijer ◽  
Estella Van Der Wal ◽  
Marike Polak ◽  
...  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-402
Author(s):  
Åsa Mickwitz ◽  
Marja Suojala

Abstract High self-efficacy beliefs and effective self-regulatory strategies are increasingly important in academic settings, and especially in developing academic writing skills. This article deals with how students develop academic writing skills in two different pedagogical settings (as autonomous learners and in a traditional learning environment), and how this is associated with the students’ self-regulatory strategies and self-efficacy beliefs. In the study, self-regulatory skills referred to the ability to take charge of, manage and organize the learning process, while self-efficacy beliefs were defined as the strength of students’ confidence to accomplish an extensive task and sense of succeeding. The method was quantitative, including some qualitative elements, and data was elicited through a survey answered by 150 students, after they had attended courses in academic writing. The survey consisted of 1 open-ended question and 16 multiple-choice questions (a five-point Likert scale). The data was analyzed using SPSS. The results show that self-regulatory skills and self-efficacy beliefs have a greater impact on learning academic writing skills in traditional learning settings than in learning settings where the students are supposed to work more independently, and where teacher support is not available to the same extent.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ammar Mohammed Ahmed Mudawy

The study aims at suggesting effective methods and techniques that could improve English as a foreign language EFL students’ performance in writing skills. The researcher uses the descriptive, analytical method. Four tools were adopted pretest, post-test, supporting program, and a questionnaire for teachers for collecting data. Twenty-five students in Holy Quran University, Sudan, were chosen purposively, and thirty EFL teachers at a university level were randomly selected as a sample for the study. Ninty percent of the teachers agree on the suggested program and techniques. The findings of the study indicate that: using varied techniques and activities in pre-writing stage promotes students’ performances in writing, integration of reading and writing skills in the classroom improves students’ writing skills, as well as encouraging extensive reading outside the classroom promotes students’ performance in writing skills. Accordingly, the researcher recommends that: teachers should focus on the prewriting stage through different activities as well as reading and writing should be used in an integrated way in-class writing to guide the writing process.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa B. Robinson ◽  
Mary Bishop

Objective: Contemporary advanced professional nursing requires the ability to communicate effectively in written and oral forms. Many registered nurses enter graduate nursing school with experience writing in medical records but with no experience writing scholarly papers or writing for publication. This article describes the development, implementation and evaluation of a writing course developed in an online graduate nursing program in the southeastern United States. The goal of this research was to determine if graduate nursing students’ writing self-efficacy increased after the completion of a newly developed one-credit online writing course.Methods: Fifty-three first-semester graduate nursing students participated in a 16-week online asynchronous writing course developed at a school of nursing. The course instructors designed writing experiences with the goal of increasing writing competency. The faculty defined writing competence as achieving mastery of the necessary writing skills to produce an organized, logical, understandable message containing the effective use of language, grammar, and punctuation.Results: The students’ writing self-efficacy increased significantly from pretest and posttest. The results revealed a significant increase in self efficacy scores with the second administration of the tool. The mean of the 20-question Likert scale pretest was 70.59. Results obtained after the conclusion of the course resulted in a mean of 80.12. The finding of a mean increase of 9.529 was found to be statistically significant.Conclusions: The information from this research can be used to develop effective strategies to support online graduate students with their writing skills. This experience highlights the fact that we cannot leave the development of academic writing to chance. Achieving academic writing success requires structured instruction, practice and frequent feedback from faculty who have the passion for and expertise in scholarly writing.


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