Page 88 - Composition in Convergence The Impact of the New Media on Writing Assessment
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TRANSFORMING TEXTS 55
computing changes, so too must assessment. This point will be taken
up in greater detail in chapters 4 and 5.
MESHING LEARNING OUTCOMES WITH TRANSFORMED
ASSESSMENT PRACTICES
At many colleges and universities, the talk about instruction now
centers on "learning outcomes"; that is, what do professors or de-
partments expect their students to know upon finishing a class or a
course of study? Starting with this point as the base for a revised
approach to writing assessment for online assignments, here are
four broadly conceived criteria that reflect the dominant composi-
tion and rhetorical practices found in most writing programs and
that adapt to electronic communication but fit with the proposed
assessment model:
• Students demonstrate a critical analysis of how networked
writing is constructed and is received by audiences in various
historical, social, and cultural contexts.
• Students exhibit that online writing is a constructive process
that depends upon a writer making certain choices and selec-
tions or changing specific elements of the text or image to con-
trol the message sent to the reader.
• Students rely on multiple forms or genres in electronic communi-
cation to produce a range of teacher-assigned and self-selected
projects.
• Students develop the rhetorical and technological techniques
and skills necessary to write and communicate in a networked
environment.
These four criteria can be modified to fit most writing programs'
needs, as the best writing assessment tends to be localized to the de-
mands of each institution. For those who may be unclear as to how
to establish individualized criteria for their programs, I offer a heu-
ristic based on my undergraduate and graduate courses.
First, students demonstrate a critical analysis of how networked
writing is constructed and is received by audiences in various histor-
ical, social, and cultural contexts. The following individual criteria
are used to measure this goal (assignments in this section are com-
pleted either online or in papertext form):
