Framing Writing Support Online for an International Student Population

The provision of stand-alone, web-based materials is one way of making language and academic skills support for first-year students accessible, flexible, and more or less permanently available. “Writing in Subject Areas” is a web-based resource developed at Monash University in Australia to facilitate students’ transition to the kinds of thinking and writing valued in higher education. The research and pedagogy underpinning the site is based on the significance for first-year students of understanding: (1) textual structures; (2) discursive processes; and (3) institutional practices in the academy. Using a common template, the site provides materials for ten subjects in four faculties. The current paper discusses the student evaluation of the resource, elicited via questionnaire from almost 1,000 respondents over two years. In 2005, 29% of students at the University were international and so the learning needs of this group are of particular interest. The paper compares the international to the local student response on a series of key issues. The results suggest significant differences between the two student cohorts. While the resource’s usefulness was commended by both groups, the international student cohort was more likely to use all elements and to be more motivated, even while finding it more difficult than local students. The difficulty was found to be more pronounced for a subgroup of offshore students. The study concludes by reinforcing the benefit of theoretically grounded and specially targeted assistance. Further, it underscores the need for ethnographically inspired investigations by staff providing online teaching and academic support for diverse cultural groups.