Academic literacies and e-learning: A critical approach to writing in the online university

This paper adopts an academic literacies perspective to argue for a critical approach to the writing practices of the online university classroom. It describes an on-going action research project in an online Masters in Online and Distance Education (MAODE) programme at the UK Open University, which aims to create an online writing resource to support distance learners in developing a critical awareness of the writing practices on the programme. The paper presents the results of an evaluation study of this resource during the 2005 presentation of the MAODE, and discusses the evidence from this study that such a resource can provide a space for students to critique the dominant literacies of the online university. r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Writing in the online university Despite the recent emergence of new visual, hypertextual, and other technology-enabled communication practices (Lankshear & Knobel, 2003; Snyder, 2002) the production of written texts remains key to the construction of knowledge in the university, both in the way it is transmitted, and the way its social relations are maintained. Writing is integral to students’ induction into academic cultures and discourse communities, and is the principal way they demonstrate the knowledge and skills they have acquired during their studies, and their fitness for accreditation. In many subject areas the development of a student’s writing ability has come to be seen as practically synonymous with their acquisition of knowledge. see front matter r 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. .ijer.2006.07.005 1908 654173. dress: [email protected].