OWI Principles and Effective Practices
Overarching Principle
OWI Principle 1: Online writing instruction should be universally inclusive and accessible.
Instructional Principles
OWI Principle 2: An online writing course should focus on writing and not on technology orientation or teaching students how to use learning and other technologies.
OWI Principle 3: Appropriate composition teaching/learning strategies should be developed for the unique features of the online instructional environment.
OWI Principle 4: Appropriate onsite composition theories, pedagogies, and strategies should be migrated and adapted to the online instructional environment.
OWI Principle 5: Online writing teachers should retain reasonable control over their own content and/or techniques for conveying, teaching, and assessing their students’ writing in their OWCs.
OWI Principle 6: Alternative, self-paced, or experimental OWI models should be subject to the same principles of pedagogical soundness, teacher/designer preparation, and oversight detailed in this document.
Faculty Principles
OWI Principle 7: Writing Program Administrators (WPAs) for OWI programs and their online writing teachers should receive appropriate OWI-focused training, professional development, and assessment for evaluation and promotion purposes.
OWI Principle 8: Online writing teachers should receive fair and equitable compensation for their work.
OWI Principle 9: OWCs should be capped responsibly at 20 students per course with 15 being a preferable number.
Institutional Principles
OWI Principle 10: Students should be prepared by the institution and their teachers for the unique technological and pedagogical components of OWI.
OWI Principle 11: Online writing teachers and their institutions should develop personalized and interpersonal online communities to foster student success.
OWI Principle 12: Institutions should foster teacher satisfaction in online writing courses as rigorously as they do for student and programmatic success.
OWI Principle 13: OWI students should be provided support components through online/digital media as a primary resource; they should have access to onsite support components as a secondary set of resources.
OWI Principle 14: Online writing lab administrators and tutors should undergo selection, training, and ongoing professional development activities that match the environment in which they will work.
Research and Exploration
OWI Principle 15: OWI/OWL administrators and teachers/tutors should be committed to ongoing research into their programs and courses as well as the very principles in this document.
OWI Principle 1: Online writing instruction should be universally inclusive and accessible.
Instructional Principles
OWI Principle 2: An online writing course should focus on writing and not on technology orientation or teaching students how to use learning and other technologies.
OWI Principle 3: Appropriate composition teaching/learning strategies should be developed for the unique features of the online instructional environment.
OWI Principle 4: Appropriate onsite composition theories, pedagogies, and strategies should be migrated and adapted to the online instructional environment.
OWI Principle 5: Online writing teachers should retain reasonable control over their own content and/or techniques for conveying, teaching, and assessing their students’ writing in their OWCs.
OWI Principle 6: Alternative, self-paced, or experimental OWI models should be subject to the same principles of pedagogical soundness, teacher/designer preparation, and oversight detailed in this document.
Faculty Principles
OWI Principle 7: Writing Program Administrators (WPAs) for OWI programs and their online writing teachers should receive appropriate OWI-focused training, professional development, and assessment for evaluation and promotion purposes.
OWI Principle 8: Online writing teachers should receive fair and equitable compensation for their work.
OWI Principle 9: OWCs should be capped responsibly at 20 students per course with 15 being a preferable number.
Institutional Principles
OWI Principle 10: Students should be prepared by the institution and their teachers for the unique technological and pedagogical components of OWI.
OWI Principle 11: Online writing teachers and their institutions should develop personalized and interpersonal online communities to foster student success.
OWI Principle 12: Institutions should foster teacher satisfaction in online writing courses as rigorously as they do for student and programmatic success.
OWI Principle 13: OWI students should be provided support components through online/digital media as a primary resource; they should have access to onsite support components as a secondary set of resources.
OWI Principle 14: Online writing lab administrators and tutors should undergo selection, training, and ongoing professional development activities that match the environment in which they will work.
Research and Exploration
OWI Principle 15: OWI/OWL administrators and teachers/tutors should be committed to ongoing research into their programs and courses as well as the very principles in this document.
