introduction to my comp paper

Online Composition Courses: Consideration of Space

With an ever increasing number of students enrolling in universities and community colleges, freshmen composition classes have been left with the task of accommodating this increase. Many universities have turned to online and hybrid freshmen composition courses to accommodate the large number of students without an increase in physical classroom space. The increase in these online courses allows for the teaching of a larger number of students without the need for additional classrooms, so in many ways, cost effectiveness is a key concern for universities implementing these courses. Hybrid courses offer similar benefits, since they only require limited classroom space for the limited time they meet face to face. This turn to online courses affects the delivery, pedagogy, as well as the place of the classroom. The following is a review of current literature surrounding the teaching of freshmen composition in hybrid and online environments. By understanding the current state of scholarship we can begin to see the place of online and hybrid courses within English departments, and the places and spaces of the actual classrooms when they are online.

Space and Place

The most significant difference in online and hybrid composition courses is the introduction of the computer for a large portion of the delivery of the course. To situate the current scholarship about online and hybrid composition courses it is helpful to consider the differences in space and place for both the teacher and students. Drawing on Christopher Keller and Christian Weisser’s explanation, “place is often seen as a modification of space; space is devoid of meaning, while place is endowed with meaning by humans, space seems open-ended and undelimited, while place is bounded and structured” (p. 4). It is places that have meaning, based on the use when occupied by people, and spaces that are created by places in use. Dobrin (2007) further expands Yi-Fu Tuan’s ideas of space and place finding that “places are spaces to which meaning and organization have been attached” (p. 15). Places and spaces are always connected, but places have order imposed on them, giving them identity and understanding, comfort. “Place is the temporal instance of observation of a site of ideological struggle and is written by whomever is winning the struggle at that moment” (p. 18). According to Dobrin, place is the site of the ideological struggle as determined by the winner of the struggle, while space is freedom, outside of struggle. Since places are infused with ideological ideas and identity, they are always already structured by both teachers and students and course material. When composition courses are moved from face-to-face interaction, their places are moved with them to the online environment. Traditional classroom spaces have a preconceived place, especially freshmen composition courses. Students come to class expecting to write, learn about writing and grammar. They also expect to interact with the teacher face to face, and with their peers. In online course spaces, the interaction is always mediated, changing the tools available in the space, and how meaning in endowed in the place. This is an important way to think about online courses, and will be revisited throughout the paper.