Part Three
In the final section, part 3 extends the previous conversations about online writing instruction by delving into MOOCs (massive online open courses) and how they may impact online writing instruction in the future. For an introduction to MOOCs, please watch the video below.
The first chapter, Kristine L. Blair's “MOOC Mania?: Bridging the Gap between the Rhetoric and Reality of Online Learning,” analyzes the rhetorics of online learning to see how they influence online learning’s development. Blair also explore the concerns and praises for MOOCs to understand new research and practices that may solidify their space in academia soon. And in the following chapter—“Writing at Scale: Composition MOOCs and Digital Writing Communities” by Chris Friend, Sean Michael Morris, and Jesse Stommel—the authors extend the possibilities of MOOCs through arguing that digital writing needs to be the focus of online courses. They assert that the current issue with MOOCs is that online classes tend to use print traditions rather than adapt to the new medium, and online composition instructors need to consider digital writing as remediation, remixing, and reuse.