abstract

background

theory

praxis

models

course

a challenge
slow development
web authoring
lessons

references

I wanted to guide and foster academic hypertext projects in Research in the Disciplines. But it was difficult to get students to sign on for the extra work involved in a new media project. With a university population of 45,000 students, and over 1600 students enrolled in Research in the Disciplines annually, raw numbers suggested I might be able to draw in 15-20 students for such an experimental course. Certainly, more than 20 students enrolled in Research in the Disciplines each term have some familiarity with HTML.

I wanted to offer a course that would give students six credits for the production of academic hypertext. Three credits would fall within the research writing course, and three more would go toward conceiving and executing an academic essay as hypertext. In the absence of practical experience with such a project, however, I was not prepared to make a strong case for a six credit version of Research in the Disciplines. Additionally, it wasn't clear just what course students would take for the extra three credits, and putting a new course on the books was an arduous process.

My Theory and Practice of Academic Hypertext course was initially run in Fall 2001 as a section of Research in the Disciplines with 1.5 non-degree credits attached to it. Students in the section would meet 3 days each week. Two days would fulfill the Research in the Disciplines component. On the third day, we would meet in the computer classroom to code HTML.

We promoted the course as a special section of Research in the Disciplines in which students would develop their research projects as hypertexts. While this feature of the course was printed in the course catalog, identified in the web-based class registration interface, and prominently labeled in several places on the Writing Program's website, most students registering for my section of Research in the Disciplines somehow missed this component in the course. As with any experimental course, I was forced to make further compromises. The hypertext component became optional, and only a few students elected to produce academic hypertexts.

slow development, continued

abstract | background | theory | praxis | models | course