abstract

background

theory

praxis

models

course

a challenge
slow development
web authoring
lessons

references

In Spring 2002, we repeated the course using the same basic format. Students registering for my section of Research in the Disciplines could opt for an additional 1.5 credits to develop their projects as hypertexts. Again, only a few students participated in the course. While I was very excited by the kinds of projects coming out of the course, it was clear that scheduling issues were making it very hard for me draw in a critical mass of students taking Research in the Disciplines who were genuinely interested in web development.

Sometime during that term, we realized that we might link Research in the Disciplines to Web Authoring. We planned a Fall 2003 section of Web Authoring open only to students also registered for a section of Research in the Disciplines. We advertised it in the freshman writing class since many of those students go on to take Research in the Disciplines. Over the summer, we encouraged students pre-registered for Research in the Disciplines to consider enrolling in the special section of Web Authoring.

By mid-August, we had enrolled 7 students in the course. We were optimistic that we could enroll another 8-10 students before the add-drop period ended. But unprecedented university-wide budget cuts prevented us from running any courses below about 70% capacity. We were forced to close our experimental section of Web Authoring in Fall 2002.

Using the same advertising and promotion attempted in Spring 2002, we successfully filled the course for Spring 2003. While several students dropped the course in the first two weeks (in part because we began the course by handcoding in HTML), eighteen students remained on the roster throughout the term.

return to slow development

abstract | background | theory | praxis | models | course