Table
of Contents
Introduction
Purdue
Writing Lab
OWL Redesign
Expert & Apprentice
Expert, Apprentice, & Usability
Kairotic Crossroad
OWL Pilot Test Introduction
OWL Pilot Test Results
Responsibilities
Challenges
Opportunities
Hybrid Scholarship
Preliminary Findings G1
Detailed Findings G1
Recommendations
OWL Usability Test G2
Conclusion
Hybrid Author(s)
Bibliography
Purdue OWL
|
Summary
Presents an argument for using hybrid identities and multidisciplinary collaboration to inform
local, mixed-methods research on writing and technology that contributes
to community and graduate student professionalization
Presents the challenges and benefits of using multidisciplinary collaboration to work on an influential, Web-based writing resource
Introduction
“So, what do you do in your program?”
This is a common question I field from friends and family, graduate students
from other schools, and even from people I run into at the local watering
hole. It’s a difficult question to answer, especially as a Ph.D.
student in rhetoric, composition, and profession writing. I find myself
saying something like, “I’m in English, but not literature
or creative writing. It’s technical writing but also college writing.”
Blank stare. I continue: “Right now, I’m conducting research
on the usability of our online writing lab.” That helps a bit. “Oh,
so you’re a research assistant. I didn’t know they had those
in English. But don’t you take classes and teach first-year writing and professional writing?” Sometimes, it’s simpler to guide the conversation in
other directions. It's
difficult to define our roles, but continually we are asked to draw boundaries
to explain our area of expertise. As our discipline grows, and we add
members to our community, I imagine there are a number of Kairos
readers struggling with this same issue.
But what do we do with our complex roles as students, teachers, writers,
and researchers? In the age of specialization, shouldn’t we narrow
our experiences to focus on fewer responsibilities? Should we embrace
our hybrid identities and multidisciplinary expertise and use them to benefit all areas of our work? In
this hypertext, I present my experiences as a usability expert and apprentice
as part of a multidisciplinary team of researchers, graduate and undergraduate students,
staff, and study participants working to improve the Purdue Online Writing
Lab (OWL).
I argue we should value hybrid experiences and multidisciplinary work as they inform local research.
I also argue why it is important to use our multiple roles as students,
teachers, writers, and researchers to help our field, to help users, and
to benefit our communities. In short, I posit we need to embrace our
hybrid identities as they overlap across disciplines to use these areas of difference to help us make knowledge discursively. I contend that we
can harness our difficult-to-define and overlapping roles to create kairotic crossroads
of experiences that serve as vehicles for learning, research, and civic
engagement.
This Hypertext
The organization
of this hypertext, a mixture of history, narrative, and empirical research,
might seem unfamiliar. It's a mixed-methods text,
based on mixed-methods research, that tells a story of hybrid identities
and crossroads of academic programs. The hypertext highlights the benefits
and challenges of these sorts of approaches, and so it is presented
as a mixture, a hybrid. As
you explore this hypertext, you may begin to see the value and possible
application of hybrid-ness in your own work. You
may surf the hypertext in a linear fashion, or you may click on the links
you find most interesting.
In the Purdue Writing Lab and OWL Redesign sections
of this hypertext, I outline the context of the usability tests by providing
some background of the Writing Lab and the OWL as well as reviewing the
goals of the redesign and the profiles of OWL users. In the Expert
and Apprentice, Expert, Apprentice, and Usability, and Kairotic
Crossroad sections of the hypertext, I explain the hybrid identity I brought to the Purdue OWL Usability Project. These sections also cover the background of usability and user-centered design that influenced our definitions of these important ideas. The
Pilot Test Introduction and Pilot Test Results sections
summarize the initial OWL usability tests conducted in English 515, Advanced
Professional Writing. The Responsibilities, Challenges,
and Opportunities sections summarize my roles as hybrid identity
and describe some of the obstacles and opportunities connected to the
multidisciplinary project. The Hybrid Scholarship section touches on similar projects
in local research performed by influential scholars in our discipline. The Preliminary Findings G1, Detailed Findings G2,
Recommendations, and OWL Usability Test G2 sections
outline the justification for and results and recommendations from the
first and second generations of usability tests.
The Purdue
OWL Usability Project and the research contributing to the content of
this hypertext would not have been possible without the close cooperation
and help of the following people: Professor Linda Bergmann, Professor
Michael Salvo, Tammy Conard-Salvo, Karl Stolley, Dana
Lynn Driscoll, Jinfang Ren, Morgan Sousa,
and the students of English 515, Advanced Professional Writing.
I would also like to thank Karl for his continuing hard work on the Purdue
OWL.
The
next section in the linear organization of this hypertext explains the
context of the OWL Usability Project by outlining the background of the
Purdue Writing Lab.
Next > The Purdue Writing Lab
|