Abstracts Category : Other

A considerable distance: the role of writing studies in online learning at community colleges

by Amanda Beth Cash

First popularized with the formation of commercial and university-run correspondence schools, distance learning has made a steady, if problematic, transition to computer-based classrooms. Online courses vary widely in their curricula, but underlying commonalities in their creation and composition unite them in fundamental ways. By design and definition, the online classroom not only consistently privileges the written word (Cole x) but also serves a more diverse population of students through the anytime, anywhere nature of its educational environment.Drawing on these foundational qualities, this dissertation examines the overlooked relationships between distance education, composition, and community colleges. Although rarely discussed together, their individual histories reveal interwoven theoretical roots that can be cultivated into purposeful partnerships to advance distance learning at a time of rapid technological development but disparate pedagogical direction. In Chapter 1, Starting from the Margins: Composition, Community Colleges, and Online Learning, I discuss the continued societal emphasis on the college degree as key to personal fulfillment and professional success, despite the current difficulties that traditional institutions have encountered in accommodating the influx of increasingly diverse students. These complications have, in turn, encouraged innovation in both the structure and the pedagogy of higher education, most notably the (re)emergence of for-profit institutions and the development of online learning. The for-profit sector favors the flexible format of online learning, and the ire directed at that industry has intensified scrutiny of online learning. Leaving aside the business of higher education, I emphasize the continued ability of online learning to educate an underserved segment of students and advocate the development of stronger relationships with composition and community colleges, two areas of higher education well-aligned with the needs and purposes of online learning.I further explain the foundation for these relationships in Chapter 2, The Democratization of Higher Education: Histories and Mythologies, in which I not only uncover the history of distance education, but also trace the separate yet often parallel threads of composition and community colleges through the complex fabric of higher education. A theme that emerges is the tension between democratic ideals and egalitarian actualities, between the idealistic insistence that everyone should have the opportunity to earn a college degree and the realistic physical, financial, and social limitations that undermine reaching that goal. Highlighting the separate and shared evolutions of two particularly influential institutionsChautauqua and the University of Chicagothis chapter illustrates the undervalued yet integral roles that composition, community colleges, and distance learning have played in this ongoing conversation about the purposes and practices of higher education. Chapter 3, +Advisors/Committee Members: Hawisher, Gail E (advisor), Hawisher, Gail E (Committee Chair), Mortensen, Peter (committee member), Prior, Paul A (committee member), Oakley, Burks (committee member).