Positioning First-year Composition: Hybrid Learning For Student Engagement And Sustainability

Abstract

This study uses quantitative and qualitative methodology to describe, and analyze the use of social media to create a blended learning environment in the first-year composition classroom. Findings indicate hybrid courses foster retention-minded best practices, increase student engagement in course material, extend concepts and assignments beyond the classroom, and encourage critical analysis of multiple media, thereby supporting the development of a digital literacy. Furthermore, I argue seizing participatory culture as a teaching and learning frontier positions First-Year Composition at the forefront of college retention efforts and provides connections to STEaM endeavors, raising the status of the field generally, and suggesting new areas for rhetorical study.My dissertation joins an ongoing conversation that promotes advocacy of the profession by demonstrating the field is in a unique position to address the two big movements in higher education: increasing student persistence and integrating new media and technology across the disciplines. In order to demonstrate FYC's role in student persistence and student success I review retention research and draw parallels between research findings and FYC's "best practices." I then provide examples of this work in action via evidence from student-subjects' questionnaire responses and coursework. I argue that such evidence of our role in student retention will be of prime interest to university administration. It is my contention that one of the primary problems facing Writing Program Administrators is one of marketing and that aligning ourselves with university retention efforts is a giant step towards the re-branding of composition studies. I continue the argument for re-invigorating composition studies by outlining the myriad of ways blended learning aligns with our long-standing critical/process pedagogies. Blended learning makes the integrating of some FYC values easier, some more effective, while other aspects of digital pedagogy are wholly new and novel. Again, I draw on examples from student questionnaires and blog contributions in order to illustrate my claims. My contention is that compositionists broadly, and first-year composition programs more specifically, are uniquely positioned to set standards for digital scholarship and shepherd students into a 21st century consciousness. Because hybrid models help support student persistence as well as digital literacy, the combination is a powerful argument for re-imagining the role of FYC within the baccalaureate program. Thus, this dissertation concludes with a reimagination of first-year composition within a retention-minded digitally-rich context. As such, I propose revisions of both CWPA learning outcomes and the rhetorical frame by which we position FYC. I include an examination of the many challenges facing the field of composition studies and the First-Year Composition program, such as current working conditions and the push toward distance education. A hybrid model addresses many of these concerns and can serve as a centerpiece for a new vision of FYC.