Teaching at the Writing Center

Innovative Teaching

As the classroom for writing courses, the Writing Center goes beyond the traditional “paper-pencil” approach by providing assistance through e-equipment and e-learning software (Blackboard) that encourages individualized tutoring, synchronously and asynchronously. Online, interactive instruction promotes the development of writing skills, enhances the writing experience, increases student literacy, and fosters intellectual growth.

The Writing Center’s unique interactive classroom environment enables students to collaborate. They can share ideas about effective writing as they put these ideas into practice.

Interactive Design

The Writing Center is a specially designed room which consists of three cooperation isles with built-in computers. Each isle accommodates six users, facilitating interaction, collaboration and communication; students work either as a group or in pairs.

The computer screens are embedded in the conference table and thus allow for an uncluttered work surface and easy contact and communication among the teams. The Room offers 18 student workstations and one tutor computer, a SoftBoard interactive electronic whiteboard, screen and projector.

New Learning Opportunities

In the Writing Center, students have access to online instruction and visual aids far more sophisticated than those found in traditional writing classrooms. The methodology employed by the Writing Center's designers and staff promotes intellectual teamwork and writing effectiveness by means of five basic learning processes:

  1. Monitoring. The writing instructor follows individual students’ progress as they work at the Writing Center, and provides any necessary feedback.
  2. Interaction. Students are able, at any given time, to access immediate feedback on the progress of their work, to share it with other students, and/or to form subgroups within the same class following the instructor’s suggestions.
  3. Visualization. The process of selecting teams and having students work together starts at the beginning of each course designed at the Writing Center.
  4. Collaboration. The instructor and students can also work together on a document contemporaneously to make corrections on the spot, explore alternatives and request clarification.
  5. Transfer. The instructor may select and send text or other media files to students through the monitoring of the screen in real time, thus enabling the instantaneous ‘publication’ of a student’s work.