Peer Review

Online Writing Lab presented by Excelsior College

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Dec 13, 2022 by English

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

This website is a reference material repository of information about writing and the writing process meant to guide users through the hallmarks of academic writing in various contexts. It offers multimodal instruction on the steps in the process to organization to citing sources to tips for more contemporary forms of communication. It includes videos, narrated and self guided slideshows, and interactive activities, as well as some worksheets and checklists for downloading. Contemporary forms of written communication are included as well. It is best used to support any college or graduate level work that has a written requirement.

Type of Material:

Reference material

Recommended Uses:

Homework
Writing labs or studios
In class

Technical Requirements:

Chrome, Edge

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Learn the general writing process
Understand their own writing process
Learn strategies for academic writing
Apply it in a variety of contexts; to be able to uses sources in writing and avoid plagiarism

Target Student Population:

Entry level English classes
Classes for English majors

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Basic computer skills
Basic writing skills

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

All of the concepts talked about are extremely relevant and presented in an approachable, relevant, and accurate manner.
Its relevance includes newer writing media such as slideshow presentations and online platforms such as blogs, discussion boards, and social media.
This resource can be used in a variety of contexts and has enough material to accurately convey the concepts.
The texts are long enough to teach the concepts but short enough to not overwhelm users.
This is a professionally-made website with high-quality videos and interactive content.

Concerns:

Not all of the multimodal materials are current: some of the videos are older and lower quality.
Additionally, there is no mention of citation generators, which many students and instructors alike use.
Finally, the resource is self-contained on the whole, as the information can be used regardless of context, but the practical application sections do require users to be currently working on an assignment in order to apply some concepts.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

There are learning outcomes listed at the beginning of each module, and the concepts are recycled throughout the various modules and are reinforced progressively: for example, the writing process is outlined first and then applied to research paper writing.
Each module can easily stand alone if necessary, as key concepts that are logically connected are linked to the relevant section(s) for easy access.
The resource also includes tutorials on how users can navigate the website, as well as an entire section of the website for educator resources.
Additionally, there are worksheets and checklists that users can download to use at a later date as well as links to outside resources if users want even more information.

Concerns:

There is a lot of information, which can be daunting and overwhelming if trying to read through the entire website in one sitting, but in smaller doses or if searching for information on a specific topic, the issue is moot.
Also moot is the fact that the resource does not measure student learning outcomes: while the resource does include graded activities, users can only download results for some of those activities.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:

Strengths:

The information is presented in a multimodal way, with a variety of videos, narrated slideshows, self guided slideshows, and screen captured videos as well as easy to read text that uses color, text boxes, and a variety of clickable boxes.
Instructions are clear, and moving through the resource is easy:
There’s a side panel with collapsible links to all pages on the site, and users can navigate back and forth one page at the bottom of each page in a module/section.
The resource has animation, pictures, icons, engaging colors and graphics. Each learning area starts with an introductory narrated slideshow presentation to give an overview of what users will learn.
All videos have pause, rewind, fast forward, and changeable playback speed capabilities, as well as the ability to embed the videos in a website.

Concerns:

The only concern is that the photos are not screen reader accessible. However, all videos are either captioned and/or have an accompanying transcript. Additionally, the resource is not an app.

Other Issues and Comments:

Updated frequently.
Works great in a mobile browser.
Content is high-quality and appropriate for high school or college.

Creative Commons: