Until the Summer of 2025, I assumed everyone would find it easy to navigate Raider Canvas. That assumption did not last long. When I emailed a student who had stopped participating in class activities, she told me she had found the platform too difficult to navigate and had simply given up. I sent her a step-by-step set of instructions, and from that point on, she showed up for everything. That one exchange stayed with me, so when Borgman and McArdle asked us to consider “who are your student users? How will they be accessing the content? How comfortable are they with technology?” (p. 72), I did not have to think hard to find my answer.
Students can become frustrated quickly when they cannot find assignments, follow instructions, or even locate a welcome video that would have helped them get started. That frustration often turns into disengagement, and by the time an instructor notices, the student may have already mentally checked out. This is why I appreciated the reminder in Chapter 3 that “many teachers assume that students are technologically proficient and familiar with a variety of new media tools” (p. 77). That assumption is not always warranted, and the chapter’s call for writing teachers to explicitly teach functional, critical, and rhetorical literacies around new technologies feels both honest and necessary.
The section on expectations also hit close to home. The reading notes that “quite often, there is the expectation that online courses should somehow be simpler than face-to-face courses” (p. 73). I have seen exactly that play out this summer. Some of my students came in expecting an easier experience because the course is online. The moment they realized it requires self-discipline, consistent participation, and more reading than many in-person courses, some of them started to wear down. I find myself constantly reminding them that we are in this together and that the end of the semester is closer than it feels.
The reading also raised something I think about often: the growing presence of older, non-traditional students in online courses. When I read my students’ introductory posts this summer, I will be honest, I felt a little nervous. But the experience has been genuinely positive. My non-traditional students have been serious, engaged, and committed in ways that have surprised and encouraged me. Still, the reminder that we need to design with these students in mind is one I am taking seriously, particularly in online spaces where platform navigation can present real barriers for people who did not grow up with these tools.
The last thing I kept returning to was the Describe, Evaluate, and Suggest framework for peer review feedback. I already use some version of it, but the feedback I read from students is not always strong. What struck me about Chapter 3 was how much time and intentionality go into preparing students before they even begin reviewing each other’s work, including warm-ups with sample texts and structured reflection afterward (pp. 78-79). I set up the structure, but I do not always slow down and prepare them the way the reading describes. That is something I am committing to change going forward.
Reference
Borgman, J., & McArdle, C. (Eds.). (2021). PARS in practice: More resources and strategies for online writing instructors. WAC Clearinghouse.