Engaging Students in Online Learning Environments for Success in Academic Writing in the Disciplines

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how to develop students’ academic writing through fostering their use of online resources in an e-learning environment. Such an online environment, whether for independent or blended learning, needs to be carefully designed so that students will engage with the learning materials and tasks. Thus, motivating students to use e-learning resources is at the centre of the design, development and implementation of an online environment. This is even more critical when teaching writing in the disciplines, since teaching discipline knowledge tends to dominate both face-to-face and e-learning curricula. Consequentially, the teaching of writing at university can be, wholly or partially, an extra-curricula, independent learning activity. A genre pedagogy for teaching writing can support student engagement since it is strongly grounded in discipline purposes and contexts. This pedagogy can be used as the basis for a social semiotic approach to the design of e-learning resources. However, the success of such an online learning environment for writing is highly dependent upon strategies for implementation, and the degree of integration with discipline curricula.