Impact of Support Mechanisms on the Effectiveness of Teaching the Writing Skill in an e-Learning Environment

Iwona Mokwa-Tarnowska

Politechnika Gdańska

Abstract

The process of knowledge and language skills development during an online course can be very effective if student engagement in learning is achieved. This can be attained by introducing general and specific support mechanisms prior to the commencement of the course and during it. The former relates to the technological aspect, that is to familiarizing students with the functionalities of the virtual learning environment they will use and affordances of its tools. The latter comes from the structure of the course, the educational material designed to involve the participants in learning, the tools available on the course pages, as well as the tutor and fellow students. An effective course in genuine technical writing should aim to provide good opportunities for learning how to produce a report, manual, memo, abstract, graph analysis and a paragraph with mathematical, physical and chemical formulae, that is texts with cognitive appeal not only for the writer but also for the reader. With strong pre-emptive and responsive tutor support, such a course in technical writing results in an enhanced learning experience, which is shown by the analysis of students’ responses to different survey questions.

Keywords:

e-learning, support, VLE, technical English, writing