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This multi-institutional study surveyed undergraduate students (n=669) about how and what they learned in hybrid and online first-year composition (FYC) classes, employing the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework to analyze their responses. The data illustrated a significant difference in hybrid versus online students' perceptions of the student-teacher relationship.
Introduction
Writing instructors have long been at the forefront of active, studentcentered learning (Bruffee; Gere). We create environments that offer students opportunities to interact with peers (George) and practice writing for authentic audiences (D. Stewart), and we act as coaches who provide feedback and encouragement to guide students through activities (Brannon and Knoblauch; VanderStaay et al.). Accordingly, writing instructors are not only subject matter experts, but also accomplished community builders and instructional designers. The increase of technology-mediated writing instruction only heightens the centrality of instructional design to composition pedagogy because, in addition to designing and facilitating learning activities, hybrid and online writing instructors must construct the virtual spaces in which students engage (Griffin and Minter).
The increased level of design required for hybrid and online writing instruction is often affiliated with increased distance between the instructor and the students (Dockter). This distance prompts concerns that, without the physical performance of face-to-face teaching, writing instructors cannot construct the types of communities that make writing courses effective (Bruffee). This article responds to those concerns, seeking hybrid and online writing students' perspectives on the extent to which they feel connected to their instructor and peers and whether they believe they are learning as a result of interacting with peers. We ground our study in the Community of Inquiry (Col) Framework, a well-tested heuristic for designing and assessing collaborative, student-centered online courses that shares many of composition studies' theoretical assumptions (Gillam and Wooden). The CoI Framework, and others like it, indicates that the student-centered and community-focused pedagogies that make writing instruction transformative are possible online. The question for our research team was whether students perceive that possibility as a reality.
In 2018, we were awarded a CCCC Emergent Researcher Award, which funded our initial investigation. We delivered a modified version of the Col Survey (Arbaugh et al.) to students enrolled in 114 sections of hybrid or online first-year composition (FYC) across four institutions in the United States and conducted interviews...