Output details

Using a virtual learning environment to develop academic writing with first year dance students: facing the challenge of writing through digital images

Brief Description

This article was published as part of a special issue to explore what the journal felt was the under researched impact of new information technologies on the study and teaching of dance (9/2, 9/3). The article discussed the impact of a Blended Learning strategy (classroom instruction and use of a Virtual Learning Environment-VLE) that the authors implemented to encourage first year dance students at the University of Wolverhampton to develop their academic written communication. The authors were interested to add the intricacies of teaching academic writing in a university dance department to burgeoning research on the development of Academic Literacies (Ivanič 1998, Lea and Street 1998, Lillis 1997) in Higher Education. The article has been cited by Shaw (2009) and papers derived from this research were presented at two international “European First Year Experience” conferences (Gothenburg, Sweden 2007 and Wolverhampton, UK 2008).

Research Rationale

The paper argued that the online interface backed-up with the traditional classroom session supporting writing skills and implemented through both peer and tutor online feedback encouraged student confidence in written communication.

Strategies Undertaken

The authors explored close reading of several students’ online VLE contributions over the course of a module called Personal Professional Development that focused substantially on the teaching of academic literacies (academic writing, Harvard referencing, etc). These findings were considered in the context of secondary evidence coming out Higher Educational Research (cited above) as well as post-structural theories of engagement and reception. At its publication in 2008, the article was the first of its kind in exploring specific strategies for improving the writing skills of dance student enrolled in HE dance programmes both nationally and internationally. Furthermore, the article is, at present, still the only one that brings together a discussion of the importance of VLEs in integrating dance students into the presumed literacies necessary for successful completion of a university degree.