This study explores the effectiveness of video demonstrations compared to live classroom visits for promoting writing center services to students in first-year writing courses. Using a randomized cluster experimental design, the researchers implemented either an in-person demonstration, a video demonstration, or no intervention (control). Pre- and…

This longitudinal study serves as a model for examining and understanding the role of editing and its contributing factors in writing center tutorials. The study quantifies the frequency of and time devoted to editing in over 4,000 writing center tutorials and finds these quantities differ in statistically significant ways when broken down by user…

This study is a follow-up to one on the pass rates of basic writers in a large, urban Midwestern university. Students who came for eight or more mandatory writing center tutorials for their basic writing course passed at a rate of 90% or higher each semester from 2013-2016. The current study examined their graduation rates. These students…

Using a qualitative approach based on grounded theory, this study explored the best practices of educational technology implementation in 2-year community college writing centers utilizing interviews with writing center administrators. Sociocultural development theory, as well as social learning theory, were applied to frame the results. Each…

In the article "Understanding Writer Center Use among Community College Students," Christina Savarese addresses the reasons students use the writing center, understanding those reasons, and using them to identify ways the writing center administrators and tutors can better serve their student population. Additional research findings…

Indirect and direct assessment methods have a long standing history in college learning centers. Being more resource-intensive and time-consuming, direct assessment methods are often underrepresented in the literature and in practice. This paper presents a case study of how a pretest-posttest assessment initiative was designed to measure student…

This article examines the results of a study comparing writing centers' mission statements with their statements about changes due to COVID-19. Of the 100 center websites examined, 28 had both mission and COVID statements. Our study unpacks trends found across those 28 websites. Using a content analysis approach, we coded content on these websites…

Many directors of learning and writing centers minimize their ability to remain current with the field, conduct research, and delineate their job duties due to pressing daily demands. Scholars urge them to do so in light of the needs of students, new directors, and university restructuring. This article presents the four-step renewal process of…

This article examines how one public university helped address student plagiarism through a collaboration between the Math and Writing Center and the Office of Student Conduct and Integrity. Included is a thorough discussion of how the program was designed, the roles each office played, and how the two areas collaborated to assess success. Since…

Student writing center use has been associated with positive academic outcomes, yet less attention has been paid to what, exactly, influences their participation. The researcher surveyed 434 community college students on a range of demographic and academic variables, as well as their level of self-efficacy in writing, to predict their writing…

Online higher education writing centers are often viewed as a space separate from students' learning environment; a landscape of assistance rather than true education. The goal of this pilot program was to create a geography of shared experience between students, faculty, and writing specialists to facilitate the process of enhancing student…

For over four years, students enrolled in remedial writing classes who attended eight writing center tutorials directly linked to their assignments had an average pass rate of 95.6 percent, whereas students who did not attend any writing center tutorials had an average pass rate of 39.4 percent. These correlations are just that--correlations that…

To demonstrate effectiveness, writing centers collect quantitative and/or qualitative information about and from the students who use their services. A broader understanding of effectiveness requires us to consider both direct measures of writing quality and why some students do not use the writing center. This mixed-methods research followed one…

This case study examines the differences in comments offered by asynchronous online writing center consultants to L1 and L2 speakers and examines the potential disconnects in consultant perceptions of their practice. The researchers collected and coded sample papers and interviewed participants to contextualize data from the quantitative portion…

An early-alert system (MavCLASS) was developed and piloted in a large gateway math class with 611 freshman students to identify academically at-risk students and provide alert messages. It was found that there was significant association between the alert messages students received and their visits to the university's tutor center. Further, the…