Universities Team With Online Course Provider

[B Stieg]

2. I teach freshman comp at the University of California (7 yrs.)

As far as writing goes, this is a potential disaster of the first order. As someone who has built an OWL (on-line writing lab) and a distance learning system, I would argue that the wet and virtual experiences are vastly different. This split will create two "classes" at these institutions, with one group on the usual path to networking with professors, TA's and departments while the other toils in cubicled anonymity like a bunch of electronic Bartleby's.

That the UC's are considering this (there is pending state legislation that would force them to do so) is especially odd since Prop 30 passed and there's plenty of $ coming back into the Cal system that should be used to hire faculty and create additional sections of these required courses. I'm no enemy of new media as it forms the core of my phd study, but this is not the answer. If you already think college kids can't write, just hold on to your hats, "'cause the worst is yet to come."