Moving to the Web Space

Since my last post, a couple of notable things have happened regarding SOWI. First, Dr. Bryant and I presented at the Council on Basic Writing at the 4Cs about SI. I mentioned SOWI, and I believe it was well received. 

Second, we have successfully made our move to the web space. When I say successfully, I mean we have a web space, which I won't link to here because right now there is a spelling error that I really need to get fixed. :) 

Today, Carrie and I set up the Meebo and discussed using a form rather than a forum for asynchronous tutoring. Now, we just have to do the design. I think Word Press will facilitate this much more than BB. 

On the instructional side, I'm still working on building the library for full implementation, and I'll be contacting case study participants today. 

One final word in this very disorganized post, I did check to make sure it will be easy for me to pull stats from SOWI on the web space. It will, so crisis averted! 

Training is in the works. I have to hear back from the powers that be before I start structuring anything. 

And, one very final final word, I am thinking about designing a graphic for SOWI that is a pig rolling in the mud. The tag line: "SOWI, wallowing in complexity since 2011."

SOWI Stats

Since it's officially halfway through the semester; well, it will be next week, I decided that this is the best time to officially run stats on SOWI and to first figure out how to get stats on BB. I was pleasantly surprised on both counts. First. running stats on BB isn't nearly as difficult as one would figure BB would make it. Second, SOWI has actually been used far more than I figured it would be. In fact, there have been a total of 433 views, and since we only have about 50 students enrolled, this is pretty major.

I'm not going to spend time copying and pasting he preliminary stats here, since I can run a report for any time period. (It makes sense that the one thing BB would make right is the ease with which it can prove its effectiveness.) However, what I do want to share is the conclusions I've reached.

First, the biggest barrier that prevents SOWI from reaching its potential is technical difficulties that have everything to do with BB. So far, Google has been pretty accommodating. BB, on the other hand,

• Makes it hard for student to enter the chat room and for tutors to tell who is online.
• Automatically sets peoples' statuses to unavailable.
• Randomly ends sessions.

Solving this problem will be key to making SOWI successful for its full implementation in the Spring. For this reason, I'm looking into a variety of different ways in which we might export SOWI. My main hope, now, is to get a university web page from which we might link to freeware chat and messaging services.

The second issue, however, that I think stops SOWI from being completely effective is the fact that it's not marketed as well as it could be. The more we encourage students to use SOWI, and the more professors encourage students to use SOWI, the more students will, in fact, use the program.

What I want to do in the immediate future:

• Secure one individual from each pilot class to use several aspects of SOWI and then to answer a survey regarding is effectiveness and usability
• Scedule second orientations