While Darlington students worked on distance learning assignments during the inclement weather last week, English Department Chairwoman Beth Wilson also participated in a unique and innovative distance learning exercise. She and 200 other students, faculty and staff from Old Dominion University sought to write a book ... in 24 hours!
The "ODU Writes a Book" project began at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 11, and ended the following day at 1 p.m. During this 24-hour period, collaborators submitted more than 650 documents to the project. After review, these documents will be turned into a book called "You are (w)here: how knowledge is related to virtual and physical place."
"With several other doctoral students and candidates in my program, I co-authored an article about the ways physical and digital spaces affect learning in our hybrid program," Wilson explained. "My main contributions had to do with the affordances and drawbacks of various aspects of being a distance student, including the platforms I use to be present on video and audio for class, the trips I make to campus in the summer, and so on."
Wilson and her collaborators' chapter, which has the working title "On the Way to PhinisheD: Negotiating Mediated Spaces in a Hybrid Doctoral Program," was 17 single-spaced pages with an accompanying 40-minute video. After reading their chapter, organizers asked Wilson and her team to speak at the closing event.
This innovative exercise in collaboration marks the first of its kind for colleges and universities in the United States. According to an article on Old Dominion University's website, students from all six of the university's colleges participated in the project.
The 24 hours of writing was followed by 24 hours of review and editing. The finished product will be published as a physical book as well as a virtual publication so that readers can access the digital content.
Wilson is pursuing a Ph.D. at Old Dominion University, with concentrations in pedagogy and rhetoric, writing, and discourse studies. Her research interests are faculty development and student-centered teaching methods.
