Come Out from Behind that Laptop! How to Make the Most of the Real Live Humans You Meet at Residencies

Monday, March 23, 2015 Capstone Writing , Dissertation , Writing Center Services No comments

*Note: This post is relevant to EdD, EdS, PhD, DBA, and DIT students, as these are the residencies currently staffed by the Walden Writing Center.

As a writing instructor for an online university, I often find myself torn between gratitude for the flexibility of my work and dismay at how much I miss seeing students face-to-face on a regular basis. My impression is that many Walden students share this sense of conflict about the online experience. While online education is designed specifically for students juggling work, families, and community responsibilities in addition to their schoolwork, it does not, of course, include the more traditional classroom experience where students and instructors meet in the same geographical location and get to know one another in person. This means that while working toward a degree at Walden is convenient and academically rewarding, it can feel isolating and lonely as well.

Many Walden programs do offer a face-to-face component in the form of academic residencies, which can provide a healthy dose of in-person interaction with faculty, staff, and fellow students. However, in my residency experiences, I’ve noticed that students sometimes end up creating an environment much like the virtual one they are used to: Students sit in a room while the presenter presents, the students listen and take notes, and when it’s over, they leave.

When we become used to communicating primarily through typing, the flexibility, spontaneity, verbal fluency, and sheer stamina required to discuss academic topics in an intensive environment like a residency can be overwhelming. And especially if you’re an introverted personality, you might find yourself a bit rusty at interacting face-to-face in a scholarly environment after filtering your education through your laptop. In this post, I’ll share three tips for how to overcome these obstacles and get the most out of your opportunities to interact face-to-face with staff from the Walden Writing Center at residencies.

Welcome sign at the 2014 Indianapolis residency.

Tip 1: Come prepared

In Blackboard, you have time to think about and edit your discussion comments and responses. At residencies, you’ll need to be able to respond more quickly in presentations and advising sessions. If you feel tongue-tied speaking in front of large groups or if you tend to freeze during the question and answer time of a presentation, consider looking through the program book or new residency app ahead of time. Read the titles and descriptions of the sessions and consider what your main questions or concerns are about the topics being covered. Write down your questions in advance, so that when the time comes for you to ask them, you don’t draw a blank.

You can also prepare questions to ask in individual writing center advising sessions or bring a paragraph or two of your own writing to advising with specific questions about how to improve it. Don’t have a specific writing question? Come to advising anyway and ask for a tour of our resources. This is a great way to show initiative, meet Writing Center staff, and learn about the services we offer Walden students.

Writing Instructor Kayla chats with a student during open advising.

Tip 2: Speak up

One of the major benefits of being in the same room with one another is that we can speak to one another using our voices. We also get the added benefit of body language, inflection, and other important communication cues that are lost when we are typing back and forth. Strangely enough, communicating verbally about writing can actually help you improve your skills in writing, because you don’t have to attempt to express your concerns or questions about writing in writing, as you often do in an online environment. So, speak up! Chat with Writing Center staff about your writing concerns, either informally after a presentation or in an advising session.

Don’t forget to talk to your fellow students, too. You can extend the usefulness of your residency experience far beyond the official days of the residency by building a network of support that you can carry back into your online experience. In the Writing Center, we call this building your writing community. You can learn more about writing communities in our WriteCast podcast (episode 16) and in Lydia’s blog post on writing communities as the secret to success.

Tip 3: Follow up

So, you’ve initiated connections with faculty, staff, and students at a residency, but now you’re back home behind your laptop. How do you make sure those relationships don’t just fade away? The key is to follow up. Use the communication mediums we become so used to in the online environment to solidify the connections you made face-to-face. For instance, if you had an interesting conversation with fellow students, you might send them a quick e-mail letting them know you enjoyed meeting them. You can also connect with folks—including the Writing Center—on social media. We love to chat with students on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and here on the blog.

You can also solidify connections you made with Writing Center staff by making an appointment for a review of a discussion post or course paper not related to capstone work, registering to attend a webinar, or e-mailing a specific writing question to us at writingsupport@waldenu.edu. Remember, your connection to the writing staff you meet at the residency doesn’t end when the residency is over! We are here to support you through your entire Walden experience.

This month on the blog, we're featuring topics related to the capstone (dissertation or doctoral study). Check out our latest WriteCast episode on tackling hard literature review questions, our post on five things to know before starting your dissertation, and our post on what to do after you've received your Form and Style review.

Brittany Kallman Arneson is a writing instructor and the coordinator of Writing Center residency instruction and design at the Walden Writing Center. She also co-hosts WriteCast, the Writing Center's podcast.