CWCR/RCCR editorial team
Liv Marken, Stephanie Bell, & Brian Hotson
Vol. 1, No. 8 (Winter 2020)
Now that we’re all a week into this new reality of writing centre work, and university life in general, here are two final submissions from our colleagues at UBC and UOttawa, and their responses to COVID-19.
We continue to want to hear from you. If you have related stories, please contact us at cwcr.rccr@gmail.com.
Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Patty Kelly, PhD, Program Manager
Liam Monaghan, Program Coordinator
Bo Lehmann, Program Assistant
March 27, 2020
Thanks to the adaptability of our sixteen undergraduate and graduate Writing Consultants, the Centre for Writing and Scholarly Communication was able to transition to online, asynchronous Writing Consultations within a few hectic days, effective March 17th. We are utilizing WCOnline to host these Consultations and have since added synchronous consultations for graduate students only. Like their Consultant peers, our four graduate student Project Coordinators are also able to complete their work from home. One of them will be hosting a new initiative, a twice-weekly Online Writing Community. This Community will take place on Zoom and will give all members of UBC Vancouver’s community an opportunity to stay motivated and stay connected. Unfortunately, COVID-19 forced us to suspend many of our in-person workshops and events, but we are currently exploring our options for temporarily transforming them into virtual offerings. We never thought we’d so look forward to returning to the office!
University of Ottawa, Academic Writing Help Centre (AWHC)
Janèle Boivin, Academic Success Coordinator
University of Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario
March 23, 2020
To address the present situation, the Academic Writing Help Centre (AWHC) modified its service delivery model. To support students, a chatting service was made available on March 17th on Facebook from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. from Monday to Friday. Students can use this service to ask questions related to academic writing and study skills. On this Facebook page, we will also publish answers to frequently asked questions, writing tips and useful resources. We are still answering questions by email; if they require a higher level of support, students are encouraged to book a remote appointment. We are looking into different ways to give these appointments (by phone, through Microsoft Teams). We have informed students of these modified services through our means of communication (website, email and phone). We will continue to promote our services to make sure the students are aware. For now, our Academic Success Coordinators offer the remote appointments.
Guidelines for these new procedures are being written and reviewed by our team. We are also looking into integrating our student writing advisors in the next steps of this adjustment (offering services during evenings and weekends). We are happy to report that students are using the chat services and booking remote appointments. As the situation evolves, so are our ways to make sure students still receive the support needed.
Here are the snapshots from March 17, 2020, March 18, 2020, and March 19, 2020.