W Teaching Orientation

Join us for an overview of university-wide expectations for W courses and a discussion of pragmatic strategies for making writing-intensive courses across the disciplines more engaging, effective, and inclusive. All faculty and staff who are teaching any course that involves writing are invited to join us. This orientation is required for all graduate students who intend to teach or assist with a W course or lab.

Wednesday, December 17, 2025, 1-3pm, in person only in Babbidge Library (Storrs), Heritage Room, Level 4 (HBL 4118). Register for this session here: https://fins.uconn.edu/secure_inst/workshops/workshop_view.php?ser=3765

Thursday, January 15, 2026, 10-11:30am, online only. Register here to receive link: https://fins.uconn.edu/secure_inst/workshops/workshop_view.php?ser=3766

The next orientation will take place in May 2026.

 

Before attending either the online or in-person session, please watch the following 2 videos:

1. Overview of W Course Basic Expectations: https://kaltura.uconn.edu/media/W+Teaching+Orientation+-+Dec+2022/1_bvmgd3fe
In here I refer to the W Course Guidelines articulated by the University Senate, which you can find here: https://geoc.uconn.edu/writing-competency/

Or find the same content on the new Common Curriculum website: https://commoncurriculum.senate.uconn.edu/writing-competency/
2. UConn students reflect on faculty feedback: https://ritm.initiative.uconn.edu/narratives/

 

Recommended:

For those concerned about how AI technologies affects our W courses, here’s a pretty concise distillation of what we know about student AI usage patterns as of May 2025.

John Warner is a prescient voice on teaching writing in the age of AI. Here’s a podcast episode that can help us think about our values, courses, and assignments

You can access a webinar Tom Deans did in June 2023 for the International Studies Association: “Working with AI in Teaching Writing Across the Disciplines”.

You could also check out how what we are doing with AI in Writing Center tutorials could inform how you treat it your courses.