Innovative Writing Support: Who Needs It, Uses It, Benefits From It, and What Can Be Done to Increase Utilization?

The students who are most in need of writing support may or may not be those who seek it out. This can be especially problematic in online learning environments created to support learners who are first generation college students, those who are underserved, and adult populations with competing priorities that may interfere with educational goals. Effective writing is particularly critical to academic success in online learning environments that include substantial written assignments. This presentation showcases the results of a study of learners in an online learning setting, and challenges to increasing utilization of innovative writing supports. It includes an investigation of who uses writing supports, when they use it, and the impact of writing supports on learner achievement. Demographic differences between those who took advantage of writing supports and those who did not include gender, marital status, race, source of tuition funding, age, and military status. Students who accessed writing supports experienced higher grade point averages, demonstrated greater learning on specific assignments, and successfully completed more courses. Variations in performance were also noted between students who utilized a paper review completed by a writing consultant and those who chose to have an automated system review a paper for grammar feedback. Implications for generalizing these findings to support other academic areas, methods of increasing utilization of writing services among learners most at-risk, and future directions for research are included.