Managing First-Year Writing with an Adaptive Component

In 2017, our team at the University of Mississippi, in collaboration with Lumen Learning, developed and implemented customized, low-cost, modular adaptive courseware in our first-year writing curriculum. The courseware addresses student preparation gaps in foundational content knowledge and rhetorical skills, areas often under-assessed in writing classes. To avoid the limitations of generalized, pre-packaged course material restricted by traditional copyright, we built and adapted open content to our own institutional context in order to deploy courseware that is relevant, engaging, and deeply connected to the needs and experience of our faculty and students. This presentation provides an overview of the courseware, an explanation of how the modules have been implemented in our FYC classes, and a discussion of how the materials have been enhanced through assessment data and faculty-led continuous improvement workshops.