Writing an assignment, essay, or thesis requires certain academic writing skills that differ from ordinary writing skills we are taught in high school. From proper citation, to formulating research questions and structuring paragraphs, these skills are crucial for university students to succeed. How can we be sure we are helping students master these skills? Dr. Jorien Veldwijk, associate professor at Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM), guides us through her innovation project that focused on improving the academic writing skills of Bachelor students within her faculty.
The need for academic writing skills
Talking to Jorien, the motivations behind this innovation project came from the frustration of teachers with the standard of academic writing they were seeing in their students’ work. “From this frustration, two things became apparent. Students do not see the urgency of learning these skills, however, we as professors do not make it easy for them to gain these skills”, Jorien explains. “We expect them to have mastered academic writing, but we do not provide the materials for them to be able to learn them”.
Within ESHPM, materials already existed about academic writing. However, students were not made aware of where to find them, or found it unnecessary to look for them- thus, they practically went unnoticed. Jorien mentioned that only a couple of students per academic year would access them through Canvas. And so, the motivation for the innovation project emerged, to create new, accessible, and interactive materials to improve the academic writing skills of students. “We wanted them to be introduced at the start of the academic year to the students and be available to them throughout the entire bachelor programme. This makes it easy for them to find what they need, when they need it”, mentions Jorien.
What materials were developed?
The next step came when Jorien, together with Risbo, decided on what types of materials would be most efficient in delivering the right information to students. They did this by analysing the materials that already existed, as well as talking to course coordinators about their wants and needs for such materials. “We noticed that the previous materials were all videos, which can be nice as it is more diverse than having a lot of information in a text format. However, these videos were long, and hard to retrieve specific information from”, Jorien explains. “If a student had a specific question, it would take too long to watch several videos to find what they are looking for”.
From this, Jorien decided on three types of materials to be developed: videos, infographics, and a language test. Her and her team also revised all rubrics of writing assignments, which generated increased alignment of assessment criteria over the years of the bachelor. The videos were shortened, and were followed by infographics, to help visually illustrate the key information that needed to be presented to students. The infographics also served as an easy checklist that students could use when checking over their writing, to see if the academic writing requirements are met.
The language test was introduced as a part of the materials to help identify the students that needed a stronger writing foundation. “We cannot expect students that do not have a solid understanding of writing skills in general to be able to apply academic writing standards”, Jorien points out. “Thus, we introduced this language test, which refers students to a writing course that they can take if needed. We want to help every student to start off from the same standard of writing when learning about academic writing skills, and this test helps accomplish that.”
Future of the project
Most of the materials were developed prior to academic year 2023-2024 and were used with the incoming Bachelor students of that year. Some materials were developed along the course of the academic year and were added as they were finalised. Thus, it will be interesting to evaluate the success of the materials over the next couple of years, to see if students return to view the materials in their second or third year of their Bachelors, or even their Masters. For the future of the project, it is also important to encourage teachers to explain the importance of academic writing, and the materials developed, to their students during class. “Understandably, teachers mentioned that their time is limited to explain these materials during class time. However, not explaining them could lower the quality of work in the long run”, explains Jorien.
CLI support
Throughout the project, the Community for Learning & Innovation (CLI) provided crucial support in obtaining the funding, as well as administrating the final steps of launching the materials which were developed. “The CLI’s close collaboration with Risbo also helped during the development of the materials, within which Risbo’s help was very valuable”, mentions Jorien.
Are you interested in improving academic writing skills within your faculty? The developed materials are also available for other faculties. Send an email to cli@eur.nl and we will put you in touch with Jorien Veldwijk! Or perhaps this article has inspired you to apply for an innovation project for your own innovative ideas? Please visit this page for more information.
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