Online Directed
Self-Placement at University of Colorado-Boulder
When the writing program was
being revamped in 2001, Rolf Norgaard, the associate director of the writing
program at the time, decided to use self-placement in large part based on the
work of Royer and Gilles in their book on DSP. Especially in a large
university, a modest approach to directed self-placement makes sense because of
the sheer number of incoming students. Also, in the UC writing program the
decision of which course to take (and there are three: WRTG 1100, their version
of basic writing--although it’s not called that; WRTG 1150, the mainstream
course; WRTG 1250, the advanced first-year course) is a low-stakes decision.
That is, all three courses
will satisfy the first-year writing requirement, so there are
no bureaucratic repercussions to choosing one course over another. Also, the
writing program hopes that by giving students the choice of which class they
take, they will approach the class with a little less dread.
Once students give notification
of their acceptance, they are sent a packet of information that directs them to
the DSP website. Rolf worked in conjunction with the technology folks to set up
the website and database so that, after a student has finished taking the
questionnaire, they can select a course and automatically be pre-enrolled for
that course. Since the initial site was set up, the text has been revised
slightly, but it continues to function in the same way. Students can use the DSP to register for
first-year writing through the end of May, at which point the site is no longer
available. Students who want to sign up for the course after the cut off date
must go through the regular registration process.
Resource for
Exploring Online DSP at the University of Colorado-Boulder