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Mary Ellen Nourse, Publicity Coordinator & Manager: WAOE-News Mary Ellen has been with WAOE from the very beginning. She was a very active member of the discussion group focused on Steve McCarty's keynote address to the Tertiary Community Colleges Conference in April 1998, which grew into the inaugural establishment body for the Association. |
Mary Ellen initiated the establishment of the WAOE-News listserv as early as May 1998 and continues to manage it. She is WAOE's Publicity Coordinator/Public Information Committee Officer, and also carries leading responsibility for the Association's efforts to secure external funding through grants and projects. Mary Ellen writes:
First of all, I'm an affiliate assistant professor in the Department of English of the College of Letters and Science at the University of Idaho, USA. My field within English is business communication. The difference between an affiliate faculty member and an adjunct is that the latter usually has an appointment of limited duration, such as a semester or an academic year. In contrast, an affiliate position is ongoing.
To confuse matters, however, my online teaching has been as an adjunct for the College of Education at UI. I've taught Internet applications for Educators I and II Online in past years; Internet Apps I Online is scheduled for this coming Summer semester (if enrollment permits). Meanwhile, I am overseeing two graduate students who are taking Technology Applications for Idaho School Administrators Online, which is another professional development course. In other words, academic credit is granted, but this credit can't be applied toward an advanced degree.
Currently, I'm writing grant proposals to fund an Online Writing Lab (OWL)# for the University of Idaho Boise Center. My initial proposal to establish an OWL for our campus down here in Boise was approved by my department chair and dean up on our main campus. As I proposed, the OWL will be funded solely through grants--and I'm the one to write those grants! Anyway, I am very much looking forward to serving as Director and sole Staff Member of the UI Boise OWL.
As part of the process to establish an OWL, I intend to conduct action research consisting of a survey of our UI Boise faculty and staff to be transmitted via electronic and traditional means (i.e., placement in faculty mailboxes). The purpose will be to determine what resources and services faculty and staff feel should be offered by the Online Writing Lab. These responses will be compared with those received from students.
Another research project in which I'm involved deals with perceptions of collegiate accrediting agencies regarding the "status" given to those of us who present and publish online as compared to our colleagues who spend $$$$ to present at f2f conventions and then publish in hard copy. I plan to report the results in WAOE's Journal of Online Education.
My hobbies include organ, piano, and accordion; USA Civil War re-enactment, public speaking, nonparametric statistical procedures, baseball, track and field, running, and Masters swimming. I also try to serve as Publicity Chair and WAOE-News listserv administrator for WAOE.
# See Mary Ellen's article under WEB Ideas and Issues. If you would like to know more about Online Writing Labs, this link will take you to the Online Writing Centers Website, where the National Writing Centers Association maintains an index of online university writing centers. Web Editor
In each issue of WEB a different member introduces him- or herself and talks about experiences and interests in online education and training. Drawing on the information and URLs provided on their registration forms, the WEB Editor is targetting individual members who are doing especially innovative and exciting things in online education with requests to provide a brief profile.
But why wait to be asked? All WEB readers are urged to use the Memberās Profile to help flesh out the person behind the impersonal email address youāre known by in WAOE. We are a member's organisation - reMEMBER!! Just a short piece will do. As well as giving us some background information, weād like you to tell colleagues why you joined WAOE, what you hope to gain from your involvement, and what you would like to contribute.