Creating a digital writing classroom: A mixed methods study about a first-year composition tablet initiative

Abstract

Having a higher level of digital literacy can contribute to students' better outcomes in first-year composition. However, some underprepared and financially disenfranchised students may not have digital literacy skills nor own a portable computing device, such as a tablet, to engage their coursework. This three-year, mixed methods study of 292 first-year composition students and 46 instructors at a research university suggests that implementing an institutional initiative to offer students tablets and a digitized curriculum for first-year composition can facilitate many positive outcomes. At the study's university, a "Tablet Initiative" raised some students' digital-literacy proficiency levels, enabled their digital composition practices, and improved their course outcomes as they spent additional time both inside and outside of the classroom in reading course texts; researching their topic; planning, drafting, and revising their work; and conducting peer reviews of one another's essays. Surveys, interviews, and course observations indicate that for many students, the Tablet Initiative generated a writing-intensive, student-centered, classroom experience, with many students from underprepared or lower socioeconomic backgrounds depending on their tablets. The study's results have implications for teaching and learning with mobile digital devices in first-year composition.