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E-LEARNING BY DESIGN
The mid-1990's Internet revolution offered opportunities to reach beyond physical walls and traditional paradigms for academic support services in higher education. For the inspired and dynamic, the harvest was beyond expectations.
This is the case of Purdue University's Online Writing Lab (OWL). The Web site exemplifies how professional insight, institutional support, and the successful application of technology can coalesce to appeal to, and serve, learners.
In the early 1990s, Dr. Muriel Harris, Writing Lab Director and Professor of English, saw the Internet as a convenient, alternative delivery system for her Writing Lab's handouts that were given to Purdue students who sought tutorial help in the Writing Lab. With temporary funding, and the assistance of Graduate Assistant Dave Taylor, she installed about 95 handouts on a "gopher" server, and added an e-mail consulting feature. That first application has grown to the Online Writing Lab (known by its acronym OWL) with 54,049 successful electronic "requests" per day during the month of October! The OWL Web site (http:// owl.english.purdue.edu) features
A Handouts Section of 200 writing topics in six sections: General Writing Concerns (e.g. prewriting, revising, genres); Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation (includes exercises); Research and Documenting Sources; English as a Second Language; Professional Writing (e.g. resumes, cover letters, reports); and Writing Across the Curriculum information and bibliographies Nearly all handouts are available in three formats: hypertext versions, which integrate many of the ways that the Web is different from the printed page, with links to printer-- friendly...