The English Department's Computer Aided Instruction Program exists to support the teaching of writing in on-campus computer classrooms, and to help composition instructors use the tools of instructional technology to better teach and communicate with students.  The CAI Program was founded in 1986 by a single lecturer who recognized the pedagogical opportunity presented by a small classroom in Olson Hall and a closet full of unused Apple computers.  The program has grown steadily since then: currently the University Writing Program offers classes in at least five computer classrooms every quarter; and about two-thirds of our upper-division classes are taught in the computer classroom.  The CAI Program is coordinated by a University Writing Program Lecturer and Academic Coordinator. The current CAI Coordinator is Andy Jones. 

History of the Program

The English Department's Computer Aided Instruction Program began when composition faculty recognized the power of new word-processing programs to show students the process of writing.  From brainstorming for content and connections between ideas, to rearranging entire paragraphs to restructure the presentation of those ideas, to revising individual sentences for clarity and economy, word processors and projection hardware allowed writing instructors to model and display the act of writing, thus emphasizing the importance of the writing and revising process.

At the time of the inception of the CAI Program, much of the literature about UNIX-based computer classrooms was dominated by descriptions of the frustration of instructors and students as they tried to master non-intuitive computer programs.  The CAI Program's endeavors to simplify the process of teaching with computers were supported by a series of publications such as a MacWrite guidebook, Introduction to Writing on the Macintosh and the Computer Classroom Guide for Composition Instructors in English, both authored by Campus Writing Center faculty.  Because of the relative ease-of-use of the Macintosh Operating System, CWC instructors could continue to focus on the process of writing, and especially new opportunities for revising, rather than on the technology used to "process words."

The 1990s saw the number of CAI classrooms and the number of CAI Coordinator duties expand significantly.  While the computer classrooms in the dormitories were transformed back into computer labs (in 1991 and 1992), new computer classrooms opened in other buildings on campus (including in Hutchison, Surge IV, Hart Hall, and Shields Library). As the number of the CAI Coordinator's duties grew, undergraduate assistants were hired to tend to technical problems with hardware and software, thus freeing the CAI Coordinator to focus more on pedagogy and training.  Today many of the English Department's technological support and troubleshooting duties are performed by a Computer Support Specialist.

In order to gain additional needed support for composition instructors teaching with technology, in 1995 the CAI Coordinator wrote a successful grant proposal to the Teaching Resources Center to create a graduate student position of Technology Assistant.  From 1995 to 1999, three different graduate students earned a one-course release for work assisting the CAI Coordinator, mostly by addressing the increasing CAI needs of those graduate students teaching in the University Writing Program.  The Technology Assistant also helped to keep an inventory of the hardware (including laptops that can transform most classrooms on campus into CAI classrooms) and software used by University Writing Program instructors and administrators.

In the late 1990s, as Microsoft Office applications and the World Wide Web began to dominate discussions of academic computing, the CAI Coordinators gave an increasing number of briefings and trainings on the best uses of these tools.  A new CAI Manual was published in 1997 to better meet the needs of new and unsure instructors teaching with technology; in 1998, a text-only version of the guide was added to the CAI web page. The CAI Guide explains how computers in the composition classroom can make students more comfortable and proficient with the craft of writing: how programs like Daedalus Interchange can increase student participation, how the pick-up and drop-off folders can ease paper flow in and out of the classroom, how new CAI tools for collaboration and communication can foster a sense of writing community, and how the internet allows the industrious instructor to extend the class beyond the official time and space limitations.

Current Status of the CAI Program

In the past seven years, additional Macintosh Classrooms have been completed in the basement of Olson; these include 21 Olson (1998) and 1 Olson (1999). The four primary Macintosh classrooms (1, 21, 241, and 247 Olson) are now dedicated to composition classes from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday. We teach over 90 sections of composition classes a year in these classrooms, most of them upper-division classes taught by lecturers; as our instructors reach more than 1700 undergraduates a year, ours is the largest CAI program on campus.  Whereas once we taught eight or nine computer-aided writing classes a quarter in 247 Olson, today CAI classes make up about two-thirds of all sections of upper-division writing classes.

In the last few years, the CAI Program has offered a variety of workshops and seminars on issues that frequently arise in composition classes: using computer classroom tools to best encourage critical and creative thinking, and revising; evaluating library and internet resources for research papers; and combating internet plagiarism, to name a few. The CAI website has been updated and expanded to represent the content of the workshops offered by the CAI Program, as well as links to writing-related resources on and off campus. The CAI Coordinator has also served on prominent campus committees on computers in teaching; current and past CAI Coordinators currently sit on the Campus Council for Information Technology, chair the Campus Council for Information Technolog Education Technology Subcommittee, and participate yearly in the Summer Institute on Technology in Teaching.

The CAI program is supported by many other units on campus; these include “The Arbor,” a faculty-run teaching-centered computer lab that offers year-round support and consultation for faculty using technology as a teaching tool; the Teaching Resources Center, which offers the yearly Summer Institute on Technology in Teaching (where CAI Coordinators have often given lectures and led discussions); and all the units under the umbrella of Information and Educational Technology.  The Coordinator for the CAI program keeps up with the offerings of these units on campus, introduces new instructors to CAI, trains veteran composition instructors in new applications and their uses, and advises the University Writing Program's administrative assistant on scheduling and staffing of CAI classes. Since 2002, the CAI Coordinator has also advised English Department Senate Faculty on the use of technology to support teaching and research projects.

Philosophy of the Program

Because University Writing Program instructors helped to design the classrooms in Olson Hall as computer classrooms rather than as labs, and used relatively straightforward word-processing software to teach writing activities, they were able to make the technology of the classroom be as "invisible" as possible, and thus focus closely on the practices and processes of writing.  This "keep it simple" approach, of eliminating the hindrances to creativity and clarity that technology can present, has been a foundational philosophy of our CAI Program.  Composition faculty have shared this philosophy of simplicity and usability by presenting papers at local and national professional conferences and publishing articles in academic publications, most notably in CWC lecturer Carolyn Handa's 1990 book Computers and Community: Teaching Composition in the Twenty-First Century.  Our Department's CAI philosophy is best represented today by the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" (by Art Chickering and Zelda Gamson), and by "Implementing the Seven Principles:: Technology as Lever" (by Arthur W. Chickering and Stephen C. Ehrmann).

Looking to the Future

As the CAI Program looks to the future, we find ourselves taking advantage of the increasing number of writing resources on the World Wide Web.  Many large universities have created Online Writing Labs, which offer guidance, mini-lessons, and exercises on important elements of writing and critical thinking.  Increasingly, students also look to the web to conduct the research for their major writing assignments for our classes; although we encourage students not to rely exclusively on web resources, they can nevertheless find established, credible and relevant information via local and worldwide networks, especially as libraries and periodicals make more of their resources available in virtual form.  One local example of such a resource is the TRC Online Writing Project, authored by CAI Coordinator Andy Jones. The U.C. Davis Registrar has made it a priority to install"smart panels" in every campus classroom, meaning that instructors will be able to plug any laptop into a console in most classrooms and project presentations and documents without having to teach in a computer classroom.  We hope that with the use of technology and time-tested methods of teaching writing, we may continue to prepare students with the communication and thinking skills necessary for them to succeed in a world and economy that is increasingly shaped by technology.  By presenting writing tasks and practices in the context of the sort of innovation, clarity and confidence that writing with a computer can provide, we better ensure the applicability and importance of the skills and practices we teach.

Past CAI Coordinators include John Stenzel, Pamela Major, Dale Flynn, Nancy Morrow, and Eric Schroeder.

If you have any questions about the Computer-Aided Instruction Program, please contact Andy Jones, CAI Coordinator.

Updated February, 2005