In this brand new English Journal article (September 2022), Troy Hicks and Kristen Hawley Turner challenge us to actually integrate digital literacy strategies into our online teaching. They point out that simply making digital tools available to learners does not change how they participate in learning. They advocate that we “move beyond translating comfortable pedagogies into online spaces and, instead, focus on developing authentic literacy practices” (p. 86). A great feature of this article is Troy’s and Kristen’s retrospective on previous articles they and others have done on digital literacies. The article includes tangible, detailed examples of how to support learners’ digital literacies in the online settings that have become so familiar to us all.  

Turner, K. H., & Hicks, T. (2022). Digital literacy (still) can’t wait: Renewing and reframing the conversation. English Journal, 112(1), 86-93

Announcing the 2022-2023 GSOLE Professional Development and Certification Offerings

The Global Society of Online Literacy Educators is excited to announce its 2022-2023 professional development offerings! We believe online instructors need time, support, and guidance to teach effectively and confidently in online spaces.

These month-long asynchronous courses are designed and facilitated by online literacy scholars for online writing educators in secondary writing courses, first-year writing programs, technical writing courses, writing-intensive disciplinary courses, or reading/writing tutoring centers or studios. Each course includes the discussion of OLI theory and scholarship and the development of an OLI artifact that shows your ability to apply the theory in local practice.

You can take these courses individually as the topics interest you or earn the Basic OLI Certificate by completing all eight courses and an OLI ePortfolio. Learn more registration options on the GSOLE Certification and Professional Development Course webpage

Want to talk more? Reach out to certification administrators, Dr. Kevin DePew (kdepew@odu.edu) and Dr. Amy Cicchino (CicchinA@erau.edu) or attend our one-hour “Getting Started with GSOLE Certification” webinar

The GSOLE 2022 Online Conference, "Visions and Sites of Online Literacy Education", is now available to view via the Conference Archive page! 

The GSOLE Conference was held online on January 28, 2022 (#gsole2022).  

Please follow this link to explore the conference, see presentations and view materials.  (https://gsole.org/conferences/2022program)

2022–2023 Webinars: Call for Presenters

The Global Society of Online Literacy Educators, an organization dedicated to supporting hybrid and online teacher-scholars and tutors, invites you to submit proposals for our upcoming Webinar Series:

Globalising literacies:
Fostering engagement and innovation in HyFlex instruction.

GSOLE's webinars are designed to spark conversation, provide professional development, share ideas, and build community. Webinar recordings are made available to GSOLE members in an online archive, and webinar leaders are encouraged to transform their webinar topics into ROLE or OLOR publications. We welcome proposals that include a single webinar leader or a group of 2-3 leaders.

As students and staff start trickling back to campus, instructors need to consider how to adapt pedagogy to the “new normal.” Students have had a taste of remote and flexible learning, and universities worldwide are adapting to the potential of a global student market. For those students for whom time demands and travel are difficult (if not impossible), online learning will likely become an important way to access higher education.

Universities are increasingly calling for instructors to engage in hybrid flexible – “HyFlex” – learning, providing synchronous teaching to students who attend both in person and online. While this is an important step to improving students’ ability to attend classes, it requires instructors to understand, plan, and leverage multiple communication points and technological tools. It carries a number of implications for equity, both in terms of students’ access to technological resources and impacts on instructors’ planning time. While we have always invited individuals to discuss hybrid instruction, this year, we would like to focus exclusively on scholarship around practical solutions for HyFlex instruction.

*Submit your proposal via email to webinars@gsole.org by Friday, July 29th.

*Deadline for proposals has been extedned to August 19, 2022. 

These hour-long webinars are designed to bring literacy educators together for conversations about a range of issues, including, but not limited to:

• Globalization of the face-to-face learning space through technology
• Innovative use(s) of technology in HyFlex teaching
• Issues related to equity and access where significant technological variability may exist
• Transcending barriers between online and face-to-face students in a globalised, synchronous hybrid environment
• Strengths-based teaching – leveraging the affordances of diversity in a synchronous hybrid environment
• Writing center pedagogies and HyFlex instruction – globalising writing workshops, discussion groups, and writing consultations
• Humanizing the digital environment
• “Practical” HyFlex – approaches for streamlining planning and instruction and engaging all students
• Hybrid course design that emphasises support for diverse student cohorts (e.g., HyFlex teaching at the intersection of disability studies or linguistic diversity)
• Inclusive and equity-based methods & methodologies for research on HyFlex instruction

The 2022–2023 series will include four webinars, tentatively scheduled for November, February, and March, and May. In your proposal, please include the following:

1. Webinar Title
2. Webinar Leader(s) name, institutional affiliation, contact information, and a brief bio
3. The preferred month(s) in which you would like to hold your webinar (e.g. offer a ranked list or indicate if one month(s) is not possible)
4. A 500-word description that includes: 

Upon acceptance, you will work with the co-chairs to schedule your webinar. You will meet (virtually) with the co-chairs one month in advance of your webinar, and then again a few days prior to the webinar, to coordinate logistics. The co-chairs will provide technical support and are happy to help you prepare for the webinar. Presenters are also encouraged to to transform webinars into publications for GSOLE’s OLOR or ROLE.

If you have questions about the proposal process or would like to submit a proposal, please contact us at webinars@gsole.org.

The Global Society of Online Literacy Educators is proud to announce new Elected Officers and Board Members.  

Thank you to all the outgoing Elected Officers and Board Members. Your service to GSOLE has made this organization a leader in Online Literacy Education.  Please accept our humble thanks and gratitude.  

More details (updated soon) can be found here.(https://gsole.org/about/currentleaders)

Incoming:

Dan Seward - Immediate Past President

Cat Mahaffey - President

Amy Cicchino - Vice President

Meghan Velez - Secretary

Beatrice Newman - At-Large Board Member

Wonderful Faison - At-Large Board Member

Kenna Grove - At-Large Board Member

Outgoing:

Dan Seward - President (new incoming Immediate Past President)

Cat Mahaffey - Vice President (new incoming President)

Jennifer Burke Reifman - Secretary

Pavel Zemliansky - At-Large Board Member

Meghan Velez - At-Large Board Member (new incoming Secretary)

Webinars on Antiracist Pedagogy

GSOLE is partnering with the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum to host two events free to both GSOLE and AWAC members:

• “A Practical Toolkit for Antiracist WAC” presented by Genevieve García de Müeller and Ana Cortés Lagos on 22 September, from 2:00p to 3:30p ET. Register and learn more.
• “Strategies for Antiracist and Decolonial Language Pedagogy in the Online Writing Classroom” presented by Rachael Shapiro, Missy Watson, & Jude Miller on 27 September, from 2:00p to 3:30p ET. Register and learn more.

Call For Proposals: 2022 “Visions and Sites” Conference—(submission deadline: 12 October, 2021)

We invite members and nonmembers alike to submit proposals for our fifth annual all-day online conference, which will meet synchronously for a series of panels and plenaries on 28 January 2022. Don’t miss this opportunity to talk with other literacy educators about the latest topics and techniques for online literacy education. You can find more about the CFP on the GSOLE website.

Annual Member Survey—Open until 20 September, 2021

If you haven’t yet, please take 10 minutes to complete our annual member survey (requires login, but all responses are anonymous). We’ve extended the deadline to September 20 in order to hear from more members. This is your chance to let us know more about yourself and how we can serve your needs as an online literacy educator. The survey invites open comments at the end as well. 

New OLOR Effective Practices Publication Treating Online Group Projects

Earlier this summer we relaunched the Online Literacies Open Resource on our new website. There you can find the most recent OLOR Effective Practices publication: Tess Evan’s “Supervising Team Projects Effectively in an Online Writing Course.”

New Officers and At-large Executive Board Members

In July and August, we welcomed the following members to our Executive: Jennifer Cunningham, Meghalee Das, and Barbara D’Angelo. We’d like to thank the following outgoing Board Members for their service: Amy Cicchino, Miranda Egger, and Jessie Ulmer. We’d also like to thank Jude Miller for his work as Communication/Membership Officer over the past year. Appointed in his place are Nikki Chasteen as Membership Officer and Beatrice Newman as Communication officer. Learn more about the GSOLE leadership on our “Current Leaders” page.

In case you missed Vice President Cat Mahaffey’s earlier invitation to join the 2022 conference planning committee, here are a some more ways to get involved in GSOLE initiatives and activities:

Membership Officer

The GSOLE Steering Committee is looking for a current or new member to serve as our Membership Officer. The position entails about 10 hours of monthly volunteer contributions, including

• regularly monitoring the <membership@gsole.org> inbox, 
• one or more online committee meetings , and
• focused project work related to membership support and GSOLE's overall mission.

For a more detailed list of responsibilities and opportunities associated with this position, as well as instructions for applying, please visit the full Membership Officer position description. 

Communication Officer

The GSOLE Steering Committee is looking for a current or new member to serve as our Communication Officer. The position entails about 10 hours of monthly volunteer contributions, including

• regularly monitoring and posting to GSOLE’s social media accounts, 
• one or more online committee meetings, and 
• focused project work related to logistical and mission-based communication needs.

For a more detailed list of responsibilities and opportunities associated with this position, as well as instructions for applying, please visit the full Communication Officer position description. 

Content Curators

Our website is crucial for providing access to our services and support. Altogether, this content requires multiple volunteers to maintain and make it accessible—and we’re adding new material every month! We invite GSOLE members with any level of experience to get more involved as  Content Curators. Besides helping to facilitate online community and improve access to important OLI resources, you’ll have an opportunity to work with GSOLE administrators and the leaders of our program development committees.

To learn more about our Content Curator positions and how to apply, please visit the full position description. 

It's time to start working on next year's conference. As you might imagine, a lot of work goes into planning and implementing the conference. We've been fortunate the last few years to have a large committee to minimize extended labor for any one person. 

Having said that, we set larger and greater goals each year, and this year is no different, so we need more volunteers. Please consider joining the Conference Committee for the 2022 GSOLE Conference. You can choose to do as much or as little as your schedule allows when you're available. 

Volunteer opportunities include:

• Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) 
• Conference Program
• Presenter/Panel Liaison
• Post-Conference Archive
• Proposal Review
• Registration/Conference Promotion
• Sponsor Recruitment
• Website Maintenance

If you're interested in joining the Conference Committee, please complete this Google Form by Friday, July 9 at 5pm. 

The committee will hold its first planning meeting for next year's conference in mid to late July.

If you'd like more information about the committee or encounter issues with the form, email vice-president@gsole.org for assistance.

While COVID has made us all online instructors, it has not given us the time, support, or guidance necessary to teach effectively and confidently in online spaces. The Global Society of Online Literacy Educators (GSOLE), a community of experts in online literacy practices, is offering a Basic Online Literacy Instruction (OLI) Certificate to help teachers and tutors new to online learning implement research-based practices in online courses and online writing centers and make connections with other online literacy instructors. 

The course balances theory and practice and is designed to support the instructional work of anyone teaching reading and writing, such as instructors teaching composition, professional writing, literature, creative writing, writing-intensive courses in majors across the disciplines, as well as writing center tutors and English teachers in middle and high schools. The rigor and labor associated with this course can be compared to a graduate-level course with an ePortfolio being the final deliverable that will be assessed for certification. We estimate participants will spend approximately five hours per monthly module over 9 months. 

Individuals who enroll in the Basic OLI Certificate will…

• Connect with a community of online literacy instructors and tutors as well as online literacy mentors
• Learn principles in effective online literacy education
• Read scholarship in online literacy instruction (OLI)
• Receive guidance from OLI experts on assignment and activity design for online literacy courses and online writing center consultations
• Develop strategies for adapting instruction to different online modalities (e.g., synchronous and asynchronous learning)
• Develop strategies for assessing online learning
• Be able to communicate their approach to OLI to others through the creation of an OLI theory and ePortfolio

We ask that administrators, teachers, or tutors new to online learning consider enrolling for our Basic OLI Certificate, which occurs throughout the 2021–2022 academic year and begins August 15th. To enroll, please visit https://gsole.org/certification.

Registration cost:

• For contingent faculty and graduate students: $100
• Full-time faculty/staff making under $50,000 annually: $125
• Full-time faculty/staff making over $50,000 and up to $75,000 annually: $150
• Full-time faculty/staff making over $75,000 annually: $200

Enrollment for this certification is used to fund an honorarium to the OLI facilitator-mentors. Participants must be GSOLE members if they are not so already. 

If we can help you advocate to institutional stakeholders for funds related to course registration, please let us know. We encourage institutions who are enrolling multiple participants to contact us as they register these individuals so that we can group them in the same learning pod. In our experience, these institutional cohorts have greater chances for completion and success. 

If you have any questions about the certificate program or GSOLE generally, please contact Amy Cicchino, amycicchino@auburn.edu.

The entire Online Literacies Open Resource is back online after migration from our old site to our new one <gsole.org/olor>. In the process, we’ve reconceptualized GSOLE’s publication model, even as we’ve updated (and continue updating) the resources themselves to be more citable, reliable, and accessible.

New OLOR Publication Model

Here are the important details about the updated OLOR publication paradigm:

• The Online Literacies Open Resource will now include all of GSOLE’s open resources, including the previously published OLOR resources (now listed as OLOR Effective Practices), Research in Online Literacy Education (ROLE), our Just-in-Time resources, and our OLI Principles. Each of these titles will now be treated as a series underneath our “umbrella” OLOR publication.
• We will divide the past ROLE publications into two series: ROLE research and OLOR Reviews. Some of the ROLE technology reviews will be republished under OLOR Effective Practices, depending on the focus of the article.
• Each republished piece will acknowledge its original site of publications to ensure past citations of the resources will clearly indicate a reference to the republished pieces.

Improvements to the Resources Themselves

Here are the key features we’re gradually introducing to all the resource pages and articles:

• Better web indexing and reliable permalinks for each resource.
• Clearer presentation of bibliographic information to facilitate referencing of materials in OLOR.
• Section and paragraph numbers to facilitate targeted citation.
• Better support for assistive devices through more consistent and more purposeful tagging of material and use of ARIA attributes. We’re working towards WCAG 2.0 compliance.

Call for Volunteers: Help Build OLOR!

Finally, we are also seeking volunteers to help implement the improvements described above.

Copyeditors for GSOLE Publications: Do you have a sharp eye for mechanics, format, and phrasing? If so, we’d value your contributions as a copyeditor.  

OLOR Reviews editor: The OLOR Reviews editor will be responsible for soliciting and develop short reviews for books, technology, and other relevant media. This is a great opportunity to network with other OLI professionals and keep apprised of OLI resources.

Lead Curator/Editor of GSOLE’s “Online . . . Just-in-Time” Resources: We developed our Just-in-Time resources in a rush, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, we’d like to curate the resources more deliberately. If you’ve benefited from these resources or have some ideas about how to improve them, consider applying for this Lead Curator/Editor position.

Content Curators for GSOLE Publications: If you’d like to learn more about accessible multimodal composition, this is a great opportunity to practice hands-on techniques making online resources work well for broad audiences of readers. No experience in website development is required. If you’re already adept with accessible multimodal composition, then you’ll have an opportunity to put your knowledge and talents to good use by helping to guide these efforts in short and long term projects.

Contact Us with Questions or to Volunteer

If interested in volunteering in any of these positions, please contact olor@gsole.org, including a two-paragraph statement of interest and qualifications for the position (no experience required) and a current CV.