CARDS: A Collaborative Community Model for Faculty Development or an Institutional Case Study of Writing Program Administration

The structure of writing programs evolves to account for the transformation of composition studies. Online and dual credit programs necessitate a need to adjust prior practices initially geared towards face-to-face pedagogy; however, several challenges surface in online and dual credit writing programs. The most prevalent is that these online courses are primarily staffed by non-tenured faculty, including adjuncts who do not have a physical presence on campus. The faculty dynamic presents many challenges when attempting to garner participation in collaborations. In recent years, the Writing Program Administrator (WPA) at a regional public university noticed a need to improve faculty morale, satisfaction, and participation, especially with the emergence of online programs. Through a national survey and selective interviews of current faculty at the university, we determined that the answer lies in the structure of the program. The Writing Program Administrator has several models to choose from, but we will argue that the collaborative community model is most conducive to addressing and enhancing faculty morale, satisfaction, and participation in first-year writing programs