Presenters:
Vanaja Nethi, Jennifer Reeves, Steve Hecht, Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice; & Kate Ramunda, Vital Source
Graduate programs require students to produce rigorous academic writing, often adhering to specific style guidelines, such as the APA. This presentation will demonstrate how the digital bundle consisting of the APA Student Workbook and the APA Manual can teach students the principles of academic writing, citation practices, and ethical scholarship. By leveraging the digital bundle at multiple points in the program leading to the capstone – a thesis or dissertation, we can provide a structured, consistent, and interactive approach to mastering APA style and ultimately improving the quality of students' academic writing.
In this session, we share how we integrated the APA digital bundle into the Doctor of Education (Ed.D) program, replacing the APA Manual, a required supplementary resource students purchased in their first term and expected to master independently. Now, students buy the perpetual license version of the APA digital bundle, which allows them eight years of access. This digital bundle is easily integrated into Canvas courses, and the APA Student Workbook has practice activities and summative quizzes for each chapter, which mirror chapters in the APA Manual and are seamlessly linked. Workbook chapter activities are interactive and allow for self-paced learning, and the summative quizzes, when assigned, are automatically graded. In the EdD program, students are introduced to the APA Student Workbook in the Academic Writing course in Term 1 and then revisit relevant chapters in the workbook in three other research courses, thus creating a spiral curriculum where students revisit core principles of rigorous academic writing.
Learning Outcomes:
Participants will:
- Explain how the APA digital bundle is a way to raise the bar and actively teach academic writing skills.
- Describe how to integrate the APA digital bundle in a Canvas course, and a graduate-level curricula.
- Discuss actionable insights for instructors to improve student writing.
Stock Music provided by AmoreMore, from Pond5
