Web-Enabled Micro Engagement and Improving Linguistically Diverse Community College Student Writing

Abstract

In debates on institutional approaches to community college developmental instruction, this research examines one form of web-enabled formative assessments and presents a case study conducted in a linguistically-diverse urban community college. The study was designed to examine the multivariate associations between final class average, total user activity, total user activity in hours, and quiz average as measures of formative assessment and college writing achievement. The results of Pearson correlation analysis indicated 6 significant associations between micro engagement, formative assessment, and college writing achievement. Further, micro engagement, time on task, and formative assessment predicted 61% of college writing achievements. This study contributes to the conversation on community college writing instruction by demonstrating that employing multiple risk-free formative assessments provides one path toward college writing achievements.