The University of Oklahoma’s First-Year Composition Program was selected to receive the Conference on College Composition and Communication’s 2017-2018 Writing Program Certificate of Excellence. Dr. Roxanne Mountford, Director of the FYC Program, and her team of past and present assistant directors, associate director, and two lecturers received the award in a ceremony in Kansas City, Missouri on March 16, 2018.
The selection committee, chaired by Scott Wible, noted, “OU’s FYC Program innovatively addresses the criteria associated with the award. The program exhibits dedication to excellent and responsive professional development and commitment to equity for various stakeholders; indeed, the committee found this program’s labor practices to be exemplary. The composition course outcomes and methods of instruction/assignment design exhibit best practices. Especially innovative is the way the program promotes ‘rhetorical education’ through ‘civic empathy.’ Assessment practices demonstrate comprehensive reflection in response to both quantitative and qualitative data.”
The award honors the significant investments in sustainable, high-quality instruction made by the College of Arts and Sciences at the request of the English Department, as well as the work of Mountford and her team. The changes to the program have been popular with both students and instructors. In FYC’s assessment of the curriculum, 94% of FYC students reported that they valued their learning experience, and 97% agreed that they were free to choose topics that interested them. Students also claimed that their course assignments prepared them to “respectfully engage in public discussions,” one of the core goals of the curriculum.
Our full application for the Writing Program Certificate of Excellence is available for those interested in more information about our program.
