New Policies for the CWE

Beginning in the summer of 2010, there will be a new process for taking the CWE on the Paterson campus of PCCC. Rather than registering, students will take the test on a walk-in basis. The Testing Department will offer the exam on a variety of dates each month, over a length of time. Students can show up on the date and time most convenient for them, with no registration required. They will still need to bring a photo ID to be allowed to take the test, however. Evening test times are limited to 5 seats per session, on a first come, first served basis, so it's best to show up early!

Other policies remain the same. Students who have failed the exam in the past must come to the Writing Center before retaking it.

Students may take one exam per month each. All exams will be scored after the last date of the exam. Results will take 2-4 weeks after the final test date in a given month. Results are both emailed and mailed to students, as well as being posted on their degree audits.

The exam will be given in room E215, and takes 2 hours.

These are the dates available for summer:

June Dates
(Theme: College Life)

Date	Day Starting Times	Evening Starting Times
June 1	9AM-2PM	5PM-6PM
June 2	9AM-2PM	5PM-6PM
June 3	9AM-2PM	5PM-6PM
June 8	9AM-2PM	5PM-6PM
June 9	9AM-2PM	No evening times offered
June 10	9AM-2PM	5PM-6PM
June 15	9AM-2PM	No evening times offered
June 16	9AM-2PM	No evening times offered
June 17	9AM-2PM	No evening times offered

Results of the June exam will be available July 1.
 
July Dates
(Theme: Moral Issues and Responsibilities)

Date	Day Starting Times	Evening Starting Times
July 7	9AM-2PM	No evening times offered
July 8	9AM-2PM	5PM-6PM
July 13	9AM-2PM	5PM-6PM
July 14	9AM-2PM	No evening times offered
July 15	9AM-2PM	5PM-6PM
July 20	9AM-2PM	5PM-6PM
July 21	9AM-2PM	No evening times offered
July 22	9AM-2PM	5PM-6PM

 Results of the July exam will be available August 6.

 There are no exams planned for August. The fall exam schedule will begin in October and follow the same walk-in format.

For more information or help with the CWE, students can go to http://pccc.libguides.com/cwe, email cwe_prep@pccc.edu or stop into the Writing Center.

Fall 2010 Registration for Writing Intensive Courses

Students at PCCC intending to obtain an A.A., A.S. or A.A.S degree are required to take-and pass with a "C" or better two writing-intensive courses prior to graduation. (Click here for specifics on requirements)

The following courses are Writing Intensive (WI) sections open for registration for the fall 2010 semester. All WI sections are limited to 25 students, so register as early as possible.

AE-101-OL1	Appreciation of Art	Thoubboron
BS-102-ME1	Biology II	Greidanus
CT-101-WE1	Critical Thinking	Hillringhouse
EN-205-M02	Intro to Literature	Redman-Waldeyer
EN-205-OL1	Intro to Literature	Klopfenstein
ENS-106-M01	Public Speaking	Risher
HI-101-ME2	Western Civilization I	Brozyna
HI-101-OL2	Western Civilization I	Jenkins
HI-102-W02	Western Civilization II	Drakulich
MU-106-OL2	Appreciation of Music	Ayala
PH-101-M02	Intro to Philosophy	Fruncillo
PL-101-ME1	Intro to Political Science	Getso
PS-101-ME2	Intro to Psychology	Termanini
PS-101-OL3	Intro to Psychology	Cianci
PS-101-P02	Intro to Psychology	Page
PS-101-W03	Intro to Psychology	Murphy
SC 104-M01	Environmental Science	Baranowski
SO-202-M01	Cultural Anthropology	Burkart

All Things e: readers, books and textbooks

I presented on April 9, 2010 at the NJEDge.Net/EATF Meeting titled  "An exploration of all things e-reader, e-book, e-textbook" which was held at at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison, New Jersey.

The presentations included reports from three eReader pilot projects at Farleigh Dickinson, Princeton and Seton Hall Universities. Pearson Education presented on eTextbooks and ePublishing formats. Members of VALE discussed purchasing of eBooks by libraries.

My own talk was a brief introduction on how eTextbooks and Open Educational Resources mix in the Open Textbook movement. The slides presentation is available below. 

Open Textbooks: A Brief Introduction

View more presentations from Ken Ronkowitz

Soft Launching An Institutional ePortfolio Initiative

Today, I presented along with Elizabeth Nesius and Anita Kumar at the NJEDge.Net Annual Faculty Best Practices Showcase at Seton Hall University. Our presentation, "Soft Launching An Institutional ePortfolio Initiative," highlighted the Writing Initiative's use of ePortfolios.

Beyond our portfolio use in WI classes, our experiences are acting as a pilot for PCCC’s use of eportfolios with all students.

We are using a decision-making process approach to piloting online portfolios to support student learning and assessment.

The Initiative has been using ePortfolios since Fall 2008 as a part of all writing intensive course sections.

Each of us looks at one aspect of portfolio use in the presentation.  First, I spoke about issues of concern about portfolio use at the institutional level. Anita addressed how she is using portfolios for departmental degree requirements in the Early Childhood Education program. Elizabeth then brought the focus down to the course level with both what we do in the WI classes and what she has done personally in her own English course.

Electronic portfolios are frequently used to enable students to use new media technologies, do reflective writing, and document and showcase their learning across courses, disciplines and semesters. Our presentation (available below) talks about the kind of data we have collected over the past four semesters that will be used to help make decisions about using portfolios with all students.

Soft Launching An Institutional ePortfolio Initiative

View more presentations from Ken Ronkowitz.

An Introduction to the College Writing Exam

There will be 4 sessions of an INTRODUCTION TO THE COLLEGE WRITING EXAM (CWE) workshop held this month.

This workshop is for students who have never taken the CWE.

We will review what is expected on the essay exam, how to prepare and how to register to take the exam.

All sessions will meet in the Writing Center Annex A111 on the Paterson Campus.

Check the workshops calendar at http://pccc.libguides.com/writingcenter for dates and times for these and all Writing Center workshops.

The PCCC Writing Center Is on YouTube!

The PCCC Writing Center can now be found on YouTube!



Using ECHO 360, the Writing Center has created a series of instructional videos for students on a variety of things, including using eTutoring, creating an online portfolio, and making an appointment with a writing consultant.

While it is possible to view these videos via a link provided to students, many have also been uploaded to YouTube so that students can search for them and watch them from home. In addition, the videos have been embedded on the LibGuide of the subject they pertain to.

All of the Writing Center's videos can be found at youtube.com/PCCCwritingcenter.