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Allison Hutchison: Studio 360: Stop writing in circles

The following story was written in April 2019 by Cat Knowles in ​ENGL ​4824​: Science Writing ​as part of a collaboration between the English department and the Center for Communicating Science.

This image shows a maroon/pink circle on a circular background of small pale pink squares. Inside the circle, script reads "360 Digital Studio."
The Shanks Hall 360 Digital Studio logo.

With services such as online tutoring, one may easily assume that a physical space is not needed. Through her research here at Virginia Tech, however, PhD candidate Allison Hutchison works to prove otherwise.

    In the fall of 2018, Allison Hutchison officially opened what is now known as the Digital Studio in Shanks Hall here at Virginia Tech. Hutchison’s research in the PhD program in Rhetoric and Writing focused on whether or not online tutoring was a feasible option for Technical Writing students.

     Hutchison, now Dr. Hutchison, sought to fill a need she saw for students in Technical Writing: a lack of a specialized writing center geared towards these specific students’ needs. By reviewing relevant literature in the writing center field, Hutchison found that many college campuses simply start writing centers without involving students as research participants in order to discern what their needs might be. Hutchison also found this issue to be quite prevalent in regard to specialized writing centers, which is where she found research inspiration.

    The end goal for the research is to create a space that meets the needs of both students and professors. For students, the primary hope is to be able to provide consultations and online resources that are usable and beneficial to students, specifically in Technical Writing courses. For professors, the hope is that they will be able to provide their students with a space to go to when they need to use computer programs, print course-related assignments, or collaborate with teammates. The secondary goal for this research, however, is to change the way students and faculty currently view specialized writing centers.

This studio shows a row of desks facing large windows on the edge of a room.  Eight chairs and eight computer monitors are visible, along with two large monitor screens on the wall in the space between the windows.
Bank of computers for student use in the Shanks 360 Digital Studio.

    Currently, many students have a preconceived notion that a writing center exists solely to help students become more technically advanced writers (i.e., grammar, spelling, structure). Hutchison, however, is working to create these specialized tutoring spaces for Technical Writing students so that they can receive help in areas like content and genre type in addition to these surface-level grammatical improvements. For example, Hutchison pointed out that many students go through college thinking that they can write a report the same way that they would write an essay, and that will prove to be successful for them. On the contrary, a report is a completely different genre than an essay. With some form of this specialized tutoring, however, we can teach students how to become stronger technical writers overall.

    How does the Digital Studio fit into her research plan? While the research focuses specifically on online tutoring for Technical Writing students, the Digital Studio is an effort from the Department of English to offer a place for any English major or any student in any English class. Where these two elements come together, however, is in the fact that the Studio provides Hutchison with a unique location to offer these tutoring services. The studio provides the perfect space for Hutchison to conduct her research while also creating a space where English students can go to print, study, and collaborate.

This photo shows a large classroom with desks and computer monitors lining the walls and three large tables, each with eight chairs, in the open space in the middle of the room.
Tables in the 360 Digital Studio in Shanks Hall designed for group work and collaboration.

    The biggest challenge that Hutchison ran into while trying to get this writing center off the ground, however, didn’t actually have much to do with the research itself, but rather it involved getting the word about the space out to the students. As far as the technical writing tutoring is concerned, Hutchison works with professors of Technical Writing to create a Canvas page within a module in order to get the word out. The Digital Studio, on the other hand, presented more of a challenge. At first, Hutchison tried things like email blasts, fliers, and even in-class presentations to get the word out about the studio, but most of those efforts proved futile. In the end, word of mouth has proven most successful to Hutchison for getting the word out.

    Overall, Hutchison’s research here at Virginia Tech is serving an important purpose. Her digital tutoring research is helping to create more specialized and tailored assistance to students, and the Digital Studio provides a physical space for her to operate out of, while also fulfilling a need of the students here at Virginia Tech.

    For more information about the Digital Studio and the online technical writing consultations, go to 360digitalstudio.github.io.

(All images from 360digitalstudio.github.io)