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“Delivering Rhetoric Online:

A Roundtable Discussion”

Featuring

Dr. Foteini Egglezou, Hellenic Open University

Dr. Erin Wais-Hennen, Grand Canyon University

Dr. Rich Rice, Texas Tech University

Brendan Hawkins, PhD Candidate, Florida State University

Facilitated by Amy Cicchino & Brent Lucia

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Overview

Introduction of Speakers
Showcasing Different Approaches to Online Rhetoric in Local Contexts
Guided Discussion
Open Q&A
Closing Remarks

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Dr. Foteini Egglezou, founding President of the Hellenic Institute of Rhetorical and Communication Studies and Professor of Critical Pedagogy at the Hellenic Open University in Greece, teaches in the distance Master's program. Dr. Egglezou's research interests are focused on the implementation of Rhetoric and Argumentation to all the educational stages, the educational use of debate, the relation of Rhetoric to Critical Pedagogy, Critical and Active Citizenry, and in the uses of argument in political speech. She will discuss her work with "Odyssey," an online debate program for high school students around Greece.

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Erin Wais-Hennen is adjunct professor at Grand Canyon University where she teaches Technical Writing and Rhetorical Theory for graduate students and formerly Assistant Professor of English at Lindsey Wilson College where she taught Modern Rhetoric and Writing & Culture, among other courses. She came to online instruction after a neurological disability caused her to lose her speech. She offers instructors with speech disabilities an approach to discussing disability with students and alternatives for online instruction outside of speaking or being on camera. She has published in the Journal of the Kenneth Burke Society and presented at the Conference on College Composition and Communication, and the Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America.

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Dr. Rich Rice is Professor of English in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric program at Texas Tech University. He teaches and researches composition, rhetoric, and technical communication courses online, including courses on topics like the history of rhetoric, grant writing, online writing instruction, intercultural communication, contemporary composition and rhetoric, and new media. Dr. Rice has also published on topics related to online pedagogy, rhetorical pedagogy, global communication, and ePortfolios in venues such as Research in Online Literacy Education (ROLE), Computers and Composition, and Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy.

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Brendan Hawkins (bhawkins3@fsu.edu) is a PhD Candidate in rhetoric and composition at Florida State University where he teaches History of Rhetoric, Rhetorical Theory and Practice, and Research, Genre, and Context in addition to supporting GTAs as the Online Writing Coordinator for the College Composition Program. In his approach to teaching rhetoric online, Hawkins bases his courses around key terms, which allow students to grapple with broader questions about rhetoric while encouraging them to read across texts and time periods.

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Showcasing Different Approaches to Online Rhetoric in Local Contexts

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Brendan’s Teaching Context

Key features of my online course on Rhetorical Tradition(s), an introductory course for our Editing, Writing, and Media major: Focus on key terms and their transformations across contexts and timelines.

Guiding Questions:

What reading strategies are needed for reading rhetorical theories and realities?
What is the study or subject of rhetoric? Is rhetoric persuasion, culture, knowing, words, something else?
How is rhetoric power-full? How are issues in rhetoric, such as believability, knowledgeable, authoritative, and many, many more, affected by or affect the way we understand “power”?
Who gets to define what counts as rhetoric and who becomes a rhetorician?

Delivery is...

predominantly asynchronous (summaries; discussion prompts; narrated lessons) with
synchronous teaching and Q&A sessions (influenced by Mick and Middlebrook’s “Synchronous and Asynchronous Modalities”).

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Guided Discussion

What activities do you design to help students move through dense rhetorical content?

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Guided Discussion

What is your favorite assignment for assessing learning in an online rhetoric course?

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Guided Discussion

Rhetoric is embodied, yet some have accused the online space as being disembodied--what do you do to encourage students to enact all forms of rhetoric in a virtual environment?

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Guided Discussion

How do you create peer-to-peer interaction in your online rhetoric course?

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Guided Discussion

What do you do to get beyond the discussion board?

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Guided Discussion

What barriers do you and your students encounter related to online learning?

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Guided Discussion

How do you create instructor presence in your online courses?

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Guided Discussion

How do you use the affordances of different modes (hybrid, online, hyflex, asynchronous, synchronous) to design engaging opportunities to learn?

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Guided Discussion

What does engaged learning look like in your course? And how do you communicate that to students?

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Guided Discussion

How do you help students see the connections between rhetoric and their individual and professional practices?

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Guided Discussion

COVID 19 has deeply affected our ability to learn and teach—what issues around student learning have become more apparent in the last year, and how have you responded to them?

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Questions from You:

Questions that you contributed when you registered
As we ask our presenters to respond, feel free to tell us how you approach these topics by typing in the chat

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