Building an instructional portal: channeling the writing lab

During the past decade, adjunct tutorial and learning services at many colleges and universities took first steps towards extending their reach on-line. In particular, many campus-writing centers began to explore a new model for making their reference resources, training, and consultation services available in the form of on-line writing labs. The U.C. Berkeley OWL Portal project takes this concept a step further by constructing an on-line writing lab using the building blocks provided by state-of-the-art portal technology. With the Berkeley OWL Portal's integrated set of content-management and communication tools, writing students have customizable views onto reference material as well as a wide range of tools for communicating with instructors, tutors, and classmates throughout the writing process.