In a solid move towards enhancing student resources, Utah State University's Blanding campus introduced ENGL 1050, a vital new composition course designed to fortify the reading and writing prowess of its students, the course, first available in the fall of 2024, aims to address the educational divide for returning students or those in need of a foundational boost before diving into advanced university coursework, as reported by USU Today.
May discussions at Blanding between the Department of English faculty and campus advisers highlighted the old placement system's inadequacies, which allowed students to sidestep a crucial 3-hour-long placement test known as ACCUPLACER and self-register for courses like ENGL 1010 despite low test scores, leading them to often end up in non-credit-bearing, 900-level courses, but now, thanks to better cooperation between departments and statewide campuses, the system has been revamped to include ENGL 1050: Academic Reading and a directed self-placement questionnaire which is already witnessing positive outcomes, with an uptick in students electing to take ENGL 1050, according to Kimberly Hiatt, a coordinator for Statewide TRIO Student Support Services.
Flexibility is a key benefit of the new ENGL 1050, allowing students the choice to enroll before or after taking the mandatory ENGL 1010, this ensures that students receive necessary support at precisely the right moment in their educational pathway. Beyond providing flexibility, ENGL 1050 stands apart for emphasizing local community matters, it includes reading material relevant to the students' communities, thereby valuing their lived experiences within an academic frame.
With its sights set on reducing the DFW (drop-fail-withdraw) rates in core English courses and readying students for the rigors of Communications Literacy 2 courses, ENGL 1050 eliminates unnecessary hurdles while bolstering student confidence, effectively delivering on retention and graduation objectives, it's strategically designed to become part of a more substantial solution. The anticipated renaming of the course to Community-Engaged Reading and Writing come fall 2025 could signify the program's expansion beyond the Blanding campus as part of a wider deployment agenda, suggested by Beth Buyserie, Director of Composition, as per USU Today.
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