Workshops - Writing Center Consortium for Graduate-level Professional Military Education
Faculty Workshop Series
By faculty and for faculty, the WCCG's annual workshop series offers an opportunity to explore practices for improving student outcomes.
Our 90-minute workshops are geared toward non-writing specialists in any academic discipline. Writing SMEs from across PME institutions share unique perspectives and offer strategies that help faculty incorporate new ways of teaching critical thinking and writing, strengthen their advising, and consider AI's role in military graduate education.
The 2026 workshop season has concluded.
This year's emphasis was on making AI work for students and faculty, complemented by a strategic communication workshop. Six exceptional educators from four consortium institutions shared knowledge, strategies, and practical techniques, while encouraging conversation. To download the 2026 Workshop Series program, click here.
Slides and videos for the concluded sessions are posted below, as available.
Friday, January 30, 1230–1400 Eastern, 0930–1100 Pacific
The use of writing as a tool to teach and evaluate student learning in PME is under threat with the advent of generative AI. Even as we and our students learn to benefit from AI tools, we must ensure that we minimize incentives for its misuse that sidestep essential learning.
This workshop focuses on some of the initial preventative steps you can implement to preserve the role of authentic writing and thinking in the learning process. Participants will evaluate writing samples to distinguish between human and AI writing and will learn tips for creating writing assignments that can reduce unauthorized AI use.
Dr. Amanda Rosen, Professor of Teaching and Learning, Teaching Excellence Center, U.S. Naval War College. Dr. Rosen conducts faculty development, research, curricular development, and assessment on educational gaming and instructional strategies in the U.S. Naval War College’s security studies and professional military education contexts. She is the author of the 2024 book Teaching Political Science: A Practical Guide for Instructors (Palgrave-Macmillan), contributing editor to the Marine Corps University Press journal International Perspectives on Military Education (IPME), and co-founder of the award-winning blog Active Learning in Political Science.
Friday, February 13, 1230–1400 Eastern, 0930–1100 Pacific
As artificial intelligence transforms the modern operational environment, instructors must evolve their teaching methods to align with core principles of adult learning theory. While often seen as a threat to academic integrity, AI chatbots present a powerful opportunity to enhance student-centered, problem-based learning.
This hands-on workshop demonstrates how to harness this potential by designing bespoke AI teaching assistants that align with andragogical principles. Participants will explore how to create custom AI agents that act as Socratic partners or simulate complex decision-making, fostering deeper student engagement. Attendees will leave with a practical blueprint for designing and implementing a custom AI bot that supports adult learning, turning a potential disruption into a dynamic educational partner.
COL Andrew Farina, PhD (U.S. Army), Director, Behavioral Sciences Program, U.S. Military Academy. COL Farina is a combat-tested leader, scholar, and educator with over 24 years of military experience, including 11 combat deployments. A West Point graduate with a Ph.D. from Tufts University, he is Director of Behavioral Sciences at West Point, where he also helps shape the academy's integration of AI. He uniquely bridges his extensive frontline experience with behavioral science, drawing on his operational history to mentor the Army's next generation of leaders.
Friday, February 20, 1230–1400 Eastern, 0930–1100 Pacific
[No slides used for presentation]
Argumentation is a core capacity to be developed and enhanced in PME students, especially in the areas of reading, thinking, and writing. This discussion considers what this means, how we cultivate those capacities, and what tools and techniques (including the use of generative AI) support and detract from this critical educational process. Drawing on her recent experience at the U.S. Naval War College and U.S. Naval Community College, Dr. Shanks Kaurin guides participants in exploring evolving best practices and future concerns.
Dr. Pauline Shanks Kaurin, Senior Research Associate, Inamori Center for Ethics and Excellence, Case Western Reserve University; Vice President, Military Writers Guild. Dr. Shanks Kaurin holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Temple University, specializing in military ethics, just war theory, and applied ethics. Dr. Kaurin served as the Stockdale Chair and Professor of Professional Military Ethics at the U.S. Naval War College in the College of Leadership and Ethics from 2018–2025. She has been a featured contributor for The Strategy Bridge and has published in Clear Defense, Wavell Room, War on the Rocks, Grounded Curiosity, U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, Just Security, and a variety of academic journals. Her books include Achilles Goes Asymmetrical: The Warrior, Military Ethics and Contemporary Warfare (Routledge, 2014) and On Obedience: Contrasting Philosophies for Military, Citizenry and Community (U.S. Naval Institute Press, 2020).
Friday, February 27, 1230–1400 Eastern, 0930–1100 Pacific
How do we deliver rigorous, timely, and developmentally appropriate evaluation and feedback in a time-limited environment where AI tools increasingly shape how students generate, revise, and reflect on their work? This workshops responds to this opportunity by reframing AI not as a threat to academic standards, but as a faculty-controlled capability that can strengthen assessment, transparency, and learning outcomes.
This workshop helps faculty clarify where AI supports evaluative judgment and how to align AI-assisted feedback with PME learning objectives while preserving faculty authority, ethics, and intellectual rigor. Grounded in AI integration practices designed for military educators and leaders, participants will examine use cases, risks, and guardrails specific to graduate PME. Faculty will practice with concrete tools, including AI-assisted feedback prompts, rubric calibration techniques, and structured workflows for scalable, high-quality evaluation.
Lt Col Kelly "Curly" Ihme, PhD (PA Air National Guard), Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg Chair of Aerospace Studies, U.S. Army War College. Lt Col Ihme is an assistant professor in the U.S. AWC's Department of Distance Education. She is a board-certified psychiatric nurse and intelligence officer with a PhD in organizational psychology, as well as the senior intelligence officer for the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. her work comprises campaign planning, holistic health and fitness, and international fellows outreach education. Her research focuses on mindfulness, AI, and leadership. She presents at national and international conferences and has published in the fields of combat behavioral health, AI integration, cyber, and military leadership training.
Friday, March 13, 1230–1400 Eastern, 0930–1100 Pacific
Preparing senior military and civilian leaders for the joint and multinational enterprise requires teaching exceptional nonpartisan executive communication that reflects the highest standards of the profession of arms.
This session addresses how to teach students to effectively navigate and communicate in complex organizational structures. Participants will examine characteristics that shape perceptions of leader influence and learn techniques to help students build their strategic skillset:
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Elevate their understanding of psychological linguistic triggers, bases of power,
and influence strategies -
Focus energy where it yields the highest return for strategic influence
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Understand and skillfully apply strategic framing
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Gauge enterprise readiness for transition.
Dr. Abigail Stonerock, Professor of Executive Communication; Director, Center for Executive Communication, U.S. Army War College. Dr. Stonerock teaches executive leadership and communication to general/flag officers, senior civilian/military leaders, and command teams. She is a professor in NATO’s Master Instructor Program and represents the war college in the Harvard Learning Innovation Lab. She’s served in numerous civilian leadership positions, including vice chancellor of academic affairs, dean, and director of higher education faculty development for over 11,000 faculty at 23 colleges and 40 campuses in Virginia. Prior service includes chief architect of the FBI’s Leadership Development Program, Faculty Professor in Princeton University’s young statesman program, and Educational Liaison to the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait.
Friday, March 27, 1230–1400 Eastern, 0930–1100 Pacific
Two habits, anthropomorphism and anthropocentrism, significantly shape learners’ interactions with AI systems. Users tend to relate to AI as if it were human, a tendency that is both psychologically intuitive and actively reinforced by human–computer interface design. Users also operate as if human cognition is the standard for intelligence, undermining the ability to leverage AI outputs that do not mirror human reasoning.
Situating these tendencies within a shifting information environment, this workshop explores implications for learning, epistemic resilience, and knowledge production in PME. Drawing on cognitive psychology and selected interdisciplinary work, participants will consider how users might revise their mental models of AI and reach beyond human assumptions when engaging with non-human entities. They will explore human–AI teaming and how adopting different cognitive postures enables humans to work more effectively with AI.
Chloe Woida (contractor), Senior Writing Instructor, Graduate Writing Center, Naval Postgraduate School. Ms. Woida has worked in the Graduate Writing Center at the Naval Postgraduate School for over a decade, supporting research communication across social science, management, and STEM programs. In addition to working intensively with students, she contributes to faculty development and institutional efforts related to teaching and learning. Her current research examines how AI is reshaping learning, professional reasoning, and epistemic resilience in professional military education and beyond.
Past Workshops
2025
Friday, January 24, 1230–1400 Eastern
SLIDES
Citing AI Quick Guide
USAWC Using & Citing AI FAQ
This academic year, the U.S. Army War College doubled down on one of PME’s most open generative AI policies, premised on trust and responsibility. This workshop shares hard-won insights and strategies around communicating, implementing, and adapting AI policy to faculty, staff, and students who range from early adopters to tech skeptics.
Participants will benefit from resources and conversation around each of these challenges: heuristics that succinctly summarize types of valid AI uses and documentation in the research and writing process, and products and approaches we’ve used to fill gaps and address borderline cases in a shifting technological and normative environment. Come see the scars of open policy, and save some lAIcerations and misAIdventures in creating, updating, and/or implementing your own.
Dr. Abram Trosky, Associate Professor of Applied Communication, US Army War College. Dr. Trosky joined the USAWC in 2019 and co-founded the college’s Applied Communication and Learning Lab, now the Center for Executive Communication. His research and teaching focus on ethics, argumentation, and persuasion in shaping and communicating policy and strategy. He has been instrumental in adapting USAWC’s generative AI policy and creating the “GenEdEx” initiative encouraging generative AI education and responsible experimentation among PME students, staff, and faculty.
Friday, February 7, 1230–1400 Eastern, 0930–1100 Pacific
Link to Prezi presentation
Slides as Adobe PDF file
PME faculty come from a wide range of backgrounds—academia, the interagency, the Armed Forces, and public and private sectors—and many are expected to assume the role of thesis advisor, including on projects outside their discipline or experience. This workshop helps faculty of all levels of advising experience guide students through the iterative, recursive, and sometimes convoluted research journey.
Walking step-by-step through the research process, from selecting a research question to offering credible, evidence-based recommendations, this workshop illustrates how the research process aligns with, departs from, and returns to the actual writing process. Workshop participants will benefit from concrete resources, such as custom-made charts and figures to share with their fellow faculty, classes, and student advisees.
Nicole Cox, Program Manager for Academic and Faculty Enhancement, National Defense University. Ms. Cox is a practicing writer with 20 years of experience teaching genre-based writing and rhetoric in every kind of university—an R1 institution, a private school, a community college, an HBCU, and PME. Her philosophy is simple: writing is real. It’s one of the ways we contribute to, participate in, and expand our world. At CIC, she’s building educational infrastructure to support faculty through professional development workshops, curriculum (re)development, and instructional design.
Friday, February 21, 1230–1400 Eastern, 0930–1100 Pacific
PRESENTATION SLIDES
In English
In French
Generative AI has ushered in a “post-essay era” with the potential to reshape how we teach and learn, for good or ill. This workshop explores a variety of approaches for helping students engage deeply with texts, develop strong analytical skills, and improve their academic writing in the post-essay era. In addition to strategies for critical reading and argumentation, we will discuss alternative assignment formats—such as reflective writing, digital projects, collaborative analysis, and multimodal storytelling—that foster deep engagement while maintaining academic rigor.
While these approaches will be particularly useful in the study of literature, they can also be applied effectively in fields such as history, political science, psychology, and other disciplines that require critical thinking, research, and argumentation. Through practical examples, we will explore innovative ways for instructors to design assignments, facilitate discussions, assess student learning, and reframe the post-essay era to one of opportunity, not apocalypse.
Dr. Lucie Moussu, Professor and Director, Writing Centre Royal Military College of Canada. Based in Kingston, Ontario, Dr. Moussu’s research interests include military education and how writing centers juggle issues related to generative artificial intelligence and academic integrity. She is currently organizing an international conference, Frontiers of Integrity, being held online May 21–23, 2025, on the impact of generative AI on military education and training, and is involved in a comparative, international research study on the impact of generative AI on teaching and learning.
Friday, March 7, 1230–1400 Eastern, 0930–1100 Pacific
PRESENTATION HANDOUT
Story-Based Communication Skills
Stories are fundamental to how we communicate, learn, and think. Good stories increase understanding, impact, retention, and connection. While stories are natural to how we interact, there are some surprising and counterintuitive techniques that stand to improve both the way PME faculty communicate with their students and help them convey their message both down and in, and up and out, to military and public audiences alike.
Discover ways to tap into the power of stories by:
- Learning how stories function with unique effects
- Discovering story-based techniques for engaging students
- Exploring a behavioral, story-based communication model for teaching, advising, and writing
- Sharing best practices
Terrence Gargiulo (contractor), Writing Coach, Naval Postgraduate School. Mr. Gargiulo is the former chief storyteller of Accenture. He is the author of eight books, several of which have been translated into Chinese, Korean, and Spanish. An internationally recognized organizational development consultant, he earned the 2008 HR Leadership Award from the Asia Pacific HRM Congress for his groundbreaking research on story-based communication skills. For his creative use of narrative, INC Magazine awarded Terrence their Marketing Master Award. He received Training Industry Magazine’s 2018 award for best article of the year.
Friday, March 21, 1230–1400 Eastern, 0930–1100 Pacific
Leaders in the joint force and interagency senior service consistently cite clear, concise communication on complex issues as the most needed competency for their staff and advisors. Despite being the first CJCS Joint Learning Area and a “special area of emphasis” for senior service college (SSC) instruction, many SSC subject matter experts struggle to adequately teach and assess clear and concise writing and speaking.
Leveraging experience from compiling and delivering briefs to DoD leadership and leading seminar classes at USAWC, Ms. Sellers will share how to plan and execute concise, strategic-level communication that clarifies thinking and facilitates decision-making.
Stephanie Sellers, Central Intelligence Agency Representative and General Walter Bedell Smith Chair of National Intelligence Studies, Army War College. Ms. Sellers has 25 years of experience in the U.S. Government as an intelligence educator, tradecraft facilitator, analytic manager, military and science and technology analyst, and missile system engineer. From 2018–2019, Ms. Sellers served as the President’s Daily Brief briefer to the secretary of defense, deputy secretary of defense, and undersecretary of defense for intelligence. Prior to joining the CIA, Ms. Sellers served as a Department of the Navy civilian aerospace engineer.
Friday, April 4, 1230–1400 Eastern, 0930–1100 Pacific
The intrusion of generative AI into academia is part of a larger trend disrupting trust—between individuals, in information, and within systems. Just as deepfakes compel society to recalibrate trust in visual evidence, generative AI erodes confidence in written assignments as reliable tools for assessment. Faculty increasingly doubt the authenticity of written assignments, and students lose confidence in faculty’s fairness, critical thinking, and the legitimacy of higher education when faced with false and often unprovable accusations of inappropriate AI use.
This workshop explores deception as a central feature of AI’s development and its impact on trust in educational relationships. Drawing on student accounts of false accusations, we consider the implications for faculty–student trust and the central role trust plays in higher education and military contexts. Through discussion, attendees will reflect on disruptions to trust and implications for navigating the post-AI classroom.
Chloe Woida (ctr), Senior Writing Coach, Naval Postgraduate School. Ms. Woida joined the Naval Postgraduate School Graduate Writing Center in 2014 and has over a decade of experience supporting NPS research communication across analytical and technical programs. A key player on the NPS Generative AI Task Force, she contributed to essential discussions shaping AI policy, adaptation, and adoption guided by research integrity principles. She continues to develop and champion resources for faculty and students to navigate AI, as well as teaching and advising relationships.
Friday, April 11, 1230–1400 Eastern, 0930–1100 Pacific
Unless they are experimenting with AI themselves, many PME professors have neither the time nor energy to monitor and understand how their students are using AI for writing assignments. AI policies at PME institutions, and colleges and universities in general, seek the difficult balance between avoiding AI plagiarism and encouraging freewheeling AI experimentation. With the “AI horse” out of the barn, it's crucial to know how students use AI.
This workshop aims to lift the curtain on how students themselves are negotiating their use of AI to deal with the heavy research and writing demands of graduate school. Two years of survey data will show the range of AI approaches graduate students have used, highlighting nuanced ethical dilemmas and showcasing practices that professors can share with students regarding prompt engineering for research, organization, and revision of writing.
Rick Allen, Assistant Professor of Writing & Communication, National Defense University. Mr. Allen has over 20 years of experience as a writer, editor, and instructional designer in education fields, where his work focuses on issues in reading, writing, literacy, and professional development for educators.
Dr. Trela N. Anderson, Professor of Writing & Communication, National Defense University. Dr. Anderson has over 20 years of experience in the fields of teaching and writing. She familiarizes NDU students with the fundamentals of academic writing while assisting them in overcoming writing anxiety, finding their own voice, and gaining the confidence to develop as critical thinkers and writers. Dr. Anderson developed the TSRA Model of Paragraph Development, an academic writing model she uses as a springboard for teaching students.
Lily Lewis, Assistant Professor of Writing & Communication, National Defense University. Ms. Lewis has over a decade of experience in higher education. Prior to joining the Writing Center at NDU, Lily taught linguistics and academic communication skills at Syracuse University, Virginia Tech, USC, Cal State University-Dominguez Hills, and George Mason University. She is currently a PhD candidate in English language & applied linguistics at the University of Birmingham with a focus on corpus linguistics (compiling and analyzing large collections of texts).
2024
Presenter
Jeffrey Turner, formerly with National Defense University
Slides and Handout
Workshop Description
While writing pedagogy often emphasizes writing as a social event and military writing most often occurs as part of a staff effort, there is very little discussion on collaborative writing best practices. This workshop will discuss and engage in team and collaborative writing practices for research and analytic writing, providing tools and handouts for faculty members working with student and faculty writers.
There is no preparatory or prerequisite work. All attendees should be prepared to engage in small group discussion and production of research writing as part of a small writing team. Participants will take away ways of thinking and engaging in collaborative writing, but attendees will also have specific tools to modify for their own classroom purposes.
Presenter
Dr. Lucie Moussu, Royal Military College, lucie.moussu@rmc-cmr.ca
Slides / Diapositives
- Slides (English)
- Diapositives (Français)
For a link to this workshop's video, please contact the workshop instructor directly or email writingcenter@nps.edu.
Workshop Description
Post-secondary institutions are entering a deeply transformative era with the advent of Generative AI (GenAI). This workshop will delve into the possible uses of GenAI in reshaping course development processes, including the design of syllabi, assignments, activities, and assessments.
This workshop will explore how this technology can simplify course creation, foster innovative teaching approaches, enhance student engagement, and encourage ethical and effective uses of GenAI. Participants will gain hands-on experience with AI tools and learn strategies to prepare students for a future where AI will be an integral part of their lives.
Related Resources
- Tips and ideas for writing GenAI prompts (OpenAI)
- Guidance on GenAI attribution and transparency (NPS)
Slides: PDF
Presenter
Chloe Woida (contractor), Naval Postgraduate School, writingcenter@nps.edu
Workshop Description
In the aftermath of ChatGPT's launch, AI literacy has emerged as a desired learning outcome for students and a critical capability for educators. It is widely accepted that AI will become critical for maintaining military advantage—but what continuities exist between interactions with mass-accessible AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT and Bing) and anticipated military AI applications in the near future? How can faculty and learning communities foster development of essential AI capabilities among technical and non-technical personnel alike?
This workshop will explore existing frameworks defining AI literacy in military and higher education contexts and map where they connect and diverge. Participants will further consider and discuss how course policies, activities, and assignments can foster students' AI literacy and prepare them for the challenges of the future.
Slides: PPT
Presenter
Rachelle Kamrath, Marine Corps University, rachelle.kamrath@usmcu.edu
Workshop Description
Effective oral communication is a prioritized skill in military leadership. Faculty stress the importance of oral communication proficiency and students are eager to improve. However, assignments to sharpen oral communication skills are often poorly designed with misguided expectations, complicated assessment rubrics, and scarce instruction on best practices. Consequently, students show little improvement in this area. Leadership may look to communication centers to develop oral communication assignments beyond simply requiring a presentation in lieu of a paper.
This workshop will unpack how PME can meet its oral communication objectives through an intentional assignment design suited for improving oral communication skills. It will offer well-practiced methods of oral communication instruction and discuss the overall benefits for students, the PME curriculum, and communication support centers in PME.
Slides: PPT
Presenter
Colette O'Connor (contractor), Naval Postgraduate School, writingcenter@nps.edu
Workshop Description
Often mistaken for what it is not—a preface, an introduction—the executive summary is an art unto itself: it's a mini-me version of a project or study that includes all of its elements, from research question to recommendations. From a project's summary to its findings, methods to conclusions, executive summaries should make research shine in a way that is clear, brief, and bold.
This interactive workshop will introduce participants to the unique character of executive summaries and explore how executive summaries can be written in a way that best represents authors' work to their community of practice. Faculty participants will come away with strategies on how they can craft effective executive summaries and teach their students to do the same.
Presenter
Carolyn Stoermer (contractor), Air Force Institute of Technology
Slides: PPT
For a link to this workshop's video, please contact the workshop instructor directly or email writingcenter@nps.edu.
Workshop Description
As generative AI enters more and more spaces, legitimate concerns hover, including how overreliance on this authoritative-sounding technology may diminish students’ capacity to think critically about what they read and write. In this workshop, participants will learn how strategic incorporation of AI into classroom writing activities can, in fact, provide new and effective ways to teach critical thinking. By enlisting the power of AI, we can simultaneously help students become better thinkers and more informed, thoughtful users of technologies like ChatGPT and Google Bard.
This workshop will provide collaborative review of a case study activity from a technical communication course at AFIT, discuss lessons learned, and identify best practices for employing AI to teach students how to use AI more critically and authentically. Participants will explore how they might build upon this case to experiment with generative AI use in their own teaching.
2023
Presenter
Jeffrey Turner, National Defense University
Workshop Description
Rubrics are critical for measuring student achievement, particularly as the new era of JPME Outcomes-Based Military Education unfolds, yet writing as a product and process requires nuance, whether it is for scaffolded assignments or assignments with multiple deliverables. Well-thought-out rubrics facilitate student learning by aligning the writing content with the assignment design and delineate a clear path of progress for students. Clarity and consistency of rubrics within a curriculum focuses faculty expectations and improves faculty feedback.
This workshop examines three facets of writing-rubric development: criteria, scaling, and process. It uses models of rubrics to highlight key features of each facet. Faculty will apply those lessons to their own rubrics, sharing and revising their rubrics within the workshop group.
Slides
Presenter
Dr. Abram Trosky, Army War College, abram.trosky@armywarcollege.edu
Workshop Description
The U.S. Army War College (USAWC)'s "Carlisle Experience" is characterized by a team-taught, dialogue-driven seminar learning environment that promotes strategic thinking and communication through critical reading, listening, and evidence-based argumentation. Typically, seminar norms build the requisite trust, respect, and rapport to not only challenge classmates' arguments and assumptions but to give and seek candid critique and feedback on their positions or products.
This workshop explores (sub)cultural, institutional, and cognitive sources of resistance to these positive group-learning behaviors and offers resources and strategies to help overcome them. Participants receive products developed by USAWC's Applied Communication & Learning Laboratory that facilitate faculty development in Socratic dialogue and student-led seminar norming and structure both self-editing and peer feedback on written and oral communication. The workshop concludes with participants sharing challenges to collaboration or critique, approaches they've discussed or attempted, and how these might be adapted at peer institutions.
Slides and Handouts
Presenters
Nicole Cox, National Defense University, nicole.d.cox.ctr@ndu.edu
Andrea Hamlen, Marine Corps University, andrea.hamlen@usmcu.edu
Workshop Description
Students are aware that the work they produce in academic institutions is meant to exhibit analytical thought—their course objectives and assignment prompts tell them so. However, they often struggle to move from summary to analysis, even after receiving faculty feedback.
This workshop takes a two-pronged approach to exploring how we can help our students improve their analytical abilities both inside and outside of the classroom. First, we'll share feedback strategies to help faculty elicit stronger analysis from students during the drafting and revision process. Then, we'll discuss how analytical awareness offers transferable skills for students' professional lives.
The workshop includes recent scholarship on types of feedback that foster analytical thinking and shares examples of feedback that participants will critique. Participants are encouraged to bring samples of their own feedback to discuss.
Presenters
Dr. Sandra Leavitt, Naval Postgraduate School, srleavit@nps.edu
Ali Rodgers, Naval Postgraduate School, arodgers@nps.edu
Workshop Description
Instructors tend to mistakenly expect their students to intuitively understand and articulate the significance of the topics they're studying and to relate new knowledge to their personal and professional experiences. Students often struggle with these tasks, which must be taught and practiced. Leveraging the science of learning and cognition, faculty can guide students to deeper levels of thought and understanding by helping them write about meaningful connections between their military experiences and academic knowledge.
Participants will learn how creating opportunities to explore relevance and practice application encourages motivation, fosters self-directed intentional learners, and develops better problem solvers. We'll explore strategies and activities where students can build skills to write cogent problem and purpose statements, powerful significance sections, and insightful conclusions—tasks they need to master for graduate work and leadership positions.
Presenters
Dr. May Chung, National Defense University, may.f.chung@ndu.edu
Lily Lewis, National Defense University, lily.k.lewis.ctr@ndu.edu
Rick Allen, National Defense University, richard.w.allen.ctr@ndu.edu
Workshop Description
Many foreign military students in PME programs are completing their first academic course in English, yet the faculty grading their written work may have limited experience teaching nonnative speakers. For these faculty, developing a working knowledge of applied linguistics can help by increasing their understanding of how language is used in different contexts and suggesting ways to capitalize on students' native languages in their research and writing.
In this workshop, participants will learn to assess international student writing using an applied linguistics approach. They will gain a better understanding of language and cultural patterns that influence student writing in academic English, which will help them hone their ability to distinguish linguistic transference from other communication mishaps. The session also presents insights and practical tips for responding to writers from a linguistics strengths-based approach.
Presenter
Stase Wells, Marine Corps University, stase.wells@usmcu.edu
Workshop Description
Interdisciplinary research suggests that relationship building is a key factor in students' academic achievement. Yet there is a gap in research on faculty assessment in joint professional military education institutions as it pertains to faculty-student interpersonal relationship building, or the "winning hearts and minds" approach to learning.
Through discussion, self-reflection, and problem-based case-method activities, participants will explore the impacts of interpersonal relationship building on students' academic achievement.
The instructor will share a progress update on a pilot course at Marine Corps University's Leadership Communication Skills Center designed to empower international military students to improve English language skills through relationship building. Participants will come away with strategies for fostering relationship building with their students.
Presenter
Jeffrey Turner, National Defense University
Workshop Description
This workshop introduces attendees to typified DOD executive writing forms and processes. Attendees will consider how knowledge and thinking processes in the academy transfer to executive writing forms. Attendees will engage in a writing exercise to understand the genres of both the classroom and the Esuite.
Slides and Handouts
Presenter
Meg Varney, Air University, megan.varney@au.af.edu
Workshop Description
In this interactive workshop, participants engaged with strategies to enhance student participation and critical thinking. Although the session focused on discussion-based applications, each strategy includes considerations for research and writing.
Handouts
2021
Presenter
Kate Egerton (contractor), Naval Postgraduate School, writingcenter@nps.edu
Workshop Description
Participants reflected on their goals for student writing and then paired those goals with effective and efficient feedback practices.
Slides and Handouts
Presenters
Jeffrey Turner, National Defense University
Andrea Hamlen, U.S. Marine Corps University, andrea.hamlen@usmcu.edu
Workshop Description
Participants revised and further developed their writing assignments in ways that lead to improved student response quality.
Presenter
Stase Wells, U.S. Marine Corps University, stase.wells@usmcu.edu
Workshop Description
Participants confronted previously held beliefs about the brain—neuromyths—and identified the impacts that neuromyths have on the ways in which we approach our work with international writers.
To request materials from this presentation or to request a similar workshop at your institution, please email stase.wells@usmcu.edu.
Presenter
Megan Varney, Air War College, megan.varney@au.af.edu
Workshop Description
Participants explored the ways that a writing-center approach for assessing international student writing can be implemented across disciplines to benefit students and faculty alike.
Presenter
Abram Trosky, Army War College, abram.trosky@armywarcollege.edu
Workshop Description
Participants discussed holistic strategies for feedback to facilitate a draft process that incorporates self and peer editing. They used checklists and activities as tools to implement changes.
Presenter
Sandra Leavitt, Naval Postgraduate School, srleavit@nps.edu
Workshop Description
Participants learned best practices for note-taking to share with their students and built a note-taking template for their students to use when reading for class or research.
Slides and Handouts
Presenter
Kevin Eubanks, Naval War College, kevin.eubanks@usnwc.edu
Workshop Description
Participants discovered how acquiring the language and discourse of research-based academic writing is not at all unlike learning one's way into a foreign language.