For Tutors, BY Tutors: Creating an Accessible OER Manual for Writing Center Tutoring Strategies
Location
Online
Start Date
14-10-2026 11:00 AM
End Date
14-10-2026 12:00 PM
Description
Abstract:
Writing center tutors spend hundreds of hours developing unique, highly effective strategies while supporting student writers. However, because most tutoring positions are held by temporary student cohorts, these often disappear with each graduation cycle. The strategies that remain often become part of a center-only oral tradition or are documented by individual writing center senior staff. While there are traditional academic journals that document overarching tutoring pedagogy, localized, practical strategies remain decentralized and hidden, and often fail to reach the tutoring staff.
To bridge this gap, the library and the writing center at a regional public institution launched an open pedagogy collaboration. We are piloting a centralized, open educational resource (OER) manual designed to serve as a compact, easy-to-navigate hub for peer-contributed tutoring strategies. Through a term-long drafting process, the student tutors actively learn the principles of digital accessibility while authoring their contributions, preserving institutional knowledge for future cohorts. Our pilot launched with a cohort of 13 writing tutors contributing bite-sized strategies, overseen by an editorial team consisting of the Writing Center Director and the OER Librarian.
In this presentation, the creators will share the step-by-step process of bringing this OER project into fruition. We will outline our workflow, from navigating the collaborative editorial partnership between the library and the writing center, to scaffolding student training around digital accessibility, to our future scalability model (expanding from local to international levels). Attendees will leave with practical insights, best practices, and a replicable framework for initiating low-cost, student-driven open pedagogy projects through cross-campus partnerships.
This project highlights skills gained through student employment, emphasizing holistic learning approach centers the value of student created content. Finally, we will invite attendees to join us in promoting this initiative and discuss how they can engage their own campus writing centers to contribute to this growing, cross-institutional manual.
Outcomes:
- Identify steps and strategies for building cross-campus OER partnerships between university libraries and specialized student support centers.
- Integrate targeted digital accessibility and universal design training into student-led content creation workflows.
- Acquire actionable steps to connect their own campus writing centers to this growing OER network and contribute to the manual’s future editions.
Bios:
- Vanessa Petroj is the Writing Center Director at Western Oregon University. Born and raised in Serbia, Vanessa came to the United States as a graduate student at the University of Connecticut where she received her PhD in Linguistics. Since then, she’s enjoyed working in student support, focusing on amplifying student voices, particularly by leveraging linguistic and cultural wealth in both everyday writing and large-scale projects. Currently, her focus is on universal design and experiential learning, including multimodal, kinesthetic, and play-based writing instruction. Thank you, and we are looking forward to the conference!
- Lainie Allen is the Open Education Librarian at Western Oregon University. She holds a master’s degree in Museum Studies from the University of Glasgow. Grounding her work in the shared values of collection stewardship and open education, she is committed to removing barriers to information to support public good. She advocates for students as creators, contributors, and active participants in advancing open education. This commitment is reflected in her article, “Utilizing Public Relations Students’ Expertise to Expand the Reach of OER,” published in the Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education. Interested in learning more about how students shape open education?
For Tutors, BY Tutors: Creating an Accessible OER Manual for Writing Center Tutoring Strategies
Online
Abstract:
Writing center tutors spend hundreds of hours developing unique, highly effective strategies while supporting student writers. However, because most tutoring positions are held by temporary student cohorts, these often disappear with each graduation cycle. The strategies that remain often become part of a center-only oral tradition or are documented by individual writing center senior staff. While there are traditional academic journals that document overarching tutoring pedagogy, localized, practical strategies remain decentralized and hidden, and often fail to reach the tutoring staff.
To bridge this gap, the library and the writing center at a regional public institution launched an open pedagogy collaboration. We are piloting a centralized, open educational resource (OER) manual designed to serve as a compact, easy-to-navigate hub for peer-contributed tutoring strategies. Through a term-long drafting process, the student tutors actively learn the principles of digital accessibility while authoring their contributions, preserving institutional knowledge for future cohorts. Our pilot launched with a cohort of 13 writing tutors contributing bite-sized strategies, overseen by an editorial team consisting of the Writing Center Director and the OER Librarian.
In this presentation, the creators will share the step-by-step process of bringing this OER project into fruition. We will outline our workflow, from navigating the collaborative editorial partnership between the library and the writing center, to scaffolding student training around digital accessibility, to our future scalability model (expanding from local to international levels). Attendees will leave with practical insights, best practices, and a replicable framework for initiating low-cost, student-driven open pedagogy projects through cross-campus partnerships.
This project highlights skills gained through student employment, emphasizing holistic learning approach centers the value of student created content. Finally, we will invite attendees to join us in promoting this initiative and discuss how they can engage their own campus writing centers to contribute to this growing, cross-institutional manual.
Outcomes:
- Identify steps and strategies for building cross-campus OER partnerships between university libraries and specialized student support centers.
- Integrate targeted digital accessibility and universal design training into student-led content creation workflows.
- Acquire actionable steps to connect their own campus writing centers to this growing OER network and contribute to the manual’s future editions.
Bios:
- Vanessa Petroj is the Writing Center Director at Western Oregon University. Born and raised in Serbia, Vanessa came to the United States as a graduate student at the University of Connecticut where she received her PhD in Linguistics. Since then, she’s enjoyed working in student support, focusing on amplifying student voices, particularly by leveraging linguistic and cultural wealth in both everyday writing and large-scale projects. Currently, her focus is on universal design and experiential learning, including multimodal, kinesthetic, and play-based writing instruction. Thank you, and we are looking forward to the conference!
- Lainie Allen is the Open Education Librarian at Western Oregon University. She holds a master’s degree in Museum Studies from the University of Glasgow. Grounding her work in the shared values of collection stewardship and open education, she is committed to removing barriers to information to support public good. She advocates for students as creators, contributors, and active participants in advancing open education. This commitment is reflected in her article, “Utilizing Public Relations Students’ Expertise to Expand the Reach of OER,” published in the Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education. Interested in learning more about how students shape open education?