TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Freshman composition has a new look this fall for some 600 University of Alabama freshmen who are enrolled in a course that includes Web-based readings, online essays and multi-media materials.

While they are still reading and writing essays -- long the staple of English 101 at the Capstone -- on an almost weekly basis, the students in some 30 specially designed sections are doing much of this work online. Reading assignments, which formerly came from paperback books, now come from freely available Web sources. Many can be retrieved from ReadingLinks.com, a Web site created in May 2001 by Dr. Myron Tuman, UA professor of English.

There are three great advantages here, besides the fact that Web readings are free, notes Tuman, who coordinates training for teaching assistants teaching these special sections. First, the readings are drawn from current sources. The first unit, on roadside attractions, is drawing upon a feature piece in the Aug. 26 issue of Newsweek. Second, students, who are already generally familiar with web searching, can readily be sent on the task of finding additional sources. Finally, the materials are regularly enhanced with color photos, graphics, and even audio and video clips, something that has proven helpful to those classes that have been busy exploring Route 66 and other American by-ways.

Karen Gardiner, an instructor of English who is assisting in the program, has developed a unit on affirmative action policies and other racial issues affecting Asian Americans, and drawing upon commentaries, interviews, and responses generated by Howard University Law Professor Frank Wu’s recent book Yellow.

A third unit will have students using the Web to look up information and write an essay about two different feature films by the same director. “This movie unit will force students to use some of the Web-based gated databases available to students through the UA library,” Tuman said, noting that “learning the library today basically entails learning how to access materials located in private areas of the Web.”

Tuman’s Web site, ReadingLinks.com, has proved a valuable resource not only for UA students and faculty, but also for writing teachers nationwide. “We have been building what are in effect five entire units of reading and links each week since opening the site 14 months ago. It is a huge resource for college writing teachers across the country, and, best of all, it is free,” Tuman said. “It began as an experiment to see how effective the Web could be as a replacement for the traditional college textbook.”

The final piece of the puzzle is ConnectWeb.com, an online collaborative classroom environment specifically designed for writing classes. ConnectWeb is where students and their teachers meet online, where assignments are posted, with links to the readings, and where students both turn in their written assignments and interact with each other outside of the regular classroom.

“The bottom-line is that we’re using some cutting-edge technology to help us do some very traditional things: namely, to talk about and respond to common topics,” Tuman said. “We’re still reading and writing, only more so now, as our classes continue online way beyond the 50 minutes of face-to-face interaction.” Just how much beyond the 50 minutes depends on the actual course assignments, but this fall the 600 UA freshmen and their teachers are already working in a learning environment without the traditional boundaries of time and space.

“For them the future is already here,” Tuman said.