Teaching Triumphs, Chalk Dust, and Digital Ink

By Dr. Jacob Kaltenbach and Dr. Irina Negrea, WACademic Editors

The WACademic’s first academic year is now recent history. Here, the two blog editors summarize the year’s crucial data and the themes most popular among contributors. Plans for future growth and improvement in technical, academic, and networking areas are presented in the context of recent research on the role of the academic publication blog.

What a year! As we originally hoped, The WACademic is now a platform that “re-prioritizes faster, [nearly] real-time academic communication” within our community of teachers and researchers (Salucci, 2023, p. 545). We have collectively (and successfully!) built this public-facing forum to share our work and reflections from the classroom, engage in meaningful dialogue, and connect with a broader audience. We would like to acknowledge the faculty authors who contributed their multifaceted ideas and reflections on teaching, learning, and writing this year.

As we move into a new cycle, we welcome more contributions from adjunct faculty, from faculty and staff outside English and rhetoric, and from beyond our host institution. Let’s build on our work by deepening our commitment to the criteria of the ‘quality blog’ defined by Salucci (2023) and the ‘academic publication blog’ outlined by Brown (2021): by better promoting blog content (we can improve on our already decent 2.14% click-through rate), by applying academic policies and standards – including technical standards for digital publication – in the blog space, and by disseminating more new research on teaching and writing across the curriculum in the academic space. In fact, let’s think writing across the globe.

When Numbers Tell Stories

That goal makes all the more sense because we now have readers in 35 countries and on all continents except Antarctica (for which we have a plan). During the 2024-2025 academic year, The WACademic has been viewed more than 3,600 times by more than 1,000 distinct visitors. Of those visitors, 63 subscribe to the blog: a number you can all easily help us improve. Our blog posts have generated nearly 400 likes and more than 80 thoughtful comments. That last statistic may be the most important because it represents our primary goal to foster conversation and community. Let’s also drive that number higher. Don’t be afraid to engage, to respond, and to respectfully offer alternative perspectives.

What We Covered

             The first year revealed several key themes of common and intense interest among our colleagues. Two major areas emerged: pedagogical strategies and student support. Teaching writing is at the core of our profession, and contributors shared diverse approaches to develop those higher-level skills. Several posts focused on critical thinking, idea generation, and understanding audience and purpose (Bone; Haber; Musante). Others presented innovative teaching strategies and tools, such as using creative writing activities to encourage engagement and exploration (Cardew), using seminar chats to generate ideas and explore audiences (Musante, incidentally our most viewed post of the year!), connecting writing to the students’ communities (Smith), and prompting students to reflect on feedback (O’Neil).

Assessment innovations and the use of technology also featured prominently.  Contributors discussed implementing super rapid feedback (Bradley), using artificial intelligence and dictation as assistive technologies (Green), rethinking traditional assessment models (Thompson), and curating resources in platforms like Wakelet for all-time access (Wink). 

Beyond teaching techniques, a powerful theme emerged across every contribution–genuine concern for our students’ well-being. The importance of addressing students’ emotional needs is discussed in almost every post: from investigating if the day a student attends their seminar affects their success (Bahle) to creating safe spaces and a supportive learning environment (McAdams; Teitler; Lee; Vice), from promoting self-care and sharing wellness resources (Teitler; Kaltenbach; Lee) to integrating social-emotional learning (Bone, twice!) and encouraging student agency and self-regulation (Bianco; Fussell), as well as empowering students to ask for help (Holmes). Interestingly, our contributors’ conclusions strongly corroborated recent, parallel research on the role of academic blogging in reducing stressors and promoting mental well-being among Ph.D. students (Vigil Aviles et al., 2025). We hope our colleagues gained the same benefits.

Building a connection with the students and building community in the online learning environment emerged as especially significant, with shared strategies including humanizing the course (Kaltenbach; Smith), building trust (Lee), encouraging engagement through interaction (Love), incorporating non-academic discussion modules (McAdams) and humor (Pearson), strengthening intergenerational dialogue (Healey), and creating an unscripted learning space after the live seminar (Johnson). Part of building the connection with students and increasing retention is also recognizing the value of timely, clear, and constructive communication with them (Bradley; Love; Fussell; Gussis).

Particularly noteworthy were contributions highlighting the value of shared vulnerability. Several colleagues discussed sharing aspects of their lives, including challenges and failures (Vice; Kaltenbach; Pearson; Green; Sharma). This authenticity creates powerful connections with students by showing that we face similar experiences and obstacles. We discover power in vulnerability because it helps us to acknowledge our own humanity while at the same time creating more welcoming, equitable spaces that nurture students’ sense of belonging and impact how they come to see themselves as scholars.

Coming Attractions

            We remain open to a wide range of approaches in the coming year, and we look forward to queries from potential contributors – wherever you are! We agree with Zou and Hyland (2020) on the inherent interactive qualities of the academic publication blog in contrast to the conventional academic journal article, especially “the use of affectivity, in-group cohesiveness, … and more informal strategies such as questions and second person to engage readers” (p. 270). Such stylistic choices remain welcome; at the same time, we encourage contributors to deepen that sense of nearly real-time discussion. Everyone who contributes, reads, likes, or comments is a member of the ‘in-group,” and the invitation is open. We can also broaden our community by referencing and citing recent peer-reviewed publications. The WACademic does not publish in isolation; rather, the blog is an excellent place to engage in conversations with and about relevant scholarly literature.

Reading and sharing the diverse and insightful manuscripts of 2024-2025 and working with this collaborative, curious, and creative band of contributors has been a genuine pleasure. Thank you for trusting us with your work, and thanks to Dr. Michael Keathley, Barbara Green, and Christian Keathley for your guidance, leadership, design, and technical coordination. This has been a labor of love for all of us. Until next year!

References

Note: All blog entries referred to by author were published in The WACademic during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Brown, S.A. (2021). The role of the editor of an academic publication blog. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 52(4), 199-211. https://doi.org/10.3138/jsp.52.4.01.

Salucci, G. (2023). The quality blog: Proposal of a new format in lieu of academic research blog. Journal of Scholarly Publishing, 54(4), 524–551. https://doi.org/10.3138/jsp-2023-0001

Vigil Avilés, D. J., Jang, Y., & Urban, M. (2025). “Take a break, you’ll be able to work more”: Convergent mixed methods analysis of PhD students’ blog posts. Studies in Continuing Education, 47(1), 210–227. https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2024.2319806

The WACademic: Promoting writing across the curriculum as a catalyst for meaningful change. (2024-2025). WordPress. https://thewacademic.blog/about/

Zou, H.J., & Hyland, K. (2020). Academic blogging: Scholars’ views on interacting with readers. Ibérica, 39, 267–294.