This was a completely new document to me!  It was an exciting find since I have not yet taught writing and am always looking forward to guidelines so that I can be a good instructor when I get the opportunity.

I found this interesting:  "OWI Principle 2: An online writing course should focus on writing and not on technology orientation or teaching students how to use learning and other technologies."  On the one hand, I agree that we want to ensure that students are learning the important skills required to write an interesting and coherent text.  On the other hand, there is a certain amount of technology skills required for modern writing.  Since students aren't going to be taking mandatory courses in technology for writing, it seems like this is the only place to integrate this coursework.  Further, it says, "Students should use the provided technology to support their writing and not the other way around. It must be clear that OWI teachers and students alike do not need to be technology experts, computer programmers, or Web designers to accomplish the instructional purposes of an OWC."  I get that we aren't technology teachers, and that the technology cannot overshadow the writing, but is this practical to not expose students to writing technologies?

I was also interested in this:  "OWI Principle 9: OWCs should be capped responsibly at 20 students per course with 15 being a preferable number."  I know from what I have heard in the class that this is frequently NOT the experience of online writing instructors.