Reminder: BAWCA Meeting Next Week!

[Greg Farber]

Hi folks,

We hope your semester is going well. We just wanted to send out a quick reminder that we're meeting virtually next week to discuss everyone's favorite topic...assessment!

We're thinking about this really broadly, so bring any thoughts or questions you have about assessment, reporting, data collection, etc. We can take the discussion in any direction that people are interested in. 

Here's the info for next week's meeting:

Thursday, November 9: Assessment
3:00pm – 4:00pm
https://suffolk.zoom.us/j/99331443894

And while it's not at all required, if you're interested in a quick reading on assessment, here's a post from last year on the University of Wisconsin's blog that talks about their assessment: https://dept.writing.wisc.edu/blog/walking-the-walk/.

We look forward to seeing you next week!

Greg & Jamie

[Paula Mathieu]

Hello BAWCA Colleagues,

I'm not sure if or how many of your centers use WCOnline as your booking software. We do at BC, but are reconsidering, as they have announced a major price increase (from $800 a year, which seemed like a lot, to a proposed $2000 a year.)

If you use other software (or even simple calendar apps) for your Writing Center scheduling of appointments online (students can book the appointments themselves), would you be willing to let me know? 

Many thanks.

Best,

Paula

Paula Mathieu, Ph.D. (she/her)

Associate Professor

English Department

Director, First-Year Writing

Boston College

Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

math...@bc.edu

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[Farber, Gregory]

Hi Paula,

We just had our first BAWCA meeting of the semester today, and we started off with some talk about WCOnline’s price increase. Unfortunately, it looks like a lot us are in the same boat, and many of us are able to (or are trying to find ways to) just absorb the price hike.

 

Two folks, though, did mention other alternatives that they’re looking into. One was Slate, though it seemed like that would require some significant work to customize it for writing center use. The other system was EAB Navigate, which on its own is significantly more expensive than WCOnline. I mention both of these, though, because my school already uses both of these systems in other parts of the university (maybe something like that is true at BC?). I just shot off emails to colleagues to see if either of those might work for our purposes in the writing center.

 

Sorry I can’t be of more help. Though, if others have found solutions or use scheduling software you like, please chime in! I know there are a lot of us trying to figure this out right now.

 

Best,

Greg

 

 

From: 'Paula Mathieu' via Boston-Area Writing Center Administrators <boston-area-writin...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Friday, February 2, 2024 at 11:35 AM
To: boston-area-writin...@googlegroups.com <boston-area-writin...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: Reminder: BAWCA Meeting Next Week!

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[Paula Mathieu]

Greg, and all--thank you so much for this information. Moving forward, we would love to become more involved in the BAWCA community, as we've just moved past a pilot toward permanent funding. I'll keep an eye out for future meetings.

We will look into EAB Navigate, as it is used in some parts of our campus.

Many many thanks. It's wonderful to hear from more experienced writing center people nearby. It's much appreciated.

Best,

Paula

Paula Mathieu, Ph.D. (she/her)

Associate Professor

English Department

Director, First-Year Writing

Boston College

Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

math...@bc.edu

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/boston-area-writing-center-directors/MN2PR05MB6351A20A99185015F4B0F3F2AA472%40MN2PR05MB6351.namprd05.prod.outlook.com.

[Adam Mooney]

Hi all,

 

I am sorry I missed today's meeting. I will look forward to the next one! It was of interest to me as my center at Lesley University is also talking about the WCO increase. We received the following email from WCO on July 5 that reassured us the price increase was only for new customers, and existing customers' price wouldn't change "without ample notice." I'm not sure if any of you have heard differently, but we recently paid our $800 invoice for coverage until January 2025. 

 

Best,

Adam  

 

Adam Mooney

He / him / his

Associate Director of Tutoring

Center for Academic Achievement

Lesley University

617.349.8460 / amoo...@lesley.edu 

 

-------------

 

Dear WCONLINE Customers, 

We’ve received a number of inquiries regarding the recent price change on our website, and want to assure you that this price change does not impact you, our existing customers.

All renewing subscriptions will remain unchanged at $800/year. 

To help us roll out some significant upgrades to WCONLINE’s platform and support this year, we’ve lifted our subscription price for new subscribers to $1,999/year. 

We understand that our customers operate within constrained budgets, and will never increase the price of your service without ample notice, and thoughtful and transparent communication. 

If there’s anything we can do to assist as we head into the 2023-2024 academic year, please don’t hesitate to reach out!  Our team is more than happy to provide platform walk-throughs for new administrators, feature demonstrations, and even configuration assistance as you set up next year’s schedules. 

We greatly appreciate your business, and hope you’ve already begun to notice the improvements to our customer support offering. 

There are very exciting improvements coming to WCONLINE, and we can’t wait to share them with you!

 

Best regards,


 

WCONLINE Team

 

 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/boston-area-writing-center-directors/MN2PR05MB6351A20A99185015F4B0F3F2AA472%40MN2PR05MB6351.namprd05.prod.outlook.com.

[Kristi Girdharry]

Adam—I believe they're reaching out to centers 6 months in advance of when your current contract is up/the price will increase on WCOnline. I met with them a week or two ago to hear about why the price was increasing so much, and, having used WCOnline for many years at different institutions, I get it... but we are looking into other options at Babson as well. 

We're a Microsoft campus, and our IT department wants us to look into Microsoft Bookings, but I can't imagine it will have all of the backend capabilities I've gotten used to like instant data and reports.

Hope the conversation was great today and hope to catch you all next time.

Kristi

***  

Kristi Girdharry, Ph.D.

[she/her/hers]

Associate Teaching Professor of English 

Arts and Humanities Division

Director of the Writing Center

Babson College

Office: Horn Computer Center 174

Office Phone: 781-239-4485

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From: 'Paula Mathieu' via Boston-Area Writing Center Administrators <boston-area-writin...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Monday, February 5, 2024 4:09 PM

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/boston-area-writing-center-directors/CAHEyM00TzT9pPSgiA5Om-cTXA1Czng0tmSJ05Pkn5phdPGK7kQ%40mail.gmail.com.