THE HISTORY OF OWL

LETS US LOOK SOME OF THE HISTORY OF OWL AS A BIRD

The Purdue OWL originated as a collaborative effort by Dr. Muriel Harris, Director of the Purdue University Writing Lab, and Dave Taylor, a graduate student in Educational Computing who redesigned the e-mail server and developed the gopher and Web sites. Their goal was to provide a resource for students who sought writing help but couldn't make it into the physical writing lab during operating hours. Since that time, our OWL has become a complement to classroom instruction, a supplement to face-to-face tutorials, and a stand-alone reference for thousands of writers worldwide.

A number of Purdue students have facilitated and effected the arduous process of getting instructional materials online. Particularly valuable were the contributions of Michael Manley, who initially developed OWL as an e-mail server; and Michelle Sidler, Norman Vierstahler, Clinton Wong and Trish Jenkins, each of whom were instrumental in the development of the OWL during its formative stages. Special thanks goes to David Elderbrock, Humanities Coordinator for the Instructional Technology Program at UC Berkeley who helped us with a survey to identify the needs of our users.

Currently, our OWL consists of several hundred nodes, including approximately 200 handouts available in hypertext and printer-friendly forms. It also includes a wide array of links to sites relevant to various aspects of writing and written communication. Current foci for continued development include an expanded job search section and more interactive exercises.

Past OWL coordinators include Stuart Blythe , currently an assistant professor at Purdue University, Fort Wayne, Teddi Fishman, who teaches in the MAPC program at Clemson, and Jon Bush, a recent Purdue University Ph.D. Our 1998-1999 technical coordinator, Liz Thelen, is now faculty at Niagara University. Matt Mooney, our 1999-2000 technical coordinator, is now a distance education specialist at a university in Arizona. Our 2000-2001 coordinator, Dave Neyhart, has been doing editorial work in southern California and Spain, and our 2001-2002 coordinator, Geoff Stacks, is currently an editorial assistant for Modern Fiction Studies, a well-known journal of literary criticism. Brian Yothers, the OWL coordinator for 2002-2003, completed his Ph.D. at Purdue Unversity. Erin Karper, our OWL technical coordinator from 2000-2004, is an assistant professor at Niagara University.