WI+RE for Instructors

Please visit the WI+RE website to view all of our workshops, tutorials, and handouts! Please note that the there are many, many, MANY more tutorials, handouts, and workshops than what is listed in this guide. Please visit our website to see our complete suite of learning resources!

You can also navigate the tabs on the left to see a small selection of some of our most popular tutorials and how they can support common learning challenges. 

This video will walk you through the WI+RE website so you can better navigate the many resources we have to offer! 

What is WI+RE? 

WI+RE is a learner-led community at UCLA focused on helping everyone succeed in their writing and research projects.

The WI+RE team leverages a learner-centered design toolkit to create and continually improve open online learning modules. We also experiment and reflect on our process in the WI+RE sandbox, and share the principles behind our work in our manifesto, the WI+RE way.

WI+RE resources...

…identify and target common and hidden challenges students face.
...align with how instructors already break down assignments.
...provide scaffolded support to help students grow independently--and make more out of class. 
…can be accessed remotely for asynchronous learning--and integrated directly into your course website.
...can be revised or remixed to match your course’s disciplinary needs.

The Team:

Salma Abumeeiz
Instructional Design and Outreach Specialist

Mohsin Ali
Instructional Design and Outreach Specialist

Adam Bowling
Instructional Design and Outreach Specialist

Hannah Sutherland
Instructional Design and Outreach Specialist

See the full team. 

Who is the WI+RE Community?

WI+RE's extended community includes close partnerships with the Undergraduate Research Centers, Writing Programs, and the Undergraduate Writing Center, in addition to ongoing and emerging collaborations with several campus groups, including the Center for the Advancement Teaching, the Disability and Computing Program, the Center for Digital Humanities, CEILS, Social Science Computer, the Bruin Learn team, and more.

How can instructors integrate WI+RE materials into their teaching?

You can share the links from our website with your students: 

Our quick and practical learning modules include topics like reading strategies, integrating citations, and finding scholarly articles. Our materials are open source, so feel free to share, download, and remix!

You can add tutorials directly to your Bruin Learn course site: 

Our repository of asynchronous tutorials, workshops, and handouts can be seamlessly integrated into an instructor's course website. We can easily help you add any tutorial you would like to any module in your Bruin Learn course. 

Custom Projects:

We are happy to work with instructors to create a Bruin Learn module or video/activity that fits the needs of their class or learning context.

We can add WI+RE tutorials to your course site in Bruin Learn! 

Our tutorials can be accessed remotely for asynchronous learning and integrated directly into your course site. For example, if you have a research paper as your final class assignment, you may choose to scaffold in tutorials such as "Getting Started with Research at UCLA", "Creating Keywords", "Searching for Sources", "Citation Management", and more – within and throughout the modules on your class site. 

If you’re interested in this particular form of course integration, please email us and we can help you embed these tutorials. Please note: you will need a WI+RE team member to help you with this process but we're eager and happy to do so!

To get assistance embedding tutorials, please email either Hannah Sutherland or Mohsin Ali.  with a list of the tutorials you would like in your Bruin Learn site. We will then send the tutorials to you in Bruin Learn. Click on "Account" in the top left, navigate to "Shared Content". There, you will see the requested tutorials. 

Next to the tutorial, under "Actions", click on the three dots and choose "Import". You will have the option to import the tutorial into whatever module on your course site that you choose. 

Who do I contact for help? 

If you would like a WI+RE resource added to your Bruin Learn course, please contact Hannah Sutherland or Mohsin Ali. 

If you would like to contact the WI+RE team to provide feedback, suggest a new tutorial, or for any general help, please send an email to uclawire@g.ucla.edu or fill out the contact form.  

What is our approach to creating learning resources? 

The WI+RE team follows a learner-centered design process informed by the values of Universal Design for All Learning. Our ultimate goal is to identify hidden learning challenges in the research and writing processes and create resources that address these! Our resources are meant to be scaffolded into instructor's curriculum in order to support a student's success in achieving learning objectives. 

Our iterative design process has many stages but we basically go through two main steps: 

Challenge/breakthrough inventory - The WI+RE process begins with a challenge/breakthrough inventory in which students, instructors, library staff, and campus partners gather around a theme (e.g., research, writing, reading, etc.) and work together to identify a large inventory of challenges and breakthroughs.

Learner-Centered Design Process - Once a large collection of challenges and breakthroughs have been identified, the WI+RE team works with campus partners to select an initial set of challenges and begins the learner-centered design process outlined in the Build Something Toolkit. This process involves iterative prototype development, extensive stakeholder review, and user feedback.

WI+RE's Design Manifesto

WI+RE's shared values guide our collaborative approach to learning and design. In our work we strive to:

Foster memorable, meaningful, and transformative learning through learner-led design.

We believe learning is most compelling when learners are leaders, designers, and co-creators of their learning experiences.

Build imperfect solutions quickly and on purpose.

Rapidly creating publishable prototypes is more useful (and more fun) than striving for perfection.

Be quick and practical.

Everyone’s got stuff to do, so let’s get right to it.

Reveal hidden challenges and expedite breakthroughs.

Sometimes the syllabus doesn’t say it all. We try to make hidden challenges easier to see by breaking down the research and writing process into manageable tasks.

Experiment with what we have on hand.

We explore & implement DIY approaches to learning design and media making. We tinker, try new things, and explore. We use tools and try out processes we have never used before, and frequently make it up as we go.

Pursue universal design at every stage of the process.

Accessibility and usability are not checkboxes at the end of a project, but areas of continual importance that can always be improved.

Design multiple pathways for learning.

Learning happens in many formats, from videos and animations to printable handouts and interactive exhibits. When we create something that seems to be helpful in one format, we try to adapt it to work in another.

Speak with our own voices.

We’re learners, not voice actors. We avoid “tutorial voice” and instead share our work in our own varied voices.

Celebrate our diverse communities.

We celebrate the diversity of our communities through positive, inclusive, and relevant pedagogy.

Collaborate creatively.

We use a rich and growing toolkit of design tools to collaborate and partner with learners, researchers, librarians, and teachers throughout the creative process.

Share our work and engage with the world

Our work is open source and can be shared, re-used, and re-mixed. In each of our projects we seek to make a difference for learners, researchers, and writers.