Greetings. We are conducting a preliminary online survey aimed at assessing the role of open source software in the scholarly and pedagogical practices of the Rhetoric & Composition and English Studies community. As a scholar and teacher of Rhetoric & Composition and/or of English Studies, you are being invited to participate in this survey. Please take a few moments to respond to this very brief ten-question survey on the subject at the link provided below. Participation, of course, is entirely voluntary, there is no cost to you to participate in the survey nor will you be compensated for your participation in the survey, you may choose to not respond to specific questions, and the survey does not ask you for you name or institutional affiliation.

Results will be posted on the Open Source Academic Advisory Consortium website at http://rhetoricalcommons.org/OSAAC. There may be no direct benefit to you as a result of your participation in this survey, however, the results of the survey may benefit the fields of English Studies, Rhetoric & Composition, and computers & writing by providing information about the adoption and usage of open source software. This information may be useful for those updating or building computer teaching labs or classrooms, computer-enhanced classrooms, and providing software for faculty, staff, and student computers.

Participation, of course, is entirely voluntary, the survey questions do not ask you to provide any personally identifiable information, there is no cost to you to participate in the survey nor will you be compensated for your participation in the survey, and you may choose to not respond to specific questions. The hosting server(s), www.site5.com, of rhetoricalcommons.org and OSAAC record and collect incoming IP addresses for system administration and record keeping. These data are analyzed only in total; no connection is made between individual survey responses and IP addresses. The hosting server(s), www.site5.com, of rhetoricalcommons.org and OSAAC may also use cookies to recognize visitors and provide personalized content or track visitors’ progress through surveys; grant unimpeded access to the website; and track usage behavior and compile data for website improvement purposes. If you are using a personal computer and wish to remove the cookies, obtain instructions for deleting cookies from the help menu or contact your Internet provider. If you are using a computer in a public domain, to limit access to your survey responses, close the Internet browser immediately after completing the survey.

Results will be posted on the Open Source Academic Advisory Consortium website at http://rhetoricalcommons.org/OSAAC and may be published as part of a scholarly article in a peer-reviewed journal.

If you have any questions about this survey please contact, Ben McCorkle, Ph.D., Asst. Professor of English, OSU Marion (mccorkle.12[at]osu.edu) or Scott Banville, Ph.D., Dept. of English, University of Nevada, Reno (sbanville[at]unr.edu).

You may ask about your rights as a research subject or you may report (anonymously if you so choose) any comments, concern, or complaints to the University of Nevada, Reno Social Behavioral Institutional Review Board, telephone number (775) 327-2368, or by addressing a letter to the Chair of the Board, c/o UNR Office of Human Research Protection, 205 Ross Hall / 331, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, Nevada, 89557.

The survey can be accessed by following this link http://rhetoricalcommons.org/surveys/index.php?sid=24998&lang=en. Your feedback is most welcome.

Our Thanks,
Ben McCorkle, Asst. Professor of English, OSU Marion, mccorkle.12[at]osu.edu
Scott Banville, Department of English, University of Nevada, Reno, sbanville[at]unr.edu

Take the Survey!