What WOLF is
WOLF is a structured faculty development program run by the NC State Campus Writing and Speaking Program (CWSP). It pairs faculty with a trained CWSP liaison to work through three phases: auditing how communication is currently taught, designing or revising assignments to be more intentionally scaffolded, and building evidence of student learning over time.
WOLF is not a one-time consultation. It is a sustained engagement — typically across a semester or academic year — that produces concrete artifacts: revised assignments, rubrics, documentation of instructional decisions, and program-level data on communication outcomes.
What WOLF is not
WOLF is not a prescriptive writing program, a service for editing student papers, or a replacement for disciplinary expertise. Liaisons do not tell faculty how to teach their content. The work is collaborative and faculty-driven: liaisons bring frameworks for communication pedagogy; faculty bring deep knowledge of what communication in their discipline actually looks like and demands.
WOLF is also not a one-size-fits-all model. The program adapts to the communication contexts of any field — scientific writing, technical documentation, oral argumentation, professional correspondence, or multimodal composition.
The three-phase model
Phase 01
Inquiry
Map the current state of communication in a course or program. What are students being asked to write or say? How are those tasks explained, modeled, and evaluated? Inquiry surfaces both strengths and gaps — often revealing implicit expectations that students are left to decode on their own.
Phase 02
Design
Build or substantially revise assignments to be scaffolded — sequenced with instruction, low-stakes practice, and feedback before high-stakes submission. Design work includes drafting assignment sheets, building rubrics aligned to disciplinary criteria, and creating supporting materials students can use throughout the writing or speaking process.
Phase 03
Evidence
Collect and analyze student work to document what changed as a result of the redesign. Evidence is used both for ongoing course improvement and for contributing to program-level assessment data at the university. This phase supports faculty in making visible the communication learning that is already happening in their courses.
Who facilitates WOLF
WOLF engagements are facilitated by CWSP liaisons — faculty, graduate students, or staff who have completed CWSP training in communication pedagogy. Liaisons work across disciplines and are matched to faculty based on disciplinary context and availability.
The CWSP Liaison Guide, WSCP Working Template, and supplementary resources for liaisons are available on the For Liaisons page.
Who WOLF serves
WOLF is designed for NC State faculty who teach writing- or speaking-intensive courses, programs undergoing curriculum revision, departments engaged in program review, and any instructional unit that wants to build stronger, more equitable communication expectations into its curriculum.
First-time participants are welcome. WOLF is also designed to be renewable: faculty who have completed one engagement often return to deepen the work or extend it to additional courses.