The Efficacy of a Virtually Delivered Multi-Media Expository Writing Strategy with College Students with Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

Expository writing is a highly valued employability skill (Finley, 2023) and a necessary competency for college students to master due to its often-used format within college assignments (Schillings et al., 2023). As students in postsecondary education programs for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities attend traditional college classes it is important they demonstrate expository writing skills. Through a multiple baseline across participants design, the researchers investigated the efficacy of an expository writing strategy intervention delivered virtually through Zoom to four college students with developmental disabilities. The multimedia strategy employed animation to model strategy steps. A live instructor provided guided practice with feedback as students applied strategy steps. Three out of four participants demonstrated mastery of all strategy steps and constructed essays that were organized and addressed all aspects of essay questions and researchers found a functional relation between the ANSWER+ strategy and strategy rubric for three students.