Friend Chris

Biography

Chris Friend started with Saint Leo University in 2014, after many years at the University of Central Florida as both instructor of first-year writing classes and a student of creative writing, curriculum & instruction, and texts & technology programs. He has been teaching English and writing courses since 2000, including on-ground, blended, online, and MOOC formats; eighth, ninth, and tenth grades; and standard, honors, and gifted levels. He was on the opening crew of Seminole County Virtual School, and he has facilitated courses for the John Scott Daily Florida Institute of Government at UCF. Chris currently works on redesigning the writing courses here at Saint Leo, updating the curriculum for Basic Composition Skills and Academic Writing I & II. He draws on experience with a similar project at UCF’s Department of Writing & Rhetoric, in which he was a pilot instructor and committee member for their Composition II curriculum revision.

Research Interest

Chris’s research explores interactions among teaching, learning, and course delivery in first-year writing courses and how technologies influence pedagogy, curriculum design, and administrative decision-making. With over a dozen years’ experience teaching freshmen—high school and college, online and on-ground—he feels most at home building classes that teach fundamental composition skills. Chris is Managing Editor for Hybrid Pedagogy, where he produces HybridPod—a podcast about critical digital pedagogy. His publications examine online composition courses and writing communities at various scales. He frequents national conferences, especially Digital Humanities Summer Institute, Computers & Writing, and the Conference on College Composition and Communication.