In its 2011 report, the CCCC Committee on Best Practice in Online Writing Instruction (OWI) states that it "takes no position on the oft-asked question of whether OWI should be used and practiced in postsecondary settings because it accepts the reality that currently OWI is used and practiced in such settings" (Hewett et al. 2). The committee claims that teachers and administrators, including those in writing centers, "typically are simply migrating traditional faceto-face writing pedagogies to the online setting-both fully online and hybrid. Theory and practice specific to OWI has yet to be fully developed" (7). Hewets recent book on OWI echoes these concerns, and she claims that without a theory of OWI, it is "disturbingly easy" to assume that face-to-face pedagogy is better than computer-mediated instruction (i Online 32).

In the absence of empirical data, writing center directors have relied on lore, anecdotal evidence, and advice from those who have been there before to help them imagine resolutions for immediate crises and possible long-term goals for their centers. While these sources of information have been invaluable, many directors (and the academic administrators to whom they report) have desired quantitative data about writing center operations nationwide.