Calculating the Value-Added: What Hiring Managers Need to Know About Academic Technical Communication Programs  

Hiring managers need to understand academic programs in technical communication in order to evaluate potential new hires, especially for entry-level positions in challenging, high-tech, international environments. Changes in the profession, in the workplace, and in higher education have led to the proliferation of academic programs. These may offer advantages over non-academic training, in terms of cost, comprehensiveness, content, and control. Academic programs are also different among themselves, based on credentials, institutions, instructors, and program homes. By developing reasonable, informed expectations for what academic programs teach, managers who hire program graduates can experience the payoffs of lower-risk, more cost-effective long-term hires.

Rehling, Louise. STC Proceedings (1996). Careers>Interviewing>Management

Going it Alone: How a Freestanding Program Develops Its Own Identity  

Going it alone, the SFSU program has integrity as a community, yet struggles a bit within an institutional structure designed for established discipline departments.

Rehling, Louise. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>WPA

Moving on Up: Process Management in the Ever-Changing Real World  

This paper presents a case study of a technical publications department that tested the practicality of JoAnn Hackos’ process maturity model for a small team that experienced both resource cuts and increased workload pressures. The process of initial evaluation in terms of the model helped to identify management goals and actions that increased process maturity. The positive outcomes included both high quality, innovative work and also better structures for worker creativity, productivity, and satisfaction. This success story demonstrates the potential of the model and recommends it for consideration, even by publications groups facing critical challenges.

Rehling, Louise. STC Proceedings (2005). Careers>Management>TC>Case Studies

Print to Online: Conflicting Tales of Transition    

This is a success story of how a large, high-tech service support organization made the transition from print to online documentation in both CD-ROM and Web media. But this is also a cautionary tale of the damaging drawbacks resulting from that changeover. The co-existence of two such very different evaluations, both based on accurate reporting about common products and circumstances, is emblematic of the challenges that new technologies can bring to information developers. The success story, told by the publications group responsible for the transition, is focused on new features and reduced production expenses. The cautionary tale highlights larger issues of process, product suitability, and indirect costs that affect both users and the company, including the publications group itself. The instructive value of considering two such versions of a single case history is in developing a fuller view of how technology advances can lead to unintended consequences for information developers.

Rehling, Louise. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Content Management>Publishing>Online

Thank You, Thank You! Or: How External Reviewers Help Out

Conversations about assessment for technical communication programs often focus on evaluating features internally, through means such as course evaluations and portfolio reviews.

Rehling, Louise. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Assessment

The Virtues of Independence  

Most technical communication programs are housed within departments that may not respect our field's separate identity nor share interdisciplinary concerns. An alternative is program independence. Although currently not the norm, and entailing potential practical and political drawbacks for some programs, such independence may be most appropriate for programs aiming to prepare students for technical communication careers. The benefits of independence can include: focusing the curriculum more adaptively; improving faculty status and teaching by balancing traditional academic norms with workplace standards and methods; and creating more powerful and effective identities for both our programs and our profession.

Rehling, Louise. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Education>TC