Review: Preparing Learners for e-Learning  

Finally, give this book to the CEO who blithely assumes that the corporation can simply replace classroom learning with e-learning without missing a beat. This book goes a long way toward dampening the hype surrounding online education by acknowledging that e-learning requires a shift in organizational priorities, teacher and learner attitudes, and ways of operating.

Kitalong, Karla Saari. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>Education>Online

Preparing Students and Employees for Global Technical Communication  

American businesses that fail overseas most frequently do so because of “an inability to understand and adapt to foreign ways of thinking and acting” (Ferraro). While educators must prepare students for the global marketplace, so too must corporations train employees currently in the workforce to help them deal with the challenges of doing business internationally. This paper presents a university course and a corporate training program that introduce the key issues of building effective global teams to students and employees respectively.

Flammia, Madelyn, Colin B. Kemp and Barbara Greene. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Education>International

Preparing Students to Work with Technical Staff  

Technical communication programs should help students prepare to work with technical staff as well as develop writing, analysis, and communication skills. This presentation identifies assignments faculty can use to help students prepare to work effectively with technical staff: learning about what the writing technical staff do; learning about working in technical settings; interviewing faculty and staff; writing about science and technology for different audiences; editing a research article manuscript; learning about data networking; shadowing a technical professional; publishing a newsletter incorporating graduates’ observations and suggestions; having technical staff as well as technical communicators as guest speakers; and participating in STC.

Samson, Donald C. Jr. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>TC>Collaboration

Preparing to Teach Technical Writing   

To teach technical writing effectively, technical writing teachers should know enough about their students' fields to understand what their students write and help them learn how to write appropriately for non-academic audiences. This paper discusses the need for additional preparation to teach technical writing. It presents the results of an informal survey of science and business faculty, identifying resources teachers can use to learn basic concepts in science and business. Also, the paper considers the value of such a survey in developing writing assignments and rapport with faculty whose majors take technical writing courses.

Samson, Donald C., Jr. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Problems with Training (And What to do About It)

Through years of suffering through the American education system, I was implicitly taught that learning, and therefore training, required large numbers of people sitting in neat little rows, listening to dispassionate people ramble away on mediocre and predictably boring lessons.

Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2006). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

Producing Brochures in the Technical Writing Classroom  

Producing brochures for real clients teaches college-level technical writing students about constraints of cost, time, and the availability of materials. Brochure writing also provides opportunities for learning more about editing, collaborative work, document design, and the problems which may occur during the production of real documents. Brochures of good quality can be produced by a class in approximately three weeks, or nine classroom hours. Grading brochures is expedited through the use of a simple heuristic.

Ryan, Charlton. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Document Design>Technical Writing

Professional Composition: Combining Professional Writing and Critical Pedagogy

Toward a less artificial approach to professional writing pedagogy.

Toscano, Aaron A. University of Louisville (2003). Resources>Bibliographies>Writing>Education

Professional Development

Continued learning and professional training are essential for continual growth in the evolving field of usability. To address this need, the BoK will provide a listing of courses that are relevant to both students and professionals looking to enhance their knowledge of this growing field.

Usability Body of Knowledge. Resources>Education>Usability

Professional Development Overview  

The Professional Development stem provides sessions on how to grow your 'on-the-job' and.'off-the-job' skills as technical communicators. We control our professional growth and development by continuous learning in and away from our workplaces. The Professional Development sessions during this conference will stimulate new and challenging ideas.

Caruso, Anthony. STC Proceedings (1997). Careers>Education>Professionalism

Professional Development Stem Overview  

The Professional Development stem provides opportunities to enhance your growth — as an individual in the technical communication profession, as a member of work teams, and as an active participant in STC. Through a variety of presentations, you’ll gain information that will assist in the evolution of your career plans, contribute to your personal enrichment, and improve your contributions as an STC leader within your chapter and the Society.

Ecker, Pamela S. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>TC>Education

Professional Ethics

An online resource for publication and discussion of ethical cases, appropriate for integrating ethics issues into the classroom.

Professional Ethics (2003). Resources>Education>Ethics>Blogs

Professional Writing Mentoring

The main objective of this practicum is to encourage your pedagogical, technical, and professional development.

Romberger, Julia and Kate Agena. Purdue University (2003). Academic>Courses>Graduate>Education

Program Revision and Assessment

Four presentations about program assessment and the revisions to programs that they suggest.

Eble, Michelle F., Ann Jennings, Janice Tovey and Sherry Southard. CPTSC (2005). Presentations>Education>Assessment

Program Revision and Assessment II  

Four presentations about exigences that are leading to change and innovation in technical communication academic programs.

Smith Taylor, Summer, Karen Kuralt, Elizabeth Pass and Wanda L. Worley. CPTSC (2005). Presentations>Education>Assessment

Program/Professional Management/Identity    

Technical communication faces the same identity crisis in 2001 that it did in 1991, 1981, 1971,and 1901. It seems that no matter how much energy technical communicators invest in the development and promotion of their expertise in their social and economic marketplaces, there are always morepeople who do not know what they do or why than there are people who understand what technical communication is. Certainly, this forces program administrators to recycle old arguments while relivingold battles and working to maintain their own institutional and professional integrity. Here, years after the emergence of technical communication as a viable academic pursuit and career choice, people stillwonder if technical communication is a profession or not. There are two sources of identity crisis here: 1) mismatched standards for judging technical communication as a profession, and 2) ill-suited language for framing the qualities of technical communication professionals.

Williamson, William J. CPTSC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>TC

Programmatic Roles in Research, Professional Development, and Ethical Responsibility

Four presentations about the roles of programs in the professional, ethical, and research roles of its students and faculty.

Farkas, David K., Jennifer L. Bowie, Kenneth T. Rainey and W.J. Williamson. CPTSC (2005). Presentations>Education>Professionalism

A Project Plan for Creating Training Courses

This link formerly referenced a free Microsoft Project 98 project plan for designing and developing technical courseware. This has been expanded into a 78-page ebook on how to write a successful software training course.

Rice, William H. IV. WilliamRice.com (2004). Books>Education>Project Management>Technical Writing

Proper Introductions  

Describes how teachers can begin their courses on a positive note by properly introducing students to the course material and to each other.

Doumont, Jean-Luc. Intercom (2002). Articles>Education

Proposal to Support ABET Accreditation for Technical Communication Programs

The Ad Hoc Committee on Accreditation recommends that the IEEE Professional Communication Society act as the sponsoring cognizant technical society to present technical communication program criteria to the Related Accreditation Commission (RAC) of Accreditation Body for Engineering and Technology (ABET). This report contains the background documentation for this recommendation.

Davis, Marjorie T., Leslie Olsen and Mark P. Haselkorn. Mercer University (1998). Academic>Education>Assessment>Engineering

Proposed Multimedia Courseware Documentation Design  

With the growth of multimedia, design techniques to manage the contents and data structures for the media are becoming required We call this courseware in distinction from hardware or software, and we produce a production model by developing a uique technique not in imitation of the conventional ones using the following three points, layout, framework and linkage management.

Hayashizaki, Akira. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Multimedia>Documentation

Providing a Backbone for an Online Master's Program in Technical Communication    

Classrooms without walls. Textbooks without pages. Thinking outside the box. These are the hip phrases that describe contemporary e-learning. What is it, then, that provides structure, cohesion, and foundation for distance learning degree programs in technical and scientific communication?

Coppola, Nancy W. CPTSC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Online

A Psychologist Astray in Computer Science

While more universities continue to develop HCI degrees and concentrations, things have not progressed this far in most computer science departments. Most computer science students still experience HCI as a single course that is frequently designed for juniors or seniors. Marilyn provides insight gained through ten years of teaching such a course to undergraduate computer science students at the University of Toronto. She began by accepting the reality of a single course, the diverse backgrounds of her students, and fact that many of these students may eventually be designing interfaces.

Mantei-Tremaine, Marilyn. SIGCHI Bulletin (1998). Articles>Education>Usability>Cognitive Psychology

Publications on On-Line Collaboration and Educational Technology

On-line collaboration enriches the educational experience, especially if instructors use software environments that support group-generated projects, products, case studies, and other kinds of academic deliverables. Such activities are not supported well by the standard 'threaded topic' discussion formats of e-mail and message-based conferencing systems.

Klemm, William. Texas A and M University (1998). Articles>Education>Collaboration>Online

PubsTrac: A Project Management Simulator  

The PubsTrac simulator is a new tool for teaching project management in a technical publishing context. It takes the form of a board game in which one or more people each manage one or more projects. Each project must progress through the many steps that make up a typical technical publication development project, and must deal with such problems as bad reviews, product redesigns, sick employees, and resource overloads. In this workshop, participants will actually experience PubsTrac in small groups.

Caernarven-Smith, Patricia and Anthony H. Firman. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Education>Project Management

Putting A College Course Online: A Development Log  

The high dropout rate for many online college courses is due in part to a failure to adapt teaching materials and methods to the medium and to user needs. The author joined an intensive instructional design project and developed an online college course using WebCT with courseware development software. Constructivist pedagogy and today’s instructional technology are a good match, giving online instructors the conceptual and practical tools they need to construct a rich learning environment. The emphasis on user analysis and meeting users at the point of need inherent in technical communication is also vital to the success of online learning.

Pringle, Mary Margaret. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Online