Globalization, Pedagogy, and Research

Four presentations about the teaching of scientific and technical communication programs in a highly international industry climate.

Cleary, Yvonne, Clinton R. Lanier, Russel Hirst and Kirk R. St. Amant. CPTSC (2005). Presentations>Education>Globalization

How to Create Web-Based Training (WBT)  

The market for Web-based Training (WBT) products and services is expected to grow from $197 million in 1997 to $5.5 billion in 2002. Many technical communicators and trainers are already interested in creating WBT, but they do not know how to get started. In this session, I will explain the advantages and disadvantages of WBT, when to consider WBT, who is using it—and why, how much it costs to develop WBT, and design issues to consider. I will also share some WBT examples.

DeLoach, Scott. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Education>Instructional Design>Online

The Impact of Current Trends on TCOM Curricula  

Rapidly changing processes in internationalization, in emerging technologies, and in instructional delivery systems require program directors and faculty to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate the extent to which they consider these changes in curricula development. This evaluation should not necessarily result in curricula molded in the image of industry, for many changes in technological processes are ephemeral.

Rainey, Kenneth T. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Presentations>Education>TC

In-House Usability Training: Culture Change You Can Afford  

In an effort to establish affordable usability design and testing as part of the product development culture at Unisys Corporation, four Product Information employees in Mission Viejo, California and Salt Lake City, Utah developed a usability class. Working part time over a period of several months, the team developed a class outline; a PowerPoint presentation of the class content; exercises on surveys, paper prototyping, heuristic evaluations, and usability testing; Instructor and Student Guides, and a final examination. The class was added to the curriculum of the official corporate training entity, Unisys University, where it is available for all Unisys employees. This report of the group’s experience may be useful to organizations wanting to get started with usability training despite budget restraints.

Randolph, Elaine F. and Lynn Ballard. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Education>Usability>Case Studies

Information Design Exercises  

Study the target audience – who are your users? Identify various information elements. Study the user’s work flow. Layout the various information elements based on their characteristics. Highlight critical information. Think visually.

Deshpande, Shashank. STC India (2003). Presentations>Information Design>Education

Knowledge By Design  

Knowledge by design (KBD) is an instructional paradigm for the emerging digital technologies. This nascent paradigm entails an integrated, triarchic informationmedia-interactivity model of a robust, learner-centered experience. High-performance computer platforms, inexpensive mass storage, and high bandwidth data transfer from fiber optics and orbiting satellites—are converging with the global Internet to transform the nature of the 'infosphere.' At the same time, powerful off-the-shelf multimedia tools are widely available and affordable to courseware developers and communication designers. Approaching knowledge as a design discipline may facilitate the thoughtful development of a postmodern pedagogy that can more closely realize both the technological and human potential of the next millenium.

Lasnik, Vincent E. STC Proceedings (1999). Presentations>Education>Online>Multimedia

Picture Perfect: Selecting Graphics for Instruction  

Discusses some principles for choosing appropriate graphics for instructional materials.

Lyons, Chopeta C. Intercom (1995). Articles>Education>Presentations>Visual Rhetoric

Portfolios to Demonstrate Professional Skills

Explains how electronic portfolios bring together all the assignments in a TC core course, including learning the tools supported by the profession, student assignments, design rationales, and students' reflections on the tools and their skills and abilities.

Turns, Jennifer. University of Washington-Seattle (2001). Presentations>Education>Streaming>Video

PowerPoint-Based Lectures in Business Education: an Empirical Investigation of Student-Perceived Novelty and Effectiveness    

The use of PowerPoint (PPT)-based lectures in business classes is prevalent, yet it remains empirically understudied in business education research. The authors investigate whether students in the contemporary business classroom view PPT as a novel stimulus and whether these perceptions of novelty are related to students' self-assessment of learning. Results indicate that the degree of novelty that undergraduate business students associate with PPT-based teaching significantly relates to their perceptions of PPT's impact on cognitive learning and classroom interaction. Students' views of PPT as a novel stimulus are also associated with their perception of specific constructive and dysfunctional classroom behaviors and attitudes. The authors discuss their findings and offer implications for instructors and researchers in business education.

Burke, Lisa A. and Karen E. James. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Education>Presentations>Microsoft PowerPoint

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

Program Revision and Assessment

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

Eble, Michelle F., Ann S. 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

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

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 the Science into Technical and Scientific Communication Classes  

Although programs and courses frequently are titled “technical and scientific communication, ” often the scientific part is shifted to the science classes many students are required to take. All technical communication students, but especially those who are targeting a career in scientific communication, should be made aware of scientific principles and practices that apply to technical communication. Educators might add information about technical proposals, empirical research reports, regulations, basic abbreviations and definitions of statistics, research methods used in the sciences, and the scientific style described in style manuals to the materials they regularly teach.

Porter, Lynnette R. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Education>Scientific Communication

Recognizing Diversity: Teaching Professional Writing Courses from a Social Perspective  

Teaching professional writing courses from a social perspective enables instructors to recognize students’ own diversity and encourage students to consider cultural and gender diversity in designing effective communications Several teaching strategies will and instructors in their curriculum integration projects Revising courses to focus on diversity presents challenges which the instructor can meet by monitoring students’ response to the material and adapting teaching strategies as needed.

Scheffler, Judith A. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Education>Instructional Design

A Review of Research on Written Patient Information  

Rising consumerism in the health care industry promotes the value of quality written patient information in educating patients to make informed decisions about their health. This review of research located 65 studies published in health care journals. The types of written patient information tested in those 65 studies included those with clinical and organizational content, treatment and prevention content, and generalized and personalized content in a range of clinical areas. The measures used to judge the quality of written information included: cognitive, behavioral, and affective measures. We encourage technical communication researchers to use our synthesis of these studies to develop grant proposals for studies that will demonstrate the applicability of our research and methods—especially usability techniques—to the development of written patient information.

Campbell, Kim Sydow and Linda L. Mothersbaugh. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Education>Biomedical

Roles for Communication in Academia and Workplace: Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring  

The education of technical writers follows a vertical path, as discussed by panelists who represent three stops along that path. A new teacher of technical writing discusses moving from teaching basic writing to teaching more experienced and critical students. A professor who is in charge of new teachers discusses how he helps them meet the needs of students who demand more from their teachers. A mentor from industry discusses how she guides college graduates through the transition to professional writer and helps experienced writers continue their education on the job.

Tatge, Pamela K., Jack W. Jobst and John H. Carpenter. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>Education>Mentoring>Workplace

Selecting the Appropriate Learning Products for Your Users  

A learning product can take many forms, including wizard, coach, online Help, Web-based documentation, printed book, computer and paper-based tutorials, etc. The best way to determine the appropriate learning product(s) for your system is to conduct a needs analysis or survey of your users. A needs analysis is typically focused on a specific system or product, while a survey is more comprehensive, and can examine factors such as how your users learn. Each learning product has advantages and disadvantages, and is geared towards users with specific levels of expertise.

Florsheim, Stewart J. STC Proceedings (1999). Presentations>Education>Usability

So You Want to Be a Satellite Student?  

This panel segment focuses on a student's perspective of learning from a distance by satellite. Students interested in obtaining certificates in Technical Communication from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, without being at RPI, can do it when they enroll in the RPI satellite video program (RSVP).

Wagner, Carol A. STC Proceedings (1995). Presentations>Education>Online

Speaking to a Tech Writing Class

Many colleges and even some high schools have courses in technical writing; some even ask people from the industry to share their experiences. Could you be one of those industry insiders talking up our profession?

Bronson, Lisa M. Tech Comm Pros (2007). Academic>Education>Presentations

Strategies for Expanding Program Borders: Communication Modules in Engineering Technology  

To improve university-level presentations, students need rhetorical, design, and usability strategies and tools to create effective, professional presentations. By developing a series of three to five modules for science and technology students, Professional Writing faculty could polish materials for use as one-day professional development workshops in the workplace.

Johnson, Molly K. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Presentations>Education

Students' Technological Difficulties in Using Web-Based Learning Environments  

To provide quality education as we seek to use emerging electronic technologies, TPC faculty must continually reconceptualize what constitutes a classroom and what characterizes our roles as effective teachers. To explore these issues, we focus on the technological difficulties students encounter when learning in a web-based environment that includes using websites for course content, email to interact and send attachments, instant messaging, and listservs or threaded discussions. How do students with little experience in using these types of computer technology learn to complete the tasks required by their courses successfully? How do faculty prevent them from becoming so frustrated with the technology that they give up or transfer that frustration to course content, creating a barrier to their learning?

Southard, Sherry and Philip Rubens. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Education>Instructional Design>Online

Teaching and Learning in a Global Environment  

Much research in technical communication addresses issues of writing for other cultures. Language is understood within the context of culture, so communication is a cultural activity. Therefore, to successfully communicate with international audiences, we need to learn both what formal studies can offer and what individuals from other cultures reveal about our understanding of those studies.

Coggin, William O., Yevgeniy Borodkin, Su Suocai and Karen Skelton. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Education>Instructional Design>International