Technical Communication Courses Research Articles

ENHANCING BUSINESS STUDENTS’ EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS AWARENESS

Employability skills have become vital in helping recent graduates distinguish themselves in the competitive job market, transcending disciplinary boundaries. Dissatisfaction with graduates' communication abilities has been a long-standing concern in academia and the workplace. The shift from traditional lecture-based instruction to active learning has prompted changes in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and technical communication courses globally. These changes encompass well-developed professional communication skills, collaborative work practices, effective self-management, and social responsibility. This study addresses the imperative of understanding and addressing the skill prerequisites of the corporate sphere, as employers increasingly seek competencies beyond academic qualifications. The study employs a student-centered approach, allowing students to align these skills with real-world job requirements. The Experiential Learning Theory by Kolb serves as the theoretical foundation for this approach. The results indicate that this teaching method, emphasizing learning by doing, received positive feedback from students. It not only provided insight into the skills required by the labor market but also improved students' awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, students found that this approach prepared them for their future careers. In conclusion, this research emphasizes the importance of equipping students with employability skills through authentic, context-based learning. The findings underscore the need for a shift from teacher-centered practices to more student-centered, collaborative learning environments that foster student autonomy and responsibility. The research closes with limitations and suggestions for further research.

Development of Soft Skills among Computing Students in Online Task-Based Learning: Insights from Technical Communication Course

Soft skills development, such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving, is critical for computer students as they enter the profession. Students may be able to practice these skills in a virtual setting through an online task-based course. In this study, we investigated how successfully an online task-based course encouraged the development of soft skills among computing students. The course was designed to give students real-world challenges that required them to work in groups and communicate effectively with their classmates and instructors. The inquiry was based on a qualitative examination of the students' final reports. It gave data from two semesters (Fall 2020 and Spring 2021) of students who studied a course named Technical Communication. In total, 216 students' final reports were ready for investigation. A sample of 97 reports, representing 45%, was selected based on certain criteria to ensure a high-quality investigation. According to the findings of our study, the online task-based course helped boost the development of certain soft skills among students. Students noted an improvement in their ability to communicate effectively, cooperate successfully with team members, and identify professional responsibilities, as well as a rise in their self-confidence. Overall, this study emphasizes the necessity of introducing online task-based courses into computing students' curricula, giving them a valuable opportunity to develop critical soft skills. The present design of the Technical Communication Course is believed to be efficient regardless of the education delivery method (traditional/online).

Perspectives on Usability Testing with IoT Devices in Technical Communication Courses

ABSTRACT This article offers perspectives on adopting smart home technology into usability testing for technical and professional communication (TPC) courses. Usability is a valued skill for technical communicators. However, usability testing methods have their problems as pedagogical tools. Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices and Smart Home Technology (SHT) may offer instructors tools to overcome some of those problems. This article details advantages and concerns associated with using SHT for curricular usability testing.

Student Struggle with Career-oriented Assignments: An Analysis of Résumés and Cover Letters

Résumé and cover letter formats have altered with the many digital platforms available (e.g., LinkedIn). However, constructing one’s identity as an ideal candidate is still the main goal for career-oriented documents and should be the focus of related lessons. The classroom activity system mediates the résumés and cover letters students create in business and technical communication courses. Students write these assignments for teachers, who are outside of professional activity systems. Because students are not immersed in the professional contexts for which they write these career-oriented assignments, they have difficulty constructing effective identities for being ideal candidates for assumed positions. Although résumés and cover letters are ubiquitous assignments for professional communication courses, little research has looked at how students struggle with composing a professional identity. Most résumé research analyzes materials submitted to employers after applicants leave school. The author reviews student texts in this genre and argues that career-oriented assignments are actually a classroom-specific genre with little connection to the assumed professional contexts to which students aspire. The author concludes that students should focus on more immediate attainable goals rather than future career goals many years away.

Cartographic Literacy can Support Social Change Approaches in Technical Communication Courses

Instruction in cartographic or map literacy in technical communication courses can support pedagogies promoting social change. Students must develop an ability to read, understand, interpret, use, and critique maps in technical communication contexts. This article argues that attention to cartographic literacy can build on existing visual literacies to promote critical understanding of how to use and create maps that engage with issues related to social change. A description of a sample assignment is included to introduce cartographic literacy in undergraduate technical communication courses. Student map examples support the conclusion that students benefit from instruction in cartographic literacy and that cartographic literacy can be an important component of technical communication pedagogies that work toward social justice.

Technical communication for civil engineering: academia-industry interdisciplinary needs

ABSTRACT The prevailing civil engineering graduates’ technical writing and oral presentation-related drawbacks have necessitated the design and implementation of demand-driven courses applying interdisciplinary pedagogy. This study investigates civil engineering academia-industry interdisciplinary contents, methods, and situations needed to design technical communication course. The analysis which engaged students, instructors, and professionals from industries employed sequential mixed methods design which grounds the quantitative analysis with exploratory detailed interviews. This revealed that classroom, internship, and industry contexts are essential foundations of interaction for stakeholders. Oral presentation, writing, reading, and evaluating technical documents infused with engineering design processes of initiating, designing, managing, and evaluating civil engineering projects were the contents selected from the needs analyses. Basic skills, rhetoric analysis, ethical and critical issues, and teamwork were the precedence pedagogical frames preferred to establish the methods of technical communication instruction. These interdisciplinary needs analyses imply how technical communication-related courses should be designed to enhance students’ multiple competencies better than solely addressing instrumentally codified skills that deny the author and the discourse community.

Designing virtual team projects with accessibility in mind: an illustrative example of cross‐cultural student collaboration

We report on the results of the second-year study of an interdisciplinary, international collaboration among students and instructors at one European and two US universities. The purpose of the study was to examine whether our changing four pedagogical elements from Year 1 to Year 2 affected the students’ perceptions of learning. The primary purpose of the pedagogical collaboration itself was to involve students in authentic collaborative learning activities intended to support them in developing an understanding of disability and accessibility concepts in a business context. Students in a business English course proposed start-up companies and created business plans for their ventures. Students in an introductory professional writing course designed websites for the planned businesses, while students in a gateway technical communication course served as advisors to the other two classes regarding how to make the proposed businesses and websites accessible to people with disabilities. We collected quantitative and qualitative data through pre- and post-project surveys. These data were supplemented with qualitative data from student interactions, student submissions (work products), video conference meeting minutes, and instructors’ notes. The analysis revealed that students reported increased awareness of disability and openness to finding solutions for accessibility issues.

Fostering Communities of Inquiry and Connectivism in Online Technical Communication Programs and Courses

In increasingly online higher education environments, instructors must develop positive and community-oriented learning environments, equivalent to, if different from, face-to-face learning experiences. Connectivism and communities of inquiry are complementary theories that facilitate the design and development of online learning and enable online learners to connect with peers. This article discusses two pedagogical interventions that encourage connectivism and foster communities of inquiry in online technical communication programs: (a) a face-to-face orientation workshop at the beginning of an online program and (b) a peer-review activity in a research methods graduate course. The article explains the development, deployment, and evaluation of the activities.

Disseminating and Hiding Information in Technical Communication Courses: The Case of Patents from the Perspectives of Digital Humanities

Despite their ostensibly aseptic nature, technical texts involve a multifaceted net of institutional, social and pragmatic functions. Patents, in particular, are characterized by a multi-layered rhetorical exercise in which information is provided, and hidden, in light of patent disclosure lawsDrawing on the Cooperative Patent Classification scheme, a corpus of patents related to environmental issues has been compiled. The objective is to investigate the main keywords emerging in the corpus and to analyse their semantic context in this patent type. More specifically, the analysis focuses on the patents’ semantic preference and semantic prosody in order to pinpoint and examine the semantic complexities emerging in this genre and to identify the strategies employed (such as the use of linguistic vagueness) in order to provide the necessary information while not disclosing precious data.
 Patents represent a complex, hybrid and cross-disciplinary genre and a finer understanding of their discursive features may contribute to spreading awareness of the importance that semantics plays within the rhetorical pattern of the text. Therefore, they may be fruitfully employed in Technical Communication courses in order to improved reading comprehension and analytical skills.

Playable Case Studies: A New Educational Genre for Technical Writing Instruction

ABSTRACTA Playable Case Study (PCS) is a hybrid learning experience where students (1) participate in a fictional narrative that unfolds through an immersive, simulated environment and (2) engage in classroom activities and lessons that provide educational scaffolding and promote metacognition through in-game and out-of-game experiences. We present the Microcore PCS to illustrate the potential of this new type of experiential simulation that incorporates aspects of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) to increase immersion and teach workplace literacies in the technical communication classroom. We explore results from a pilot test of Microcore with an undergraduate technical communication course, identifying design strategies that worked well and others that led to improvements that are currently being incorporated. We also provide questions to prompt future research of playable case studies and discuss our findings in a broader context of technical communication pedagogy.

Responsive curriculum change

This experience report highlights one program's approach to curriculum revision as the program moved from being an emphasis within a literature degree to a B.A. degree in technical communication. The major curriculum was designed by researching state and regional needs for technical communication education in addition to using research already conducted and published in the field. Through an examination of the skills technical communicators needed to be successful in the workplace and how those skills transfer to other related occupations, we were able to build a successful major. The revised curriculum used an interdisciplinary approach to include courses in technical communication, visual design, and public relations. Further, this report discusses the iterative programmatic changes necessary to keep the major current. From alumni interviews and secondary research on changes in technical communication, we continue to reassess the skills students need. As a result our program continues to evolve to equip students with technical communication skills that apply to various, related occupations.

Cultivating code literacy

This experience report shares the story of course redesign for cultivating technological and code literacy. This redesign came about as a result of listening to advisory board members as well as responding to recent scholarship calling for more specifics on the teaching of component content management and content strategy. We begin with discussion of code literacy differentiation between code-as-language, code-as-tool, and code-as-structure. We then share detail about our advisory board engagement and the resulting advanced-level technical communication course in which, framed by technological literacy narratives, students produce a static HTML site for a client, develop a repository for this work (GitHub), use XML and the DITA standard for dynamic document delivery, and create a digital experience element to accompany the site. We document and analyze student narratives and online course discussions. We emphasize a more holistic approach to code literacy and that course redesign should be a collaborative endeavor with advisory board members and industry experts. Through these experiences, students gain requisite knowledge and practice so as to enter the technical communication community of practice.

Teaching Technical Communication to Engineering Students: Design, Implementation, and Assessment for Project-based Instruction

Through the project-based instruction (PBI) method, this paper described the design, implementation, and assessment of a technical communication course for engineering graduate students. The paper first addressed an increasing demand of engineering students with great communication skills through analyzing the existing literature and industry criteria. It then introduced concepts and characteristics of PBI and explained why PBI is a fit pedagogy in teaching technical writing to engineering students. Next, it elaborated components involved in the holistic design of the PBI course, including student sample, timeline, designed sections and units, and designing rationale and principles. This paper then reported the teaching effectiveness of this course through the course evaluation. Through the instructor’s critical reflection, the paper finally discussed challenges in implementing and assessing a PBI method in this course and also provided insights to improve curriculum design for future scholars.

Knowing Bass: Accounting for Information Environments in Designing Online Public Outreach

Social media and online news sites have become common outlets through which publics encounter information that shape their knowledge, values, and opinions about food. This article extends scholarship at the intersections of user experience design and online public outreach by focusing on the role of social media and online news sites in information environments that impact public site users’ knowledge about and practices of seafood production and consumption. First, we introduce an ongoing design project about North Carolina seafood production and consumption to provide an example of how and why site designers should account for how online information affects public understanding. Next, we contextualize the challenges of this project by introducing a conceptual framework that helps to explain why the values and practices of understanding seafood production are so complex. Finally, through this case and framework, we argue that designers of online public outreach projects should become more aware of designing in contexts shaped by social media. The potential for public learning is affected by how people search for, encounter, and discuss information about the issues that matter to their lives. We offer a classroom heuristic for identifying and addressing the role of information environments in rhetoric and/or technical communication courses.

The Self-Reported Confidence and Proficiency Levels in Communication Skills: A Comparison of Senior Capstone Students and Undergraduate Students in a Technical Communication Course

One study of American college students foundthat students generally rate such attributes as publicspeaking and writing (along with academic ability ingeneral) as above average [6]. So we wanted to see if ourengineering students felt the same. To do so, weconducted our study over two phases and over multipleyears. The second phase grew out of an earlier one, phaseone, conducted between the winter term, 2013 and thewinter term, 2016. In the first phase, we administered asurvey that asked 2nd year technical communicationstudents to self-report on their levels of proficiency andconfidence in their communication skills – writing,speaking, teamwork and personal skills development (orlifelong learning) [2][5]. In all, 370 students completed thesurvey.This survey, administered at the beginning andtoward the end of the course, asked 20 questions relatedto communication tasks that we routinely ask them to doas part of the course, such as writing documents of >5pages or <5 pages, or giving a speech to groups of >20or <20 people. The survey, which took about 10 minutesto complete, was completely anonymous so that studentscould not be matched to grades nor could we determinewhy a student responded in a particular way. This earlierstudy found that students felt they had a moderate level ofconfidence in their communication skills, but they alsobelieved that the expected level of proficiency in theirsenior year would be substantially higher than theircurrent levels; that is, whereas they believed these currentlevels were, on average, 3 on the CDIO scale of 5, theybelieved the expected proficiency levels would be 4.5 onaverage.We were then curious to see how students in thesenior (capstone) design courses would respond to thesame survey. Once again, the survey was anonymous andcould not be matched to a particular student. Our goal insurveying capstone students was to see whether they stillfelt at least moderately confident in their communicationskills (for the most part, they do) and whether they nowfeel more proficient in communicating the informationthat supports the engineering work done in the course.Our expectation was that this cohort of senior capstonestudents would feel more proficient and confident thantheir younger selves

Understanding Engineering Undergraduates’ Technical Oral Presentation: Challenges and Perspectives

This paper reports the findings of an evaluation study on technical oral presentation and its potential application in English language courses for engineering undergraduates setting. The main aim is to delineate difficulties and challenges faced by engineering undergraduates in learning Technical Oral Presentation (TOP) skills in an English proficiency course. The participants were 310 engineering undergraduates who enrolled in the English for Technical Communication (ETC) course and nine instructors. Various difficulties and challenges faced by the engineering undergraduates to learn the TOP skills were identified and input from instructors were also examined. Suggestions to address the challenges faced by the students were highlighted with the view to preparing them for their future engineering workplace communication.

Implementing Usability Testing in Introductory Technical Communication Service Courses: Results and Lessons From a Local Study

Introduction: This case study examines students’ and instructors’ experiences with usability testing in technical communication service courses. Research questions: 1. What prior experience do students and instructors have with usability testing? 2. What are their challenges with implementing usability testing in technical communication courses? 3. What are their recommendations for improving their efforts? About the case: This study was conducted in 2012 at a small Midwestern university where students and instructors in four sections of technical communication service courses participated in the study. Situating the case: Most technical communication scholarship focuses on usability practices, methods, or tools, and rarely explicitly addresses its pedagogy, especially the practical challenges faced by our students and instructors . Methods/approach: Data were gathered through preliminary and post-project student surveys and instructor interviews. Thematic coding was used to analyze the data . Results/discussion: Students faced the usual practical challenges such as time and resource constraints and collaboration with users. They found strategies such as using in-class activities, readings, and examples, and working directly with users to be helpful in their usability efforts. Instructors expressed the need for better preparation. Conclusions: Instructors should not only be required to take a usability course that will prepare them to be more effective usability instructors, but they should also incorporate readings and examples that will help students collaborate effectively with users and clients. The study is limited to research participants at one institution. Future research should involve larger, ethnographic studies of diverse students and instructors to address more aspects of usability pedagogy.

Revising the Online Classroom: Usability Testing for Training Online Technical Communication Instructors

ABSTRACTThis article reports on an effort by the authors to use usability testing as a component of online teacher training for their multimajor technical communication course. The article further explains the ways in which program administrators at other institutions can create their own usability testing protocols for formative online teacher training in course design and in principles of user-centered design.

Using WebCT to teach grammar selectively

Teachers of business and technical communication are supposed to teach grammar, but only to a limited extent, according to the literature. Technology program faculty at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and employers of graduates want grammar to be taught, along with an ever-expanding list of other employment-related communication skills. In response to these demands, a series of eight mini grammar lessons was developed for students in four technology programs. The software WebCT was used to facilitate the development and delivery of the lessons, which formed a component of the students’ business and technical communication course. Exercises, self-tests, and quizzes used sentences from workplace documents from the students’ technologies in order to hold the students’ attention and to validate the study of language. For students, this online component proved to be an attractive feature of their course.

Client-Based Pedagogy Meets Workplace Simulation: Developing Social Processes in the Arisoph Case Study

Teaching problem: Immersive pedagogies—including real-world or client-based projects, case studies, and simulations—have long been used to encourage student problem-solving, analytical thinking, and teamwork in professional communication. Building a connection to the real world has real challenges, however, for both instructors and students. How can we better prepare students for their future careers in our technical communication courses? Situating the case: This paper draws on three areas in the literature to situate the Arisoph case study: First, we discuss the work that has been done with client-based projects and the problems and challenges researchers have found with incorporating these projects into the classroom. Second, we discuss a newer model of workplace simulations, particularly focusing on the work done by Fisher and Russell. Third, we discuss the psychological theories of attribution and reattribution, which provided a foundation for our development of the Arisoph case study. How this case was studied: This paper describes the development of the Arisoph case study, an online client-based simulation course designed for engineering students to learn and practice technical communication. Course development and collection of instructor and student responses took place from 2010 to 2014. About the case: This paper details the development and implementation of the Arisoph case study, which brought the workplace realities of a variety of engineering professions into a classroom filled with engineering majors. The Arisoph simulation was designed to manage student attribution and reattribution, particularly to help engineering students connect the principles and skills learned in technical communication courses with their future careers. The Arisoph case study is a full-semester simulation, where students apply for work in a fictional company and fulfill different roles on professional teams. Each assignment during the semester is situated in the context of the simulation. The major projects for the simulation, however, come from a real client in the engineering field. This unique combination of simulation and client-based projects provides students with greater opportunities for successful reattribution. Conclusions: Initial student reactions to the course show an increased understanding of workplace communication and a greater motivation to produce the best possible product for the client. We hope that long-term studies will show significant carryover of those attitudes into students' careers.