Technical Communication Programs Research Articles

Integrating Online Informative Videos into Technical Communication Service Courses

Background: Online, informative videos are a popular genre of technical communication but little information is available for instructors to integrate the genre into technical communication courses. Research questions: (1) What are the logistics, considerations, and problems encountered when assigning authentic informative videos in introductory technical writing service courses? (2) Is an authentic informative video project in introductory technical writing service courses an effective learning assignment from the students' perspectives? Situating the case: Video has been discussed in technical communication literature since the 1970s and our discussion of video parallels technology development making video production and viewing possible for mainstream consumers. Recently, a revitalization of interest in video (particularly since 2012) reflects widespread adoption of smart phones with video recording capabilities, preinstalled and relatively simple video production applications on computers, video-sharing websites (YouTube), and high-speed internet connections enabling rapid video downloads by viewers. Yet, low-cost and easy-to-use communication technologies are often associated with the idiosyncratic application of design features and often do not transfer into effective communication. We often claim that technical communication programs are well situated to take a “leadership role” in mastering a new communication technology but our instruction of video has not kept pace with the rapidly evolving technology nor is it necessarily consistent with our own research findings. How this case was studied: In this experience report, I took a teacher-researcher role and triangulated my personal observations with a student-perception questionnaire and other student reflections on the assignment. About the case: The informative video project was used in a junior-level, introductory technical communication service course. The informative video assignment was an experiential learning assignment in which students worked in small teams to develop “real-world” communications for a peer audience. The learning objectives emphasized in the project include genre analysis, audience analysis, scriptwriting, visual-verbal communication, video production and technology, and project management and teamwork. Results: The logistics and considerations for developing informative videos in technical communication courses are discussed and student feedback reveals that this assignment was particularly useful for teaching audience analysis, technology skills, verbal-visual synergy of communication channels, and teamwork. Conclusions: Informative videos are a challenging project but offer a unique opportunity to examine audience analysis and teach verbal-visual parallelism. Furthermore, the equipment and production software are no longer barriers to assigning the project in technical communication courses.

"That usability course"

The approach to usability adopted by many technical communication programs often conceptually separates usability from other subject matter areas and places it at the tail-end of a project. Such an approach creates conceptual barriers with regard to how usability fits in a design project. As a result, students do not engage in the critical work of designing and testing iteratively in the formative phase of a product. We should broaden usability into user experience, enable students to see user experience as an iterative and agile process, and provide in-depth knowledge of user research methods.

An Overview of Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Research in Technical Communication Journals (1992–2011)

This study explores a comprehensive sample of experimental and quasi-experimental research within five leading technical communication journals over a 20-year period. Exploratory studies can overview how a method has evolved within a field, highlighting how it has advanced understanding of communication and identifying areas for further inquiry. Research questions: (1) How has experimental research in technical communication journals developed over the 20-year period? Specifically, how much is being published, which journals publish experiments, what topics are being explored, and what fields are informing this research? (2) What content characterizes experimental research in technical communication? Specifically, how explicit are the research questions/hypotheses, are the results of pilot studies reported, what are the sample sizes and populations used, and what measures do researchers use? (3) Who publishes experimental research in technical communication? Specifically, which authors and affiliates are most associated with experimental research, and how does the sample's gender and authorship distribution compare to existing research? Literature review: We first address how scholars have assessed research in technical communication and how these findings implicate experimental research. We then review features of other exploratory studies that inform this study's design. Methodology: We conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 137 experiments, a comprehensive sample identified from a corpus of 2,118 refereed papers published from 1992 to 2011. We coded 14 variables related to the causal relationships that the experiments addressed and who produced the research. We subjected the data to multiple statistical measures, including contingency table analysis and correspondence analysis. Results and conclusions: Over the 20 years, the journals published experimental research at a consistent rate. This could indicate that these methods have a stable presence in the field, or a discouraging sign that output is not on the rise despite calls from leading scholars. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (TPC) emerged as a strong producer of experiments, publishing 45% of the sample. TPC was also associated with most recent experiments, assuming this role from Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, which was associated with early experiments. In addition, TPC, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, and Technical Communication correlated with experiments on collaboration, pedagogy, and intercultural communication, respectively. The results also revealed that recent experiments reported significantly more explicit research question/hypotheses and pilot studies, an encouraging sign for the quality of future experiments. Finally, Spyridakis published the most experiments over the past 20 years, and researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Twente were the top affiliates associated with output. The configuration of both of these institutions' programs, which seem to align with a traditional science model, might suggest how the evolution of technical communication programs impacts the type of research that its affiliates produce. Our results are limited by the small, though comprehensive, sample and the exploratory natures of measures like correspondence analysis. Future research could use the proposed framework to investigate the evolution of other research methods in technical communication, strengthening our body of knowledge.

The Rhetoric of Free: Open Source Software and Technical Communication During Economic Downturns

This article explores the ramifications of deploying free and open source software (F/OSS) for technical communication program development. Against the backdrop of the recession, the article draws on empirical research to examine how different stakeholders understand the F in F/OSS, its relationship with proprietary software, and the institutional contexts surrounding these technologies. It contributes four recommendations for working with F/OSS that might help programs shore up in tough times and thrive postdownturn.

Educating Technical Communication Teachers: The Origins, Development, and Present Status of the Course, “Teaching Technical Writing” at Illinois State University

Since the early 1980s, Illinois State University’s English Department has educated numerous technical communication practitioners as well as dozens of teachers of technical communication throughout the United States. Today, the program’s faculty members are nationally recognized for their contributions to scholarship and education and its Ph.D. and M.A. students are sought after to teach in the technical communication programs of other universities. A critical component of this success was the development of the graduate course, Teaching Technical Writing in 1990. This essay situates the development of that course in the history not only of the technical communication program at Illinois State University but in the history of the technical communication field, particularly since 1950. Although the essay focuses on one course in one midsized, Midwestern U.S. University, it is, I believe, exemplary of the development and current status of technical communication pedagogy throughout the U.S.

Translation and Technical Communication: Chicken or Egg?

Translation starts with a document in one language and ends with a document with the same meaning in another language. Technical communication entails designing and writing a document from scratch in one language. The answer to the question of “Which, of translation or writing, comes first?” seems relatively obvious – the document needs to be written before it can be translated. However, when looking at translation and technical communication as professions and examining how the professionals are trained, the answer is not quite as clear-cut. In the United States, translators and technical communicators have different qualifications, different skills – in particular different language skills – and have degrees in different fields. Only recently has there appeared a certain convergence between the professions. In Europe, and more specifically in France, the profession of technical communicator is quite recent, as are the corresponding academic programs. Many technical communicators came to the profession from translation. The convergence therefore is perceived as being far greater. The purpose of this paper is to launch a comparative study of the competences or skills of translators and technical communicators, based on the existing European Master’s in Translation (EMT) list of competences for translators. The goal of this study would be to define the core skills for technical communicators, to examine to what extent they overlap with the competences of translators and ultimately, to establish a referential for training programs in technical communication.

An Application of Robert Gagné's Nine Events of Instruction to the Teaching of Website Localization

Website localization is an important part of international technical communication. However, at present, few technical communication programs offer courses in localization. This article provides an overview of a course devised to familiarize students with ideas and approaches related to website localization. The course was based upon Robert Gagné's nine events of instruction—an approach that allowed students to move from the learning of abstract ideas to the application of knowledge to the website localization process.

Mapping Technical and Professional Communication: A Summary and Survey of Academic Locations for Programs

This article provides an account of the academic location of 142 technical communication programs as reported on program Web sites as well as in an online survey sent to technical communication program coordinators. According to the findings, most technical communication programs are located in departments of English, but programs outside of English are more likely to offer graduate degrees and a more technically oriented program focus.

Positioning Programs in Professional and Technical Communication: Guest Editor's Introduction

Programs in technical and professional communication are continually challenged by issues of location and dislocation. Historic changes and interdisciplinary initiatives are in progress at colleges and universities worldwide. The five articles of this special issue will offer a portrait of the multiple ways that technical communication programs are positioning themselves to do innovative teaching and research.

Intellectual Fit and Programmatic Power: Organizational Profiles of Four Professional/Technical/Scientific Communication Programs

Do programs in technical communication thrive when administered in English departments or in other configurations of administrative units? This article examines the variations in professional, technical, and scientific communication programs at four universities across the north central U.S. The first three programs have histories that led them to be housed at increasing distances from their universities' English departments. The fourth is a nascent program emerging in its university's English department.

Technical Communication Internship Requirements in the Academic Economy: How We Compare among Ourselves and across other Applied Fields

This article reports a study of internship requirements in technical communication programs compared with three established professions and one emerging profession that have certification or licensing requirements for practitioners. The study addresses three questions about technical communication internship programs: 1) Are internships offered as a way to fulfill program academic credit requirements? 2) If internships are offered, are they required or elective? 3) What are the minimum/maximum academic credits allowed for internships toward fulfillment of program requirements and the number of workplace hours of internship required? To answer these questions we focused on three elements of internship program management: academic credits, workplace hours per academic credit, and total workplace hours required. Our findings indicate that there is considerable disparity for these factors among programs in our field and that we lack criteria similar to those used in established professions for internships.

The Two-Semester Thesis Model: Emphasizing Research in Undergraduate Technical Communication Curricula

This article addresses previous arguments that call for increased emphasis on research in technical communication programs. Focusing on the value of scholarly-based research at the undergraduate level, we present New Mexico Tech's thesis model as an example of helping students develop familiarity with research skills and methods. This two-semester sequence serves as a capstone experience for students' writing, designing, editing, and presentation skills. It also involves members of our corporate advisory board and provides an opportunity to teach students to understand and apply research methods to unique projects, skills we argue will benefit students no matter what environments they enter upon graduation.

Practitioner Research Instruction

Most technical communication practitioners conduct research throughout their careers. Yet, a survey of the Web sites of 114 undergraduate technical communication programs between September 2006 and April 2007 revealed that 65% (about two thirds) of these programs are providing minimal or no exposure to research instruction and therefore are not sufficiently preparing students to handle the types of research they will encounter in their upcoming careers. Given the disconnect between the centrality of research in the work that technical communicators do and the low presence of research instruction at the undergraduate level, academics need to look for ways to overcome institutional and other constraints in order to give research training greater priority in their undergraduate programs.

Cross-Departmental Collaboration for the Community: Technical Communicators in a Service-Learning Software Engineering Course

Introduction Traditionally in a project-based software engineering course, students learn software development skills by working on tightly controlled classroom projects provided by instructors. While such projects provide valuable software development experiences to students, service-learning projects expose students to real-world situations that cannot be easily replicated in classroom projects. Service-learning is an active-learning pedagogy that integrates community needs with student learning. As defined by Bringle and Hatcher (1995), service-learning is a course-based, credit bearing educational experience in which students (a) participate in an organized service activity that meets identified community needs, and (b) reflect on the service activity in such a way as to gain further understanding of curricular content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of personal values and civic responsibility. Service-learning in software engineering has been embraced by many such as Liu (2005), Poger and Bailie (2006), Song (1996), and Tadayon (2004). They found that service-learning software-development projects not only provide students with real-world experience in their technical and social skills, but also instill civic responsibility and ownership in students. Some (Purewal, Bennett, & Maier, 2007; Rosmaita, 2007) also suggest that the service-learning pedagogical approach may attract more motivated and higher-achieving students to the computer science discipline, which could be a major benefit for the discipline, especially when computer science student enrollment has been decreasing for the last few years (Carter, 2006). While service-learning in software engineering courses is not new, it has not been widely applied in the discipline partly because of its challenges, which include, most notably, additional time and organizational demands on instructors, and maintenance needs after the completion of the projects. The issue of additional demands on instructors needs to be addressed according to one's circumstance; the system maintenance issue could also be quite complicated. One solution to the maintenance issue is to have a support center, as suggested by Chase, Oakes, and Ramsey (2007). An Agile Software Factory has also been proposed by Chao and Randles (2009) in supporting the maintenance effort for student service-learning projects. As another solution, this paper suggests adding technical writers to the service-learning project teams with the intent of producing better documentation for easing the burden of maintenance. It is our experience, in past service-learning software development, that documentation produced by the student software developers was typically low quality and/or scarce. The causes for the weak documentation can be attributed to two main reasons: 1. There is limited time for software development itself, which implies limited time for creating documents, and 2. Students in computer science or software engineering are not trained in technical communication (writing) and do not enjoy writing much. Aiming to improve the quality of the software documentation for the service-learning projects, the instructor from the Computer Science Program and the instructor from the Scientific and Technical Communication Program collaborated in fall semester of 2008 with the goal of adding technical communication skills to the software development teams. That goal manifested itself as a curriculum that involved upper-level technical communication students serving as the technical communicators for software development students. Each team of students worked with a client from a local non-profit organization to develop software that would fulfill a need of the client. The technical communication students wrote the user-centered release notes and delivered those to the client with each iteration of the software. Also, the technical communication students wrote the final user documentation as an HTML help file. …

Breaking Professional Boundaries: What the MacCrate Report on Lawyering Skills and Values Means for TPC Programs

In 1992, the American Bar Association released the MacCrate Report, which listed the ten skills and four professional values that all attorneys need and critiqued law schools and state bars for not doing enough to teach and encourage the development of these skills and values. In response, law schools have significantly increased the skills-based components in their curricula, and most state bar exams now include a performance test. Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) programs already provide substantial instruction in all of the skills and values described in the MacCrate Report; further, an education in TPC prepares graduates to excel in law school and on the bar exam. This knowledge offers opportunities for growth if educators, administrators, and scholars take steps to encourage students to consider not only writing for but also joining in the legal profession.

Global Partnerships: Positioning Technical Communication Programs in the Context of Globalization

Globalization is radically transforming technical communication (TC) both in the workplace and in higher education. This article examines these changes and the ways in which TC programs position themselves amid globalization, in particular the ways in which they use emerging global partnerships to prepare students for global work and citizenship. For this purpose, the authors report on a Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication-supported exploratory study of current partnership initiatives in TC programs. The study indicated a high level of activity, planning, and interest in global partnerships and revealed a range of creative and innovative partnerships that systematically integrate new opportunities for experiential learning, collaborative international research, and civic engagement in a global context into programs and their curricula. Partnerships also emphasize cultural sensitivity, equal partner contribution, and mutual benefit, thus offering alternatives to emerging global trade visions of higher education. The article also identifies key challenges that partnerships face, suggesting implications for programs and the field as a whole to facilitate successful partnerships.

Global Partnerships: Positioning Technical Communication Programs in the Context of Globalization

Globalization is radically transforming technical communication (TC) both in the workplace and in higher education. This article examines these changes and the ways in which TC programs position themselves amid globalization, in particular the ways in which they use emerging global partnerships to prepare students for global work and citizenship. For this purpose, the authors report on a Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication-supported exploratory study of current partnership initiatives in TC programs. The study indicated a high level of activity, planning, and interest in global partnerships and revealed a range of creative and innovative partnerships that systematically integrate new opportunities for experiential learning, collaborative international research, and civic engagement in a global context into programs and their curricula. Partnerships also emphasize cultural sensitivity, equal partner contribution, and mutual benefit, thus offering alternatives to emerging global trade visions of higher education. The article also identifies key challenges that partnerships face, suggesting implications for programs and the field as a whole to facilitate successful partnerships.

Article: What We Teach and What They Use: Teaching and Learning in Scientific and Technical Communication Programs and Beyond

Over the past two decades, studies have examined how social contexts influence the composition and production of workplace documents. But much remains to be known about what happens when writers move from one social context to another—from the academy to the workplace, for instance. This article demonstrates that students in scientific and technical communication classrooms learn what they are taught about composing. They take this knowledge with them to the workplace, where they apply it, practically and theoretically, and improve their understanding of it with repeated use.

Is There a Chilling of Digital Communication? Exploring How Knowledge and Understanding of the Fair Use Doctrine May Influence Web Composing

Does law, or even the presence of the law, shape composing practices? Do fair use/copyright play a part in the web composing practices/pedagogy of students and teachers in technical communication programs as they construct web sites and design curriculum? Westbrook (2006) goes so far as to state that institutional ideologies combined with copyright law render students' multimedia compositions illegitimate (p. 459). This empirical study aims to examine these issues and to provide insights that can guide programmatic/pedagogical decisions regarding the instruction of students as technical/professional writers and new media composers. The pilot study was intended to test the design for a larger study. The study aims to fill in gaps and resolve confusion about how fair use/copyright shapes digital writing. A major fair use research project (Heins & Beckles, 2005) found that artists and scholars have only a vague sense of what fair use includes and have fear about legal repercussions. This uncertain knowledge circumscribes composing practices: is an urgent need for accurate information (p. 54). Those who teach composition should attend to these issues (Rife, 2007, The fair use doctrine). In order to test the study design, in Spring 2006 we completed an IRB approved pilot study that examined these issues. The study used survey and discourse-based interview methods to examine technical writing instructors' and students' knowledge and understanding of fair use/copyright as it intersects with composing web sites and teaching web authoring. The study examines how, if at all, technical writers/teachers of technical writing apply their knowledge and understanding of fair use to practice. Tentative Conclusions: · Students might have more knowledge in some cases than their teachers. · The TPW program studied may contain students and teachers that are more knowledgeable than those at other institutions. · All participants were generally knowledgeable, aware of issues - most people got most questions right most of the time. · Participants are genuinely interested in these issues and think it should be part of their education. · With increased knowledge and certainly, comes increased agency in composing choices. · With lack of certainty comes a lack of agency. · The tipping point in gaining agency when composing may be knowledge of how fair use/copyright works along with knowledge of the risks of digital writing. · There is substantial confusion about difference between concepts of plagiarism and the fair use doctrine. · There might be misunderstanding about the nature of the fair use doctrine. · There is possible unawareness of the protections of the teach act (Section 110, Title 17). · Based on the outcomes of several questions, there may be substantial unawareness of government document exception from copyright, di minimus use exception, heart of the matter issues, and issues concerned with using for criticism versus just using.

Beyond Instruction

SUMMARY For several years, librarians have grappled with problems and issues surrounding provision of library services to distance students. The Multimedia Writing and Technical Communication Program at Arizona State University East offers the majority of its courses online. To date, the library and Program collaboration has focused on an information literacy initiative. To support this initiative and other course needs, the program director and a campus librarian have discussed integrating library services in support of coursework. This article focuses on the need for library support from the perspective of the program director and librarian as well as potential methods of delivery.