Teaching Writing in the Professions: A Case Study

This paper describes the experience of designing and teaching an elective undergraduate course on writing online at a large urban university in North America. The course, Educational Communication, was developed for e-Concordia, the organization responsible for online education at Concordia University, a large urban university in Montreal, Canada, which wanted to add a writing course to its curriculum of online, elective undergraduate courses. The course was approved a few months before it was first scheduled; development occurred while the course was first being taught. The course was developed to run on a customized Learning Management System and involved a team with many skills, including instructional design, graphic design, programming, and videography. The eight-unit course takes a genre-based approach to the instruction of writing and adapts research-based practices into its design. Each unit explores a different genre, and uses videos, guided readings, discussions, exercises, and writing assignments to develop students’ skills. The course has been taught four times. Student evaluations of teaching are positive and grades are similar to classroom versions of writing courses taught by the instructor of record. Two of the most significant additions since the course was launched are resources to assist teaching assistants with grading and a series of notes from the instructor to students to support them in starting the course.The course is in the process of being revised; the revised course will include a new unit on an additional genre not covered in the first version of the course

Following Form: Eleven Real World Insights into Template-Based Writing

How might Web 2.0 and other technology and business trends affect technical communicators? This session examines some of the research evidence about the workplace, the work of communicators and trainers in general, and the situations of technical communicators and instructional designers in particular, to identify some of the fundamental opportunities and challenges underlying Web 2.0 that could affect technical communicators and suggest ways that Web 2.0 might possibly affect our work—and our profession

Informal Learning: 10 Issues to Consider

Helps participants determine the extent to which informal learning supports an overall learning effort. Specifically, addresses 10 common questions about informal learning, including distinctions among informal, nonformal, and self-directed learning, and when technology can support informal learning, and when it can’t

Key Issues Affecting the Future of Workplace Learning and Performance

What's the future of workplace learning and performance? Informal learning? Social media? Increasing pressure to show ROI? Will the classroom and the lecture really go the way of the dinosaur as many have predicted? Using industry and academic research as a guide, this session answers these questions and more as it explores several issues that are likely to affect the field of workplace learning and performance and the everyday practices of professionals who work in this field

Lessons for Structuring Asynchronous Tutorials from the Design of Museum Exhibits

What can instructional designers learn about structuring self-study asynchronous e-learning courses from museum exhibit designers, who design free-choice learning environments? This paper suggests several lessons. Specifically, it reports on the results of a critical study of the structure of 50 museum exhibition plans, which classifies the structures into 5 categories and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each. Then it transfers the lessons to the structuring of self-study asynchronous e-learning tutorials

Negotiating differences in academic preparedness among transnational students in higher education

“Students these days don’t know anything,” commented a faculty member in a focus group. But is it that students don’t know anything, or that faculty members are unfamiliar with what students do know? This is no small issue, as the acceleration of internationalization in higher education and the broader processes of globalization have led to increased numbers of students with general education profiles that differ from those of the instructors and their domestic students. These transnational students—not only international students (paying international tuition), but also permanent residents and citizens —received their primary and secondary (and, possibly, undergraduate) educations outside of Canada, and instructors often lack an awareness of their educational backgrounds and experiences. Emerging from a study of the everyday instructional needs of full-time college and university faculty, this paper presents the results of a systematic review of the literature on the general education of students from four regions that are sources of international students and immigrants, and, therefore, prepared students on campus: China, India, the Middle East, and Latin America. The research not only identifies the curriculum that these students followed, but also the impact of educational reforms on the teaching styles and learning skills emphasized in these systems, and describes the implications for Canadian instructors

Possible Impacts of the New Popularity of e-Books on Higher Education

e-Books is a generic term that refers to a device for reading content—including books—in electronic formats as well as the material that users read on those devices (which include books, journals, magazines, and newspapers). The 2010 Horizon Report listed e-books as one of the technologies most likely to affect higher education in the next two to three years On the one hand, publishers of educational information have been providing texts in formats other than print for several decades On the other hand, until 2008, the impact of electronic publication was not felt extensively in the textbook publishing industry. e-Book readers and electronic books have started to emerge in the mainstream, and the impact of the financial crisis of 2008-2009 on school budgets might play a significant role in the emergence of ebooks as the dominant means of distributing books. Anticipated impacts of e-books include (1) Books will not die. Instead, experts predict trends similar to those that arose with the rise of digital music. (2) When buying texts online, customers might purchase micro-content such as individual chapters of books and articles from periodicals, and create customized reading materials. (3) The reading experience will change, partly because of the need to adjust to the format of the screen and partly to take advantage of the unique and beneficial features of the e-book devices. (4) Book designs will adjust to the capabilities of e-book readers, eventually providing reading experiences that integrate multimedia, linking, and customization. (5) Electronic publishing will affect scholarship, with material increasingly published in an online format, and journals exploring alternate peer review models and publication schedules that provide for more efficiency. e-Books will impact teaching through pressure for their adoption by students and by requiring instructors to address skills related to using and communicating through e-books in their courses. e-Books will impact theory and research by providing oppportunities to study reading patterns online as well as changing adoption

Visions of Technical Communication 2.0

How might Web 2.0 and other technology and business trends affect technical communicators? This session examines some of the research evidence about the workplace, the work of communicators and trainers in general, and the situations of technical communicators and instructional designers in particular, to identify some of the fundamental opportunities and challenges underlying Web 2.0 that could affect technical communicators and suggest ways that Web 2.0 might possibly affect our work—and our profession

Is Informal Learning Right for You? 10 Issues and Technologies to Consider

Are informal learning and Web 2.0. the centerpieces of workplace learning in the future? If so, how can we effectively leverage them to achieve strategic goals? This interactive session explores the answers to these and related questions, based on evidence from the research and real examples from the field. Specifically, this session clarifies competing definitions of informal learning,provides a framework of “touch points” for meaningfully integrating informal learning and associated technologies into an overall learning strategy

Crossing Occupational Cultures: A Workshop for Conducting Basic and Applied Research

Main objective: After completing this workshop, participants should be able to recognize issues of occupational culture that might affect their teaching, research, or work. Supporting objectives: (o) Define the term occupational culture. (o) Describe how terminology and language is representative of occupational culture. (o) Describe the role of processes in occupational culture. (o) Describe the role of values and beliefs in occupational culture. (o) Describe how terminology, processes, and values and beliefs serve to insulate and privilege an occupational culture. (o) Describe the implications of occupational culture to research, teaching, and work in technical and professional communication