Programmatic Perspectives

Editors' Introduction to Issue 15.2

2025-01-12T10:53:13-08:00

The Morphology of Data Governance

2024-03-01T21:24:50-08:00

This commentary discusses the author’s experience transforming the technical and professional communication programs at North Dakota State University (NDSU) by integrating data governance principles. Recognizing the importance of ‘data governance’ in the modern data-driven economy, the author developed a new course focused on data governance for communication professionals. Optimally, the author collaborated with faculty from various departments, including business, computer science, law, and ethics, to create a comprehensive, interdisciplinary curriculum. The course covered vital concepts such as data quality management, metadata management, data security and privacy, and the impact of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI). The author’s efforts extended beyond a compelling course, grafting data governance principles across NDSU’s entire suite of communication programs. Resultantly, students learned to apply data governance concepts in technical writing, UI/UX design, and documentation management. Said another way, new courses focusing on AI content strategy and data storytelling were also introduced. Integrating data governance skills into the curriculum made NDSU graduates highly sought after by employers. Little by little, the author fostered a data governance culture through extracurricular initiatives, such as student clubs, an annual “Data Thon,” and partnerships with industry professionals. Conceivably, the author’s vision and collaborative approach transformed NDSU into a promising data governance education for communication professionals, thereby preparing students to thrive in the data-driven future of the workplace.

Expectations Mapping

2024-08-08T14:22:12-07:00

Usability is central to creating effective technical content. Audience expectations for usable content, however, are neither fixed nor universal. For this reason, technical communication students can benefit from approaches that help them effectively identify the usability expectations an audience has for technical content. Technical communication programs that provide an effective foundation in this area can help students succeed in a variety of contexts after graduation. This entry presents an approach for teaching audience usability expectations in technical communication classes and across overall technical communication curricula. Known as expectations mapping, the approach focuses on teaching students to identify the cognitive factors that affect an audience’s usability expectations. This entry first explains how the experience mapping process works and then discusses how to apply expectations mapping when teaching students about audience expectations in different technical communication classes. The entry then concludes by providing suggestions on how to integrate expectations into an overall technical communication program. Through this format, the entry provides technical communication educators and program administrators with a curriculum-focused approach to teaching students how to identify and understand the usability expectations of different audiences.

Undergraduates' Changing Definitions of Social Justice

2024-03-26T14:32:29-07:00

Social justice has been well-defined in TPC literature, but this definition may be in competition with other popular media influence. This study examines six definitions of social justice and shows that students perceived small, feasible actions and the importance of context in social justice after a semester of class readings and activities.

The Editing for Justice Program: Piloting a Community-Based Learning Social Justice Project in Technical and Professional Communication

2024-06-22T02:51:25-07:00

This FOCUS piece highlights the Editing for Justice (E4J) program, a collaboration between Authors Inside and [University's] Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) Certificate and English Department that implements Clem and Cheek's (2022) inclusive editing paradigm (IEP) to educate students about recidivism while cultivating their professional communication skills. It concludes with recommendations for TPC programs interested in adapting similar projects into their curriculum on nonprofit or civic writing, editing, and publishing.

Review of Composing Health Literacies Edited by Michael Madson

2023-11-21T12:30:49-08:00

Editor Michael Madson once again compiles an excellent collection of scholars that speak to theoretical and pragmatic ways of teaching students about health literacies and writing practices. Similar to his previous collection Teaching Writing in the Health Professions: Perspectives, Problems, and Practices (reviewed in Programmatic Perspectives’ fall 2022 issue), this volume also answers the call for more scholarship on writing in the health professions by explicitly connecting health literacy with undergraduate writing instruction. In his introduction, Madson frames this book as an answer to the global health literacy crisis—a crisis of adults lacking basic knowledge about their health that leads to poor decision-making, possibly leading to hospitalization, rehospitalization, or premature death (p. 1). This well-defined exigency leads Madson to compile this book that views undergraduate writing instruction as one solution to the health literacy crisis.

Technically Online

2024-09-11T09:40:07-07:00

Despite its existence in the digital age for decades now, an online PhD program in Technical & Professional Communication (TPC) has not been fully embraced as viable by many in academic circles. But data suggests that attitudes in Academia are changing. This reticence is juxtaposed by more universities developing and offering their own online PhD programs in Tech Comm. Two universities, Old Dominion University and Texas Tech University, offer such programs in TPC. These programs both feature online and onsite components via a short-but-mandatory residency, which has evolved considerably since the pandemic. The author of this paper, a graduate himself in an online PhD program in TPC, interviewed 15 faculty members, administration, and graduate students who have either actively participated in or attended an online PhD program in TPC. These interviews were qualitatively coded in order to identify important and recurring themes that will help guide the future of online PhD programs in TPC, showing how these early adopters of online delivery exhibit best practices for the future.

Community Building at the Programmatic Level

2024-10-30T09:48:22-07:00

Distance learning graduate programs in technical communication can work at building community at the programmatic level as well as the course level. This work might be best done by leveraging the position of the faculty member tasked with administering the program, often called the Graduate Program Director. Through the scholarship on community of practice, this article makes a case for the GPD to take on this role and recommends as a starting point the PARS – personal, accessible, responsive, and strategic – framework developed by Borgman and McArdle (2019) for community building in distance learning courses.

In Search of a Core Curriculum

2024-11-17T14:17:29-08:00

With the rise of AI, the need for well-trained editors and other publishing professionals is increasing. However, the training of editors differs widely. In this paper, we explore whether a core curriculum exists in higher education editing and publishing (E&P) programs throughout the English-speaking world. We conduct an assessment of E&P programs in undergraduate and graduate education by collecting a list of 1602 course titles, coding each course based on 37 descriptive codes that reflect course aims, and then examining the data for patterns to identify shared objectives and outcomes.

Initial findings indicate that no core curriculum is shared among E&P programs at either the graduate or undergraduate level, and coding reveals uneven distribution of course types. Moreover, the data suggests a lack of core identity among E&P programs, as well as widely varying skillsets in students entering the workforce. Nevertheless, the diversity of course offerings does lend itself to categorization from which a core curriculum could be derived. This data can help program directors and curriculum developers determine core and elective courses to best meet the needs of students—keeping them competitive with graduates from other programs—and set up reasonable expectations for industry professionals hiring from these programs.