Advanced Technical Editing (Eng 6400/7400)
This online course is a requirement in the online masters program in technical communication. It focuses on teaching students how to edit documents with consideration to audience and context, including readability and accessibility issues.
Spring 2006 semester summary
This was the first time I taught Editing, and also the first time I taught in our online-only, practitioners-based MA program. (There were no doctoral students enrolled this term.)
- sections taught in department this term: 1
- number of students enrolled: 13
- numeric evaluations
teaching innovations
I modified an existing syllabus to introduce students to the procedures of editing scholarly, digital texts, and we used webtexts from the journal I edit, Kairos, as the major project. In groups of four, students collaboratively edited one webtext (including written content and website design) from developmental stages to the text’s final copy-editing and proofreading. In addition, they wrote introductions for their webtext, the themes of which were focused on the history and future of the journal. None of these students lived in the same area and so all group work had to be completed using online communication.
Another innovation was my use of an offsite FTP location where students could upload and view their in-progress websites. (USU doesn’t offer this ability to students, and so I used other resources at my disposal to accommodate learning.) Because of the theoretical and technical expertise students had to learn to complete the major assignment, I learned how to write more detailed assignment sequences.
The class progressed fairly well, with the exception of one problematic student group who had difficulty communicating and collaborating in the online environment. I ended up moderating their discussions, and group work progressed smoothly after that. From this experience, I learned how to react in appropriate ways to inappropriate online communication from adult learners.
Class feedback in the discussion forums was positive, and I was amazed at the level of learning that students exhibited in an area unfamiliar to most of them. Next time I teach online, however, I will need to better organize my Syllabase (or other CMS) site so that students can more easily find the information they need.
narrative evaluations
to come
accompanying materials
- Spring 2006 syllabus [PDF]
- example assignment sheet [doc]