Website for the STC Instructional Design & Learning Special Interest Group, a Community of Practice
By Jamye Sagan, IDL SIG Treasurer
We ended 2022 on a steady financial note, having been able to fund all of our activities, plus a little extra for next year. As of December 20, we have a total of $450.28 in our account; all from our vested funds and none remaining in community funding.
By Marcia Shannon, Student Outreach Coordinator
We are redesigning some parts of our Student Outreach Article Competition for 2023. The major change is that articles from students about instructional design will be accepted from February 1 through November 1, 2023. We hope this will allow us to publish at least one student essay in each quarterly issue of IDeaL.
The prize for each published essay will continue to be a one-year paid student membership in STC and the IDL SIG, to be awarded for the year after the essay is published. If you will not be a student in that year, you will be awarded that amount toward your STC membership
If you are an undergraduate or graduate student, or if you are enrolled in a certificate program for instructional design, you are eligible to submit an essay.
What should you write about? Tell us about a concept or practice that caught your interest, or surprised you, or confused you about some aspect of instructional design. Did you complete a group project that concentrated on a particular idea in ID? Have you submitted classwork that could be shared with the wider audience of ID professionals?
If you are changing careers, which previous job skills are transferable to instructional design? How did you figure that out? Can you compare and contrast business training practices with ID concepts?
Use our First Fridays @ Five social hour to float essay ideas, to ask for help, or to offer some to other students.
Essays should be 500 to 1000 words.
The Student Outreach Essay competition can be the first step to building your published portfolio. We have seen webinars grow out of articles, giving you another opportunity to expand your professional presence. The website information will be updated soon and more information will be included in email announcements.
Email any questions to the Membership Manager.
Your SIG runs a competition twice yearly to award students with a complimentary membership and bring in fresh new perspectives on the world of Instructional Design. Help us attract a wide range of entrants by publicizing the competition at your workplace, local STC chapter, library, or university.
The Society for Technical Communication’s IDL SIG invites undergraduate- and graduate-level students to submit articles related to instructional design to the Student Outreach Article Competition for a chance to be published in our quarterly newsletter IDeaL: Design for Learning.
Winning the Student Outreach Article Competition and having your article published can help you increase your chances of being hired after graduation. It might be just the edge you need to land a great job in technical communication or instructional design!
By having your article published, you will:
And that’s not all!
Judges in our competition also recommend whether you should submit your article to the Technical Communication Body of Knowledge (TCBOK). If the TCBOK publishes your article, you earn an additional one-year STC/IDL student membership (or its equivalent value)!
You can also insert another link to your article in the TCBOK in your résumé or online portfolio, which is available for reference by thousands of professional technical communicators.
One winner said, “I printed the published article and showed it as I interviewed for a new position as a technical publications writer just last month. I got the job and definitely feel that the published article helped me.” (Read the full article at http://www.stcidlsig.org/engaging-the-reluctant-learner/.)
By Mellissa Ruryk
We have welcomed three new volunteers to our ranks since Paul issued the last newsletter, two of whom are students. Students are helping with short-duration tasks or signing up to take responsibility for one social media channel (for a length of time) with mentoring from Jannetta Lamourt, our social media manager.
Priyank Aggarwal, living in New Delhi, India, has stepped up to start and manage conversations and announcements in the #sig-instructional-design channel in the STC Slack Workspace. We use the channel to spark conversations about instructional design and learning among people interested or practicing in the discipline. Priyank is an IT Professional with several years of experience in IT training development, management and quality assurance.
Ruth-Anne Klassen, living in Calgary, Alberta, has a Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from Ambrose University. She has a great article about volunteering at the Summit elsewhere in this issue of the newsletter. Ruth-Anne is going to run the next First Fridays at Five, In November. We’ll be discussing “Diverse Roles, Common Goals: Working With Multiple Generations in the Workplace.” How can we better with different generations in the workplace, without regard to your age? We will learn and share ideas for working in a diverse workforce, and as usual, chat and network and laugh.
Edel Pace, from Tennessee, is studying Professional Writing with a minor in Creative Mass Media at the University of Memphis. Not surprisingly, we will use her social media skills after she helps “refresh” the Student Outreach Article Writing Competition materials. Edel is doing this work in the context of a university assignment where Mellissa Ruryk, Student Outreach manager, will act as her client. In her own words, “I want to participate in the community and be an active volunteer. As a student, this will provide me with valuable real-life experience and help me meet professionals in the field.” I couldn’t have said it better myself. The best way to gain real-life experience and network is to volunteer in your favorite Special Interest Group or a geographic chapter. Join us through this Eventbrite link.
Speaking of the competition…
If you are a student enrolled in any post-secondary program of Instructional Design & Learning, you have exactly enough time to write and submit a 1,000-2,500 word article on almost any aspect of ID before the deadline. Learn everything you need to know about the competition on our website under the Students link. You could be published before you graduate and can link to your article on our website and in our newsletter. It’s a great addition to your portfolio and can help you stand out in a field of applicants.
If you are a student and an STC member, please reach out to me to see how the IDL SIG can help you now and when you graduate.
Mellissa Ruryk
Student Outreach Manager
studentOutreach@stcidlsig.org
The STC’s Instructional Design & Learning Special Interest Group (SIG) is pleased and proud to announce that the judges in the Student Outreach article-writing competition selected 2 articles for publication in this quarter’s issue of IDeaL: Design for Learning, the SIG’s award-winning newsletter. Both articles are very readable and informative.
Here are the two winners, with links to their articles:
Kylie is a Virginia Tech junior studying professional and technical writing and biology. Currently, she works as a research assistant for a study focused on the role of service-learning in creating user documentation. After graduation, Kylie plans to pursue a master’s degree in public health and write within the medical industry. Her article, The Importance of Needs Assessments in Global Technical Communication, relates the story of a project targeting young women in Nepal. She outlines how she assessed the needs of her target audience for a user documentation prototype.
Catherine is completing her Master’s in Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning at Boise State University, where she earned her Workplace Instructional Design e-Learning Certification. She holds an ATD Certified Professional in Learning and Performance. Catherine graduated from Northeastern University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering. She worked in various adult workplace learning roles for over 25 years, including IT, Project Management and Human Resources.
Her article, ID Lessons from TV’s Greatest Teachers, is about the original distance educators—from Reading Rainbow, the Joy of Painting, and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. She draws excellent strategies from her examples and presents tips for incorporating their successful techniques into your lesson planning.
Catherine will be presenting an IDL webinar on 4 TV personalities on Thursday, May 27. Follow STCIDLSIG on Facebook to learn more about our educational opportunities, which are always free for students. This event will be posted on Eventbrite once details are complete.
About the Student Outreach Article-Writing Competition
The IDL SIG invites undergraduate- and graduate-level students to submit an article related to instructional design for publication in our quarterly newsletter, IDeaL: Design for Learning. To learn more, click here.