At the 65th annual STC Summit In May, I had the great pleasure of volunteering to take the reins of IDeaL from former managing editor Crista Mohammed. In the months since, I have worked closely with the co-managers (Viqui Dill and Lori Meyer) and others to create this, my first issue of IDeaL.
At the SIG meeting in June, the group suggested that my first post as managing editor should include a brief autobiography, since I am relatively new to the STC and have not been very active in the SIG until now. I joined STC in 2015 and have attended every Summit since that first one in Columbus. I started out knowing almost nothing about the STC and knowing almost no one in the organization. Since then, I’ve made many friends and have learned more than I could possibly sum up. Each year I am struck by the diversity and vibrancy of our community.
My life as a technical communicator began when I volunteered to write a software user manual for a student project in 1996. Since then I moved from Canada to the United States to work and although my first job title was programmer analyst, I quickly transitioned into being “the writer” on every team I’ve been on. I eventually took some online classes and certifications to make my skills more official and since then, I have written two non-fiction books, have worked as senior editor for a national quilting magazine, and have written or edited hundreds of manuals, procedures, presentations, papers, and other IT and business-related documents, including other newsletters.
When I’m not working, I am studying to earn my MS in Technical Communication Management from Mercer University. I plan to graduate in 2019.
With that out of the way, welcome to the Q3 2018 issue of your IDL SIG Newsletter!
In this issue
Co-manager Lori Meyer congratulates people who have stepped into new roles within the SIG and puts out a request for new volunteers to fill several other roles. If you’d like to have a hand in running our SIG, now is the time to step forward! The SIG needs an assistant co-manager, a secretary, a membership manager, a social media and surveys manager, and a content curator. As you can see, there is ample opportunity to try your hand at a new skill, or provide your existing expertise to the SIG. In addition, the SIG has launched an awards program. Check out Lori’s article to find out more about all these topics.
In the Secretary’s ColumnMarcia Shannon discusses what dancers and technical communicators have in common.
Co-manager Viqui Dill wrote a wonderful recap of IDL SIG adventures at STC18 in Orlando, Florida. Be sure to check out her photos! In addition, Viqui provides us with a comprehensive review of Li-At Rathbun’s presentation “We Stoop to Conqquer: Adjusting to Mediocrity”. Viqui also provided us with a list of upcoming webinars on a wide range of topics.
Practitioner Rachel Musicante describes for us how she uses IDL concepts to enrich the lives of seniors in assisted living facilities. Rachel incorporates music and games to reach all the residents, even those suffering from dementia. Music really is the universal language.
Student Outreach Chairperson Sylvia Miller wrote about the IDL SIG’s Student Outreach program. This is a great opportunity for undergraduates and graduate students alike to have their work published here, and possibly in the TCBOK.
My classmate, Elizabeth Patterson, reviewsDigital Media Ethics by Charles Ess. This book explores ethical issues encountered in digital media and would be a great resource for students, teachers, and any technical communicator who works with online content.
Jamye Sagan is preparing for the bi-annual demographic survey of IDL SIG members. In addition, she reminds everyone of our sixth annual Virtual Open House. Check out both articles for details. She also wrote a recap of three wonderful sessions from Summit ‘18. Check out her summaries of the sessions on introverted leaders, podcasting, and what we can learn from rock & roll.
By Sylvia Miller, Student Outreach Chairperson For the third year the IDL SIG is offering undergrad and graduate students a chance to publish an article before completing their degrees through our Student Outreach program. First, students submit a brief article about instructional design to our team of judges. If the judging team deems the article worthy of being published in our newsletter—the one you’re reading right now—the student is awarded a one-year STC membership that includes belonging to the IDL SIG. The potential benefits are multiple. Students can:
Get their name in front of hundreds of practicing professionals who read our newsletter.
Add a link in their résumé and on their LinkedIn page to the published article.
Benefit from feedback of practicing professionals—the judges team.
Present their published article during job interviews.
And that’s not all. With the student’s permission, the IDL SIG will submit articles we publish in this newsletter for inclusion in the Technical Communication Body of Knowledge (TCBOK). If the article is accepted for inclusion in the TCBOK, the student will earn an additional one-year STC/IDL membership! He or she can also insert another link in their résumé to the article in the TCBOK, which is available for reference by thousands of professional technical communicators.
“Being published under the Student Outreach Program provided a forum for me to apply and test my skills learned in my classes in Technical Communication & Professional Writing. The competitive process was fun and increased my self-confidence. 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. Having a published article to show others strengthens any portfolio. I encourage others to go for it… I cannot overstate how nice it was to show my article during my interviews.”
Please help us spread the word!
Please help us advertise this unique opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to have an article published. Share information about the 2018-2019 Student Outreach program with colleagues, students, professor/instructor friends, friends with college-age children, and anyone who stands to benefit from gaining an edge in today’s job market.
All necessary details are at http://www.stcidlsig.org/students/youcanbepublished/, including a list of potential article topics, contributor guidelines, frequently asked questions, and a submission form. Thank you in advance for sharing this opportunity with others.
In this issue, we continue harvesting rich material from our student outreach competition. You know the saying, plant a seed, tend it well and…enjoy the fruit. We are thrilled to publish another winning submission.
Maria Peter, who has just completed a programme in Technical Communication at Seneca, provides a comprehensive review of usability heuristics as they apply to e-learning, distributed learning and websites in general . This is a great resource for students of IDL and a refresher for practitioners.Read More
Lori Meyer, in her co-manager’s column, reviews our 2017 successes . Invigorated by those success, she recommends many ways for you to contribute to and enjoy being part of our awarding winning team. Read more
Marcia Shannon, in her Secretary’s Column, shares six easy, doable ways to stay in touch with your SIG and reap the rewards of your SIG membership. Read more
Meet Viqui Dill in our Member Spotlight. You may already know the venerable Ms. Dill. She is a well-recognised STC face, having been an active member for over 11 years (a fact that belies her youthful vim and vigour). Viqui is her usual frank sharing-self: she does not hold back on how she has grown and how the STC has figured in her professional development. Read more
Crista Mohammed reminds us that SUMMIT TIME is at hand. In her Editor’s picks she shares her plans for Summit 2018–plans that revolve around staying abreast of the field; nurturing the professional within; and friending face-to-face (as opposed to virtually). Read More
Viqui Dill, thoughtful as ever,has extracted all of the key SUMMIT 2018 events for the IDL SIG. Included in Viqui’s list are all the presentations that will be made by IDLers. Read More
Marcia Shannon reviews Cammy Bean’s The Accidental Instructional Designer. The title of the book is relatable. So it is when you work in an emerging field: the needs of the market precede the discipline. Many of our careers are thus “accidental”. Marcia finds the book deserving of careful reading as it is information dense, but that density does not burden the reader in the least. Marcia reports that Bean’s light breezy writing is enjoyable and easy to read. Read more
O*NET program, the most comprehensive source of occupational data in the USA, is seeking experienced Instructional Designers and Technologists to add their career information to the O*NET database. Read more
Have your ever felt that an eLearning course or a website is difficult to use and quit trying as it is time consuming and not serving its purpose? For any eLearning course, distributed learning material, or website usability determines its success.
Issa et al. defines ‘Usability is the ease of use and learnability of a human-made object such as a tool or device.’ Usability can be measured by the quality of users’ experiences. The quality is determined by the effectiveness/ease of use, efficiency/less time to accomplish, and the overall satisfaction level of the users. Multiple properties are combined during the design and development stages to increase usability standards. The key properties recommended by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services are:
Intuitive Design Layout: When users can effortlessly navigate to accomplish their tasks.
Efficiency of Use: When experienced users can accomplish their tasks quickly.
Easy to Observe and Use: When new users can accomplish their tasks with ease.
Easy to Recall: When users can remember actions to use in their future visits.
Fewer Errors and Reduced Severity: When errors are less frequent and less serious.
Increased Satisfaction: When users feel happy to visit the website again.
Why Following Usability Standards is Essential
Usability standards serve as guidelines during the design and development phases of eLearning courses, distributed learning materials, or websites that are meant to serve a wide range of audience profile.
Usability Standards for eLearning Courses or Distributed Learning Materials
Usability is the core of eLearning courses and it determines the satisfaction level of users. Essentially, it enables learners to achieve their objectives successfully. Most of the eLearning courses have a Help file to help new learners to understand the purpose of various user interface buttons, title bar area, content area, and others, see Image 1.
Image 1: An eLearning Course − User Interface
Here are some key usability standards that are based on Nielson’s 10 usability heuristics and Hetsevich’s adaptation of the heuristics to improvise eLearning courseware design:
User Interface Buttons: Include clearly defined navigational buttons such as Previous, Next, Play, Pause, Rewind, Audio mute/unmute, Exit, etc. to enhance learners’ experiences
Learning Path: Ensure the structure of the course or the logical learning path is streamlined, for example: Course > Topic > Pages.
Consistency and Standards ensure uniformity in page layout, graphics style, fonts style, color theme, etc., across a course so the users will not be distracted by variations. To enhance learners’ experiences, use suitable font type, style, and size. Here are some thoughts on key design principles:
Information Recall: Ensure all primary information are displayed on the screen always and the representation of the secondary information such as Trivia, Did You Know, etc. are standardized across a course.
Flexibility and Efficiency of Use: Include different learning paths as per audience profile – experienced and novice. For example, pre-assessment can be used to help novices understand the knowledge gap and experts to confirm their knowledge level and move on to the next level.
Focussed Approach: Ensure you have a defined objective for every page to avoid irrelevant information.
Feedback: Provide feedback to help learners understand the reason for an error that may have occurred. For example, if a learner’s response is incorrect for a knowledge check question provide descriptive feedback that suggests the required changes.
Content Development: Create compelling, meaningful, cohesive, engaging, and sustainable content that enables learners to attain the expected goal.
Graphics: Use graphics to complement content and help learners to grasp content quickly.
Transcript and Caption: Provide full transcript and caption when audio narration is used.
Autonomy: Ensure that users have control over videos play, pause, and mute function.
Usability Standards for Websites
There are many factors that contribute to the success of a website. For instance, in a website, the layout, and architecture should be easy to understand and use, navigational elements should be obvious and easy to follow, and homepage should clearly state its purpose and how it will benefit the user, see Image 2.
Image 2: An eCommerce Website − User Interface
To retain users on websites, we can apply several usability standards. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has conducted extensive research on web design and provides elaborate usability guidelines. Now, let’s take a look at some of the key guidelines that you can follow when creating a website:
Goals
Define and document the primary goals before initiating the design and development process.
Set performance goals to identify success rates and the time it takes to find specific information.
Visual Design and Development
Use personas to help design team focused on the requirements.
Ensure visual consistency of the website elements such as company logo, graphics, titles, clickables, etc.
Design for monitors with the screen resolution set at 1024×768 pixels and test for the most common browsers and operating systems.
Navigation/Interaction
Clearly differentiate navigational elements.
Use breadcrumb or other means to help users know their location.
Avoid horizontal scroll bars.
Use color changes to indicate visited and unvisited links.
Content
Do not require users to enter the same information more than once.
Do not require users to remember information from place to place on a website.
Assistive Technology
Ensure the website supports assistive technologies so people with disabilities can use it effectively − Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Search Engine Optimization
Ensure the website is optimized to appear in the first page of all major search engines’ result pages.
Final Words
Give your users what they want to see and know. Empower them to accomplish their tasks efficiently, effectively, and satisfactorily. You can visit different eLearning courses or websites and analyze them based on the standards outlined above. When designing and developing an eLearning course or a website, this experience will direct you appropriately.
Maria Peter has been an Instructional Designer for almost a decade. She likes conceptualizing learning solutions using scenarios, case studies, stories, serious games, etc. She recently completed her studies in Technical Communication at Seneca, where she had ample opportunity to acquire hands-on experience. Lately, she has been writing about the use of virtual reality, augmented reality and serious games in learning. She was awarded “You’ve Earned It Award” at Fidelity Investments for handling multiple eLearning projects and training writers who aspired to be instructional designers.
Our SIG has wrapped up another rewarding year, in which we received both the STC Platinum and Pacesetter Awards, completed a series of great webinars, continued our Student Outreach program, and begin exploring content curation. None of this would have happened without every one of our wonderful volunteers. We can’t thank you enough—it has been our honor and pleasure to work with you. Read more about our awards.
2018 Opportunities
We invite you to consider taking up both elected and appointed volunteer positions, enabling you to work with a friendly leadership team, build your skills, expand your network, and strengthen our community. Check out these opportunities and see if one of them sounds like a good fit.
Treasurer (elected, one year): Our treasurer manages the SIG’s financial resources, prepares the SIG budget for the year, reports income and expenses to the leadership team, reconciles our records with those maintained at the STC office, and makes recommendations for allocating funds in ways that add the most value for our members. Because STC maintains custody of SIG funds, SIGs do not have their own bank accounts, which means you do not have to manage any bank accounts or prepare reports for the IRS. Your most important job is to monitor our financial transactions and help us be responsible stewards of our SIG’s funds. We will train you and make sure you have adequate ramp-up time to succeed on the job.
Assistant SIG manager (elected, one year term): Assistant managers work with the current co-managers to learn the essentials of SIG leadership, and automatically succeed to the co-manager role the following year. As an assistant co-manager, you will have a front-row seat to observing the responsibilities of SIG leadership, and you’ll receive the training you need to succeed at managing the SIG at the end of your term.
Program team members (appointed): In this role, you will work with our program team leader to develop our programming activities, including seeking and selecting presenters, publicizing upcoming webinars using Eventbrite, and working with presenters to deliver successful webinars throughout the year. This role provides an excellent opportunity to meet industry leaders and provide value-adding programs.
If any of these leadership roles interests you, we would love to hear from you! Please contact us at manager@stcidlsig.org.
If you would like to get involved with our SIG but aren’t ready to commit to a leadership position, let us know. We often have one-time or short-term volunteer opportunities that would welcome your helping hands.
