Website for the STC Instructional Design & Learning Special Interest Group, a Community of Practice
By Jamye Sagan, former IDL SIG Treasurer
This report will be longer than normal since this will be my last Treasurer report. As most of you already know, I was elected this year as a Director on the STC Board and assumed my new role in late April during STC’s Annual Business Meeting. Since I’m now a Board member, I had to resign my position as Treasurer and my other volunteer roles within the IDL SIG and other communities.
By Marcia Shannon, Membership Manager
Welcome to the last half of 2023. IDL SIG activity usually slows a little in summer, but we will host several social events. Before I discuss those, I will share my Summit 2023 feedback.
Register on Eventbrite, if you dare!
Come and talk about what scares you and how you faced it down.
All times Eastern
We are excited to announce that our keynote speaker will be Phylise Banner, a recognized superhero and pioneer in the LX design space. Read more about Banner on her website and share in our excitement.
Cookbooks not only contain a treasure trove of not only delicious recipes and anecdotes, but also serve as prime examples of solid technical communication. After all, recipes use words and images to help explain how to prepare a specific dish.
In this presentation, we will examine several examples of effective recipe design elements from various cookbook recipes. These examples will focus on the following elements of cookbook recipes:
As we examine each design element, we will also learn how they help make instructions – the recipe –easy to understand. We will then show how to apply them in our own technical communication deliverables, including job aids and quick reference guides.
Thus, cleanly-formatted and well-worded recipes from cookbooks can serve as the recipe for success in creating clear and concise technical communication.
About the Speaker
As the Pharmacy Communication Advisor for H-E-B, Jamye helps design training programs and materials for various projects and initiatives within the pharmacy department. She also manages communications between the corporate office and the store pharmacies.
An Associate Fellow of STC, Jamye serves as the current President of the South Central Texas chapter. She also volunteers with the Instructional Design and Learning SIG as its Treasurer and Survey Manager and belongs to various SIGs. Jamye has also volunteered at the Society level in various roles, including the Community Affairs Committee, the Community Achievement Award and Pacesetter Award committees, and the Associate Fellow committee. Over the past several years, she has reviewed several publications for the Technical Communication journal.
When not making “sense out of the seemingly senseless” in the tech comm world, Jamye enjoys transforming yarn into pretty and useful objects. She lives in San Antonio, TX.
Rachel Eichen has a varied career history across multiple fields of communication, technology, and training. She has over 10 years of in-person and remote teaching experience in a variety of industries including: casinos, financial institutions, restaurants, hospitals, libraries. She even taught computer classes on a cruise ship! She has experience training all sorts of software applications including Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop, and web applications such as Google Apps and Facebook. In a former life, she was a technical writer where she learned about the software lifecycle and documented instructions. She also has a variety of technical skills, including a mix of programming, networking, and web-design. Rachel holds a Master’s degree in Library & Information Science and a bachelor’s degree in Technical Writing.
Currently serving as the Robert N. Noyce Director of the Engineering Communication Program in the College of Engineering, Cornell University. Nathans-Kelly has a special interest in social justice and techquity issues, along with online teaching modalities. She interacts daily to help engineers and pre-professional engineers to hone their technical messaging, whether it be via presentations, on paper, in meetings and teams, or online channels. Read more and connect with her on LinkedIn.
IDL’s own co-manager will talk us through her latest challenge: making a recruiting video for volunteers. Sautter has been a technical writer and instructional designer in the industries of high-tech/software, health, science, transportation, education, and government (Intel, Xerox, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Cambia, Regency/Blue Cross, City of Vancouver (WA), and more). Her favorite title is educator since she was an adjunct instructor at Portland State University for over 12 years. Currently, she is the manager of the Instructional Design & Learning SIG. Connect with her on LinkedIn.
Alex Michael Hales will take us on a wild ride, using Marvel and DC characters (and their powers) as metaphors for different writing techniques and tools practitioners can use day to day. Hales is a Technical Writer based in Mesa, Arizona. He loves researching, brainstorming, conceptualizing, and drafting content.
Find out more and connect with Hales on his website.
Viqui Dill is an STC Associate Fellow who loves connecting people to communities and giving everyone a voice. Dill loves a good story. She can’t remember a time when she did not want to grab a guitar and start a sing along. As worship arts pastor for the exchange church in Winchester, VA, she gets to live the dream every other week. The Dills have a family band, the Dill Pickers, and Dill sometimes plays in a mostly girl band of mammas, Hot Flash. She describes herself as “Technical writer, wife and mom, bass player, worship leader, I’m happiest when folks sing along with me.” Connect on LinkedIn or just google her unusually spelled name to connect.
If you’re attending the Summit this week (13-18, May), please introduce yourself to Maralee Sautter, SIG Manager. Look for the IDL SIG logo on my name tag. I’ll be at the CAC table (sign up for the drawing), the CAC sessions, and attending sessions. I’ll be on Slack, so post your questions to the STC Slack workspace, #sig-instructional-design channel.
We have many amazing IDL members presenting, along with several Instructional Design (ID) sessions. The sessions are listed below.
| SIG Member or ID-related Sessions | Speaker | Day & Time | Session Title |
| ID | Kei Tomita | 15 May 10:00–10:45 AM |
Bringing Instructional Design Perspectives to User Interface Design Education |
| ID | Chuck Campbell | 15 May 11:00–11:45 AM |
Transform PowerPoint Presentations into Fully Interactive eLearning Courses for Your LMS |
| ID-Member | Tricia Spayer | 15 May 3:00–3:45 PM |
Mind Mapping Your Way to Organized Success |
| ID-Member | Judy Glick Smith | 16 May 12:00–2:00 PM |
Honors Celebration And Lunch: Using Flow to Craft a Life of Excellence in Tech Comm |
| ID-Member | Jennifer Goode | 16 May 2:00–2:45 PM |
Learn to Speak ID: A Brief Introduction to Instructional Design |
| ID-Member | Ann Marie Queeney | 16 May 4:30–5:15 PM |
The Importance of Editing from Your Audience’s Perspective |
| ID-Member | Michael Jang | 16 May 9:00–9:45 AM |
UI Text: Simplicity is Difficult |
| ID-Member | Kelly Schrank | 17 May 9:00–9:45 AM |
Creating an Infographic Using PowerPoint: Let’s Do It! |
| ID-Member | Kirsty Taylor | 17 May 9:00–9:45 AM |
Comm and Get ‘em: We Have Answers to Your Questions (with Bernard Aschwanden & Alisa Bonsignore) |
We are jumping for joy because the IDL SIG has received a Platinum Community Achievement Award (CAA) for the second year in a row. Additionally, a Pacesetter award is coming our way for our wonderful “Website Makeover” plan. Thank you, team, for “making it so.”
See our awards on the right sidebar of the IDL SIG homepage ➡ .
The citation reads:
For consistently developing the IDL SIG to serve both your community’s members and the Society, and for providing a variety of virtual sessions to share ideas and knowledge.
Check out all the 2023 CAA recipients on the STC Awards page.
The citation reads:
For your “Website Refresh” workshop series including several virtual sessions to share ideas and knowledge, and building on a strong foundation to serve your members.
Check out all the 2023 Pacesetter recipients on the STC Awards page.