Is a certificate or degree in instructional design on your horizon? If so, check out our Education page that contains 112 colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. Although most are graduate degree programs, there are some certificates included in the list. The list also includes degree and certificate programs that are totally online! We recently reviewed all the links and weeded out a few discontinued listings, and we added at least 20 new ones! Check them out, and pass along the word to colleagues that the links to 112 colleges and universities are on ONE site.
The STC membership renewal season is here and we’re looking forward to having you as a member of our SIG in 2020! You can renew at any time between now and December 31, 2019. Your renewal will enable you to continue enjoying the many benefits of membership in our community — including free attendance at all SIG webinars, opportunities to grow your network, build your skills and receive recognition through SIG and STC awards.
You can renew by going to http://stc.org/membership and clicking the Renew your STC membership today link. Log in to your STC member account and the system will guide you through the renewal application. When you complete the renewal process, you will receive a confirmation email from STC.
Some tips to help you with the renewal process
Be sure to select the IDL SIG as a community, even if you are already a member of our SIG. The membership renewal system does not automatically enter this information. If you are a Gold member, the system will remove the $10.00 per-SIG membership charge when you submit the renewal form.
If you are 65 years old or older, you can renew as a Retired member at reduced membership rates. Retired memberships cannot be processed online. To change your membership category to Retired, you will need to download and complete the STC paper membership application or call the STC office at (703) 522-4114.
If you have any questions or concerns about your membership, please feel free to contact me at membership@stcidlsig.org. I will be happy to answer any questions you have, or guide you to resources you need.
Thank you for being a member of the IDL SIG!
Lori Meyer
Lori Meyer, an STC Fellow, has more than 20 years of experience as a technical writer, editor, and help developer. She began her technical communication career in Rochester, NY, and relocated to the San Francisco Bay area in 1998. Lori has been active in STC since the early 1990s, starting with the Rochester Chapter, where she created the chapter’s first Web site.
Since then, she has held in many volunteer positions, including employment manager, secretary, conference co-chair, membership manager, director-at-large, and SIG co-manager. She has delivered leadership presentations at the STC Summit international conference and via webinar.
On the community level, over the years Lori has served as a director at large for the Carolina Chapter, secretary and president of the Washington DC-Baltimore Chapter, membership manager of the Rochester, East Bay, and San Diego Chapters, and president of the East Bay Chapter. Lori stays involved with these communities, and also volunteers for the Technical Editing and Consulting and Independent Contracting SIGs.
During the 2019 STC Summit in Denver, CO, I attended several interesting presentations. Here are highlights from some of them.
Expanding Your Toolbox to Make Yourself a More Productive Editor
Kelly Schrank (@headbookworm)
In her presentation, Schrank shared several time-saving tips for editing documents in Microsoft Word. These tips included links to various Microsoft Word add-ins such as PerfectIt (www.intelligentediting.com) and Grammarly (www.grammarly.com), keyboard shortcuts and how to customize the Quick Access Toolbar. I even learned strategies for using wildcards in using Find and Replace!
Although I did not attend her entire presentation because I had to prepare for my own right afterwards, I still gained a wealth of information. In fact, her session, with potential opportunities for hands-on practice, would make a great workshop for any SIG or chapter.
Speed Editing: Doing the Most Good with the Least Time and Support
Linda Oestreich (@LindaLouO)
As technical communicators, we always want to do all the things. However, time constraints often prevent us from doing so. In her presentation, Oestreich used the analogy of a horse race to explain her process for speed editing. For example:
Preparing for the race: Oestreich recommends using editing checklists – in fact, she recommends the lists used and created by Kelly Schrank. Oestreich sums up her preparation as “Do the must haves before the nice to haves.”
Skimming the track: Oestreich recommends analyzing the document for its editorial needs, including length and complexity, how it’s organized and audience/purpose.
Running the race: Oestreich compares the race itself to the actual edit process, which involves maintaining priorities, using checklists and embracing quality control.
Through her vivid use of analogy, Oestreich helped me envision the overall editing process and how I can focus on the essentials.
Teaching Online: Tips, Tricks and Techniques for Engaging Virtual Learners
Kevin Siegel (@Kevin_Siegel)
In his presentation, Siegel shared various tips and tricks for teaching online. The tips that resonated with me included:
Investing in premium internet when presenting in a hotel, because the basic internet service may not be robust enough.
Creating an interactive PDF that helps users orient themselves through the virtual classroom.
Getting all users on board by presenting the agenda on screen and having everyone sign off on the agenda via chat.
Using iconography to emphasize information and make it come alive.
Engaging users by allowing them to lead the presentation at times.
Siegel clearly practiced what he preached. He thoroughly engaged the audience by having them log into a virtual class at the beginning of the session and asking them to participate at given times during the presentation. Although I was ultimately unable to log into the virtual class due to phone issues, I was still able to see the class interface and see how everyone else engaged with the presentation.
The Human Touch: Bringing Instructor Presence into eLearning Environments
Julia Cho (@teachwrite)
Of all the sessions I attended at Summit, this one was one of my favorites. In her presentation, Cho discussed the importance of adding a personal touch to eLearning, which oftentimes seems impersonal. Cho began by explaining why this personal touch is needed – primarily to reduce feeling of isolation, which can lead to anxiety. She also discussed the educational experience, which combines instructor presence, cognitive presence and social presence. Most of the presentation focused on how to create this educational experience. Cho gave the following advice.
Design should be first and foremost when establishing the educational experience. In fact, the entire course should be designed before the course begins.
Designers should have links to the same thing in different places, because students get anxious if they cannot find resources or information quickly.
Use video to establish a personal touch. Use a short – less than 2 minute – video to introduce yourself as the instructor.
Use a combination of video and text when giving feedback to struggling students, which can personalize the feedback.
Insist on AV support if facilitating a synchronous session, so you can remain focused on the educational content.
#PowerOfStory: The Cultural Program That Got Me Clicks
Viqui Dill (@viqui_dill)
In her presentation, Dill explained how she leveraged her company’s #PowerOfStory program to help her fellow employees overcome fear of change during their migration to Office 365. In this program, employees had the opportunity to gather in groups and share their personal stories, whether through oral presentation, scrapbook page blog entry. Stories were later shared through various internal communication channels.
Dill clearly knows how to engage her audience with meaningful activity – during her icebreaker, she presented various images of well-known storytellers — from Jesus Christ to U.S Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — inviting audience members to identify them and then giving out prizes to the winners. Check out my adorable superhero duck!
My main takeaway from Dill’s presentation was how we can include stories in technical communication. Examples include using scenarios in eLearning, incorporating photos and videos, seeking testimonials and inviting comments on our uploaded deliverables.
Overall, I had never thought of the human element of getting people on board with using a program; I had always just considered the technical aspect of teaching people — how to do X in Y program. But after having gone through a similar project at work where we migrated to a whole new communications system, I appreciated all the venues through which we could share questions and concerns – and learn in the process.
Jamye Sagan
Jamye Sagan currently serves as treasurer for the IDL SIG, and is a senior member of STC. She served as a co-manager of the SIG from 2010-12.
At work, she uses her tech comm skills to make sense out of the seemingly senseless. At play, she uses sticks and hooks to transform yarn into pretty objects.
Sometime in the next few month, most likely November, we will host our seventh annual Virtual Open House.
As a virtual community with members all around the world, it can be challenging for us to cultivate a sense of community. The Virtual Open House enables current (and future) IDL SIG members to learn more about our community and the services we offer. Plus, attendees get to meet members of the SIG leadership team and chat with fellow members. Even if you cannot attend live, you can still join the party once we release the recording.
We will announce Virtual Open House dates and details as they become available.
Jamye Sagan
Jamye Sagan currently serves as social media manager for the IDL SIG, and is a senior member of STC. She served as a co-manager of the SIG from 2010-12.
At work, she uses her tech comm skills to make sense out of the seemingly senseless. At play, she uses sticks and hooks to transform yarn into pretty objects.
The SIG continues to perform well financially in 2019. Although we have already spent all our community funding, we have plenty of money in our vested funds. As of August 1, we have $1,751.34 in our account.
What Did We Spend?
The SIGʼs major expenses in May, June and July included:
Reimbursement for door prizes at our annual SIG business meeting at Summit.
Annual Survey Monkey membership.
We use Survey Monkey for our bi-annual demographic survey, webinar evaluation forms, election ballots, and occasional mini-surveys.
Stipend for our SIG Manager to attend Summit.
Annual subscription for AP Style Manual, an editorial resource for our newsletter.
These, and other expenses incurred throughout the year, help us provide valuable services to all our IDL SIG members.
Where Do We Get Our SIG Funding?
Since we offer free webinars for IDL SIG members and current students, we do not depend on webinars as a primary source of income. Currently, our primary source of income comes from community funds and vested funds.
Community Funds vs Vested Funds
Every year, we receive community funds from the STC office, based on SIG membership numbers. We receive a certain amount per member, so the more members we have, the more funds we have. Since community funds do NOT carry over from year to year, we must “use them or lose them.”
Over the years, we have earned vested funds. Before we started offering our webinars at no charge to our members, we depended on webinars as our primary source of income. Over the years, we had earned a significant amount of income from our webinars. Unlike community funds, vested funds can carry over year after year.
We spend first from our Community funding, since it does NOT carry over to the next year. Once community funding depletes, we then spend from our vested funds. All our income is deposited into our vested funding, which DOES carry over year after year. Besides community funding, how do we earn income? Although we offer webinars at no charge to IDL SIG members and students, we still earn some funds from non-SIG and non-STC member webinar registrations.
If you have any questions about SIG finances, please email me at treasurer@stcidlsig.org.
Jamye Sagan
Jamye Sagan currently serves as treasurer for the IDL SIG, and is a senior member of STC. She served as a co-manager of the SIG from 2010-12.
At work, she uses her tech comm skills to make sense out of the seemingly senseless. At play, she uses sticks and hooks to transform yarn into pretty objects.
