Aside from the technical report, one of the most common tasks for technical writers is to generate educational materials that help people use technology effectively. But technical writers in the "workplace" are often constrained by their employers' concept of what effectively means. Many times it simply means "in as few steps as possible," or it implies an efficient transmission of information from a product's designer or manufacturer to a consumer or a user. For this assignment, we will assume effectively to mean the technology in question (which we will also define below) is used by a particular audience or user group to affect positive change—more than merely economic or personal gain—in the community at large. Technology is a term that needs to be defined as well, and we will think of technology as any complex product or process (more complex than a clothes-pin or a recipe) generated by an "expert" for use by a non-expert.
The requirements of this assignment are to:
For example, let us say that you choose to walk a group of 12th grade History teachers through writing their first Javascript application. You will need to choose a format that is appropriate to your audience (web site, workshop, or handout), design the materials to be both impressive and effective, test the materials for their specific effectiveness, and generate a usability report that summarizes the results of the tests and makes recommendations for revisions. If you choose to generate a web site, you would need to target your audience (i.e. how will they find your site?); generate effective tutorial materials (including diagrams, screen shots, codes, explanations, and discussions) that demonstrate Javascript as well as how its use will benefit your audience's students or community; observe a group of 12th grade history teachers work through your web site, noting where they get confused, need more information, or cannot locate the information that they need, as well as taking note of the effectiveness of the example applications that they write in terms of their students or their communities; and generate a usability report which discusses the above and makes specific recommendations for revisions to your web site (you may choose to make these revisions but you do not have to).
You will turn in your instructional materials (manual, handout, web site, workshop scenario, or presentation), a usability report, and a PAM which will be done in class.
Some possible grading criteria include: