Technical communicators often note that our content also serves educational purposes.

But how exactly does the content get used educationally and what can we do to promote its use?

Based on findings from a four-year program of research that explored:

  • What workers learn informally on the job
  • The types of resources that they employ wen learning
  • How workers apply what they learn
  • A survey of training professionals regarding their use of, and support for, informal learning in their workplaces. 

This session offers concrete suggestions on ways to create and distribute materials to support workers in mastering their jobs. Applying the insights from this session, participants can expand the ways that workers use technical content.

 

Applying the insights from this session, participants can expand the ways that workers use technical content.

About the Presenter

Saul Carliner is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Education at Concordia University in Montreal. His research focuses on the design of materials for information and instruction, the management of groups that produce them, and related issues of professionalism. Among his best known studies are the census of technical communicators (with STC), studies on how technical communication managers track and report productivity and effectiveness, and studies transferring museum exhibition design techniques to information and instructional design. Also an industry consultant, he advised clients on management and evaluation issues, and provides workshops. Clients include Boston Scientific, Brooklyn Zoo, Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre, PwC, ST Microelectronics, and many government agencies. Among his 200+ publications are Career Anxiety: Guidance Through Tough Times and several award-winning research articles and technical manuals.