Karl Stolley Receives CPTSC Grant to Build Software Resource
Dr. Karl Stolley, Assistant Professor of Technical Communication, received one of two grants awarded nationally by the Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC). The grant will be used to support graduate students in a project to build a Web-available instructional software resource, based on free and open source software, to support online learning in technical communication.
"Online classes in technical communication are no different from face-to-face ones, in that they require students to use software to learn course concepts and complete course projects," said Stolley. "But with online learners, instructors can't ensure equitable access to technology the way they can with campus computer labs. By focusing this grant-supported resource on free and open source software, IIT can take the lead in helping remove the economic barrier that software might represent for some students."
The focus of the new software resource will be on the rhetorical tasks and problems that technical communicators must learn to address. Stolley adds: "Our resource will be designed to enable someone to learn to use Microsoft Word just as much as it will allow them to use free and open source alternatives like OpenOffice.org or NeoOffice. We can do this by focusing on the communication task, rather than software features, and by providing students with strategies to solve their own software problems."
Stolley and a group of technical communication graduate students will travel to the CPTSC Conference in Minneapolis this October to present their work. Anyone wishing to learn more about the project can read the original grant proposal here.
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