Online Certificate Courses

6 February-6 March
Wednesdays
10:30 AM-Noon EST (GMT-5)

Even the most experienced technical communicators don’t always think about information design until they lay the words out in a paper or online document. By then, it’s too late. Information design is much more than using headings and white space in your documents. Real information design starts before you write a word.

This advanced five-week certificate course in information design first covers how people learn, think, and structure information in their minds, as well as the nature of reality, and perception. Then, we examine taxonomies, schemas, and shared feature analyses. This course uses group activities and hands-on exercises to help participants apply the theories and ideas presented.

Each week includes at least an hour lecture and as well as assignments and readings to do in your own time that support the lecture for that week. You’ll finish the course with a deeper understanding of why we do some of what we do and how to better help your users.

• Session 1: 6 February—Structuring Information
• Session 2: 13 February—Audience Analysis, Part 1
• Session 3: 20 February—Audience Analysis, Part 2
• Session 4: 27 February—Cognition Overview
• Session 5: 6 March—In-depth Cognitive Science

12 February-2 April
Tuesdays
4:00-5:30 PM EST (GMT-5)

Whatever job you hold, user experience is—or should be—a part of it. That’s why usability testing is such a good fit for technical communicators. We are the voice of the user, so why not also be able to share what we learn from users by observing how they work with our products? We learn from them, educate ourselves and other product stakeholders about who our users are and how they interact with our products, and make our products better as user experience improves. What’s not to like in this picture?

Whether you are self-taught, unschooled in the topic, or looking to upgrade your skills, this certificate course will take you step by step through the process of planning and conducting a test, analyzing the results, and reporting them—with the goal of educating yourself and other stakeholders on the user’s experience and advocating for more testing, more often.

• Session 1: 12 February—Establish the essentials
• Session 2: 19 February—Kick off the project
• Session 3: 26 February—Draft test plan
• Session 4: 5 March—Working session (no live class)
• Session 5: 12 March—Dry run of the test plan
• Session 6: 19 March—Testing, testing!
• Session 7: 26 March—Analysis of findings
• Session 8: 2 April—Present results

10 June-22 July
Mondays
10:30 AM-Noon EDT (GMT-4)

Technical communication is an exciting and challenging career that offers unlimited opportunity for professional development. But to succeed, it's not enough to learn a desktop publishing or Help authoring tool—you need to master the analysis process. This is a thinking person's dream career!

TechComm 101 is the fastest, most efficient way to jump-start your career in technical communication. It covers key theory that you can immediately apply to your work, as well as giving you the skills you need to continue to learn and grow.

Each element of theory is presented with hands-on exercises, real-world examples, and plenty of discussion. The course is sure to leave you feeling enthusiastic and well-prepared to get started in the field.

• Session 1—10 June: Introduction and Grammar Review
• Session 2—17 June: Four Key TC Concepts (Theory and Application)
• Session 3—24 June: Five Key TC Concepts (Theory and Application)
• Session 4—1 July: TC Deliverables and Writing Defintions
• Session 5—8 July: Writing Procedures
• Session 6—15 July: Design and Layout
• Session 7—22 July: Editing and Moving On

11 June-16 July
Tuesdays
10:30 AM-Noon EDT (GMT-4)

This is a more advanced course that moves beyond the basic theory in TechComm 101. The focus is on soft skills, such as estimating and managing technical communication projects and working with SMEs; and technical skills, such as advanced editing, professional tool concepts, and Help Authoring concepts.

Participants must have successfully completed TechComm 101 or have at least three years of experience as a prerequisite for this course.

• Session 1: 11 June—Project Planning and Management
• Session 2: 18 June—Tool Usage
• Session 3: 25 June—Style Guides
• Session 4: 2 July—Global Issues
• Session 5: 9 July—Online Help
• Session 6: 16 July—Advanced Editing

In progress.

Effectively managing a technical communication group involves a unique set of skills: clearly communicating expectations regarding a job, effectively evaluating performance, developing and communicating a strategic vision for your group, making a business case for proposed projects, and selling the services of your group. Technical Communication Manager helps you develop these skills.

This certificate program develops these skills through a combination of discovery exercises (which leverage your existing knowledge), formal presentations (which describe the "must knows"), and action planning segments, which give you a chance to consider how you'll apply what you learned back on the job.

• Session 1: 10 January—Managing for Effective Performance Part 1
• Session 2: 17 January—Managing for Effective Performance Part 2
• Session 3: 24 January—Preparing and Presenting a Strategic Plan
• Session 4: 31 January—Preparing and Presenting a Business Case Part 1
• Session 5: 7 February—Preparing and Presenting a Business Case Part 2
• Session 6: 14 February—Marketing Your Group Internally

Next course TBD.

After a decade of false starts, mobile is taking off in the mass market. Thousands of apps are now available for iPhones, Android phones, and other mobile devices; is there room for more in this seemingly saturated market?

Surprisingly, yes. Many of those thousands of existing apps are simply variations on a few themes and often don't address the needs of internal markets—think Internet vs. intranets. Who’ll create these new apps to address these internal markets? More to the point, can technical communicators create them?

Until recently, the answer was usually no. Creating apps required a programmer. Today, however, new GUI mobile app development tools are emerging. These tools hide most or all of the coding and let the authors focus on the app's content, functionality, and appearance. (Think of creating online help using GUI tools like RoboHelp, Flare, or Doc-to-Help, as opposed to working directly in code and you’ve got the idea.) In this workshop, you’ll try one of these tools.

• Session 1: TBD
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Next Course TBD.

This course is developed for people who need to learn about Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) and want the basics of the software tools that work with it. Get comfortable with the concepts and rules of DITA. Explore the standard and how it is used to plan and create maps and topics. Acquire hands-on experience to guide your understanding of the tools that work with DITA from planning and prototyping, through to publishing and managing content.

• Session 1—What is Structure?
• Session 2—Core Elements of DITA
• Session 3—Manage Legacy Documentation
• Session 4—A Practical Application of DITA
• Session 5—Migrate and Create Content
• Session 6—Best Practices
• Session 7—Content Management
• Session 8—Summation

Next Course TBD.

Effective e-learning is dependent on the design and facilitation of the learning experience. Learning theories and instructional design best practices must be understood and applied in order to develop an approach to creating environments that leverage multiple instructional strategies.

This certificate program will cover a combination of theory- and problem-based approaches to instructional design for e-learning. Participants will have the opportunity to learn and apply instructional concepts, principles, and strategies to the design and development of a collaborative instructional project.

• Session 1: TBD
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• Session 5: TBD
• Session 6: TBD

Next course TBD.

This workshop is developed for people who need to reduce the volume and complexity of content. Learn best practices to help reduce the cost to develop, produce, and maintain materials. Cut the time and effort needed to work with content and improve the quality of deliverables. Learn why good design reduces the need for documentation and learn to work with developers to set and meet shared goals.

• Session 1: What Is Minimalism?
• Session 2: Know Your Audience, Write Accordingly
• Session 3: Content Organization
• Session 4: Information Models: Task, Concept, Reference, and More
• Session 5: Migrate and Create Minimalist Content
• Session 6: Hands-on Document Edits and Reviews