Last month, we had a chance to get co-operation between DoX Systems and the staff teaching communication studies for the marketing and communication unit for the University of Vaasa started. For now, such co-operation has involved a visit lecture for their undergraduate course, and their graduate students ought to also have a chance to test DoX CMS in practice. I used this session to discuss how to use DoX CMS, the practices of structured authoring in general as well as my own experiences as a professional technical communicator.
The Finnish Technical Communications Society has also noted how students often do not have sufficient access to witness and test the tools of their trade such as programs for structured authoring. Co-operating in this way ought to help us respond to this deficit.
In this article, I will briefly discuss my own thoughts on the matter.
Demonstration Details
The demonstration was first arranged during Spring 2021 and it was eventually done as a recorded Zoom meeting organized by the module’s lecturer.
The demonstration was booked to take 75 minutes and it consisted of three parts:
Personal Introduction
I shared my own background and how it helped me land a position as a technical communicator. I also described my tasks as a technical communicator for a software company, both in terms of technical writing and user training.
Introduction to DoX CMS
I showed how structured authoring works in DoX CMS and related best practices. This included, for example, managing and navigating the master topic tree, conditioning content, using variables, compiling publications, and managing styles. I put special emphasis on how even a basic understanding of CSS will benefit technical writers.
Inquiries
There remained time for questions at the end of the session. The majority of them were ultimately posed by the lecturer, though.
The Response
Several students expressed their gratitude for the information at the end. Hopefully, the session alleviated their uncertainty over the reality of the job.
The students were told that they had the option to network with me as well. However, none took advantage of the opportunity. It is possible that many undergraduates still lack a LinkedIn profile or the threshold to connect with a visiting lecturer remains too high.
The lecturer also thanked me for the session and said that it had gone well. I hope that similar opportunities will present themselves going forward.
Further Plans
We find it important that the students of technical communication have access to the tools of their trade during their studies. Such tools are generally designed and priced for enterprises, though, which is a bad match with how universities operate.
At this time, a copy of DoX CMS has been provided for use by the teachers and graduate students at the University of Vaasa. The graduate course will take place over the spring term, at which point we can hopefully report more on it.
We would like to also be involved with the education of technical communicators elsewhere.