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English 451 Topics in Technical Writing
The Theory, Practice, and Pedagogy of Help
Monday, 5:30-8:20 410 & 408 Stevenson
Jim Kalmbach
kalmbach@ilstu.edu
Office: 421H stv, 438-7648
Office Hours: MWF 12-1 I will be available to meet after class,
but not before.
What is help? What does it mean to help someone? How is help
like or unlike teaching? How can help genuinely help instead
of making things worse? This seminar will interrogate the
nature of help. The arc that defines help fascinates me. On
one end, it is grounded in the nature of literacy and technological
literacy. Using a computer is ultimately a series literacy
transactions. How does a person struggling by herself to learn
new software use documentation? How do we use software to
accomplish complex real world tasks? That is how are computers
part of our work lives? And finally, what is an online class?
How does a virtual group of learners work together to create
a community of practice? Along this arc is a series of fascinating
questions: How do we read and write and what does this mean
to the ways we use computers? What role does social context
play? What is the role of the teacher? These are questions
and issues that will touch you all whether you hope to work
in industry or teach.
The course is primarily a seminar; we will read and discuss
some of the classic texts in help design. We will look at
some key software like Robohelp and Dreamweaver and you will
critique and create some limited online help systems and virtual
learning environment. The course is not, however, a how-to
class. It is not a substitute for 349 and the intensive experience
is project management that that class offers. It is my goal
that you come out of the class with a complex and rich understanding
of help that you can use in a variety of situations.Textbooks
Carroll, John M. (Ed.). (1998). Minimalism Beyond Nurnberg
Funnel. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Cole, Robert A. (Ed.). (2000). Issues In Web-Based Pedagogy.
Westport, CT: Greenwood.
Norman, Donald. (1988). The Design Of Everyday Things.
New York: Basic Books.
Sellen, Abigail & Harper, Richard. (2002). The Myth
Of The Paperless Office. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Web
Resources
Course web site:
http://www.english.ilstu.edu/kalmbach/451/
A modest site containing the syllabus, the schedule, handouts,
and a links page.
Download Help: http://www.english.ilstu.edu/351/fall2003/help/downloadhelp.html
Class Projects
I am a project-driven teacher. My classes unfold as a
dynamic series of small and large projects that are assembled
into a portfolio at the end of the semester. Here is a brief
overview of the projects that you will work on.
RESPONSES TO READING
The way I handle reading responses is to have you write reflective
responses to the readings and then post those responses to
a class listserv that everyone has subscribed to. You will
write one response for each reading that we do, expect for
the night when you are leading the discussion (see below).
That night you can skip the response. What I look for and
value are reflective responses that engage the ideas in the
readings and relate those ideas to your past experiences using
software and your current projects.
The listserv is eng451-l@ilstu.edu and you can subscribe to
the listserv at:
http://listserv.ilstu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=eng451-l&A=1
We will take some time to subscribe everyone to this list
during class the first night. If you have any trouble, please
let me know; and I will take care of it. These responses are
an important part of the class; do not neglect them. I will
ask you to include all of your reading responses in your class
portfolio.
LEAD A CLASS DISCUSSION
Each of you will lead the discussion of one of the assigned
writing. I said lead the discussion not lecture us about the
book. We will do the sign up for discussion leaders the first
night of class so I can post the schedule by the second class
period.
THE JOY AND ANGUISH OF ORDINARY THINGS
In conjunction with our reading of Donald Norman’s The
Design of Everyday Things, you are to find an ordinary object
that is a joy to use and one that drives you crazy. Write
up a description of your objects explaining how one (hopefully)
follows Norman’s principles and the other does not and
include the write up in your portfolio. Bring the objects
with you to class if possible; if not, see if you can bring
in a picture or draw a sketch. We will do a show in tell in
class next week. I do not see these as long documents: one
to two pages tops.
TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY REFLECTION
You will each write a reflection on how you learned a particular
software package. What strategies did you use? How successful
were they? What do you wish you had done differently?
ONLINE HELP: FINDING AND USING RESOURCES
I want each of you to do some review of bibliographic and
pedagogical resources for help and online help design. I will
construct a list of journals, theoretical texts and pedagogical
texts, you will divvy them up write up an analysis of what
these resources contain of value to others in the class and
then make copies of these analyses to share with class members.
ONLINE HELP CRITIQUE
I would like each of you to pick the online help system of
a software package: either a package in 408, on your home
computer, or at work, and write an analysis/critique of this
package. You will share your critique with the class.
ONLINE HELP GROUP PROJECT
We will do one group project during class and that will be
to develop a small online help system for an on-campus technology
project. I do not have these projects lined up yet, though
I am hopeful I can line up at least two projects. I had been
hoping to do help development for the campus portal (http://www.icampus.ilstu.edu),
and that may still be the case, but my take on the portal
is that it is too well designed. I am not convinced that it
has much need for online help at this point in time. More
information will be forthcoming.
VIRTUAL CLASS ANALYSIS
For our unit on virtual classes, I would like each of you
to do a close reading of a virtual (re: online) class. Preferably
a class you have not been a member of. You will look at the
materials for the class, interview the teacher, and hopefully
interview some students, and then write a paper looking at
what the teacher is trying to accomplish and how well do you
feel he or she is accomplishing those goals.
FINAL PROJECT
You will individually do a final project for the class. This
project can be a paper or a hands-on project, but all projects
must include a reflective component and a substantial bibliography.
My main goal for this project is that you work on something
that will advance your graduate career at Illinois State.
HELP PORTFOLIO
You will gather all of your projects into a help portfolio
and write a reflective introduction to this portfolio. We
will design these portfolios so that they both reflect your
learning over the course of the semester and are a resource
of information about help design that you will be able to
use in the future.
Notes on Grading
I will not be grading your projects during the semester, but
I will try to give you meaningful feedback on them so that
you have a sense of how you are doing. Grades in this class
will depend on participation and on completing all of the
many projects as well as on the quality of your major project
and your portfolio. If at any point you are nervous about
how you are doing, please come and talk to me.
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