What was it like attending this year's STC conference? Two of our members, Jackie Damrau and Jessica Reed, share their experience attending this year's conference!

IDL in Baltimore

Baltimore is definitely an interesting city. One must be a seafood connoisseur to live there since seafood appears to be the main tourist staple. Sightseeing was minimal; shopping was great; and the inner harbor was within walking distance. Pretty sites, many party places to go, fun all around.

My conference preparation this year included so much more than in past years. This year I gave two presentations, plus had the honor of working with other IDL SIG members in advertising our purpose and attracting new members, as well as serving my local chapter as its president. One of my presentations, "Technical Writing & Instructional Design Techniques," was one of the IDL Progression session topics. I'll tell you more about that later.

IDL Conference Events

Pre-conference preparation for the SIG leadership involved putting together effective advertising in the form of giveaways (like the colored plastic business card holders and yellow stickers) with our new logo on it, a brochure listing all the IDL-related session taking place during the conference (courtesy of yours truly), and SIG information about the officers and our business meeting. As a whole, I feel we did exceptionally well in getting the message out that the IDL SIG is back in business and needs your support to keep it on track.

Jane, Sylvia, Dave, Chris, Gene, and others did an exceptional job in contributing their time in getting us the recognition that we needed. The business meeting was definitely worth attending, since we got to meet everyone (of the officers at least) in one place and to gather ideas from members and prospective members on how to provide value to them.

SIG Networking Luncheon

The SIG Networking Luncheon provided us with another excellent opportunity to advertise our SIG and learn what people are interested in. We had three tables that were quickly filled with avid folks wanting to share their interests in instructional design. At the table where I was sitting, the conversations focused on the tools that we use in creating instructional design. The tools of choice were RoboDemo and Camtasia Studio. We talked about how we use the tools, how we have worked around issues with each, and the design time it takes to create an effective e-learning solution.

Conclusion

Involvement is a requirement of joining any organization. For me, if I'm spending the money to join an organization, I want to be involved in areas where I feel that I can make a difference. It helps my professional development for my career and for myself. The world is our learning space; we need to take advantage of all that it has to offer. Learning from others is the greatest asset and exploring new avenues.

I'm looking forward to meeting the SIG leaders and more members again next year in Seattle.

Jackie Damrau
Red Oak, TX

My Conference Experience

I had the opportunity to attend the Society for Technical Communication's annual conference held in Baltimore, Maryland May 10th - 12th 2004. Three years out of graduate school, I felt the need to soak in as much research as I could. The conference was the perfect opportunity to tap into the current technical communication field. I attended sessions in training, e-learning, information design, instructional design, and professional development. I returned feeling empowered and good about the work that I do.

I signed up for the Manual Evaluation, which provided half an hour with a professional to review a classroom training manual that I worked on. The evaluation provided me with valuable, objective feedback. I walked away feeling validated on my instructional design decisions, and came back to work with some ideas to further improve the manual. The evaluation was a big win in terms of proving the value of the conference to management.

I attended a number of sessions that I distilled for my team at work. Here is a brief summary of my experience at the sessions.

Applying Research & Practice: What's Relevant Today?
by Janice C. Redish

We covered:

• Considering how people work with documents
• Orienting users, breaking up text, using headings
• Writing clear sentences

Ginny has a wonderful way of distilling research into meaningful practice. I left with a number of best practices for applying the research findings to my work.

Effective Interactions for E-Learning
by Jane L. Smith

We learned how to create effective exercises in our e-learning and compared examples. We discussed the use of scenarios, or story problems, to engage learners. Jane has a lot of experience and offered many good pointers. I use scenarios in my job, and this was a good opportunity for me to evaluate my work.

Using Games in Technical Training by
Paul E. Sinasohn

This session provided a good overview of how games allow you to relate information to what you already know. A key take-away was the importance of using different kinds of games depending on your objective.

Dissecting Dysfunctional Design in Desktop Publishing
by Carol A. Hidinger

This session provided a reminder of the importance of design in our documents. Carol provided an overview and examples of:

• Elements of design: line, form, light and color, texture, and pattern
• Principles of design: balance, emphasis, scale, repetition
• Typography
• Composition and layout

Instructional Design Progression
Hosted by the Instructional Design & Learning SIG

Progression sessions are shorter and generate discussion around the table. I attended these three:

• Learning or Browsing: Should Learner's Control the Sequence of E-Learning?
  by Mike Tillmans
  
  After sharing our viewpoints on how much control learners should have over the sequence of e-learning, we discussed the use of default pathways to help learners make good learning decisions. The time went so fast that I think we all would have liked to spend more time talking with Mike about this topic.
  
  
• Technical Writing and Instructional Design Techniques
  by Jackie Damrau
  
  Jackie presented a high-level overview of learning types, the ADDIE model (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation), style guides, and Training Engagement Methodology. I left this session considering my team's process for designing and developing courseware.
  
  
• Preparing Your Toolbox
  by Gene Holden.
  
  We discussed various software tools for instructional design. This was a great opportunity to hear pros and cons of different software from first-hand users before you buy.

These were just some of the sessions that I attended at this year's conference. I encourage you to communicate with other attendees if you missed this great opportunity. If you did attend and would like more information on these sessions or any others, STC provided conference proceedings containing papers for some of the sessions.

Jessica Reed
New York City, NY

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