Program Visibility: A Survey of Awareness About Technical Communication Programs on Campus

Abstract

This article reports on a study of Technical Communication program visibility at a small, STEM-intensive public university in the Midwest. Although Technical Communication Bachelor of Science (BS) and Master of Science (MS) degrees have been offered by this program since January 2005, the program has faced an uphill battle in recruiting majors (see Table 1), achieving externally-imposed graduation quotas, and filling courses to capacity. In 2012, we obtained Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval and surveyed residential undergraduates to determine the degree to which the Technical Communication programs were known. The results of the survey suggest that at least among undergraduates, the program does not have good visibility, and students admit to not knowing about most aspects of the program's components and quality.

Department(s)

English and Technical Communication

Keywords and Phrases

Program administration; recruitment; retention; visibility; marketing; undergraduate research

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2326-1412

Electronic OCLC #

456226694

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2013 Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2013

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