There's an App for That: Using Mobile Apps in Technical Writing Courses

Abstract

This session will describe an adjustment to curriculum that enables students to use smart phone apps as a site of technical and rhetorical inquiry. Rather than being told to put their phones away, students now conduct usability testing on smart phone apps in order to develop critical evaluation skills, critical thinking, and technological literacy. User-based testing helps students collect data, and students use the data they collect and analyze to develop recommendations for improvements in the apps. In this way, engineering students gain experience in several skills: collecting data for criterion-referenced evaluation; developing reports based on data; and presenting technical information for an audience of both experts and non-experts.

Meeting Name

CERTI Teaching and Learning Technology Conference (2015: Mar. 12-13, Rolla, Missouri)

Department(s)

English and Technical Communication

Keywords and Phrases

Smart phone apps as sites of inquiry; Evaluation of mobile apps; Usability testing; Accessibility; Student engagement

Document Type

Moving image

Document Version

Citation

File Type

movingimage

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2015 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2015

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