Aligning a Tech Comm Research Methods Course with the Workplace: Results of an Alumni Survey

The MA in Technical Communication is meant to provide students with the theoretical and practical skills needed for the modern technical communication workplace. Key among those skills is research. Yet, research can take many forms for technical communicators: surveys, interviews, content analysis, usability testing, and more. As a profession, technical communication evolves quickly, raising the question of how our program can best keep pace with the research requirements of the workplace. To address that question, we conducted a survey of alumni. Alumni were using methods such as interviewing and surveying in their work, but desired more authentic applications of the methods in the course