Why have we made changes to the program?

Our recent program revisions address the fact that technical communicators now mostly work as document designers and developers, as software programmers (of a sort), as mixed-media producers and as technical project managers.

More than 60% of technical communicators in the field spend their time documenting computer software, creating electronic documents that are interactive and are intimately combined with film, video and computer animation. Many technical communicators now may work for months or years without writing anything that will actually be printed and distributed on paper. In the last 6-8 years, the field has shifted almost entirely toward work with electronic text, online and distance collaboration, and with online and database-driven publication. Most technical communication documents are now complex combinations of text, video, animation, and various forms of hypertextual linking.

For the remaining professional technical communicators who still produce printed documentation, only half of their time is focused on writing and editing. Technical communicators also spend a good portion of their professional life serving as project managers, publications directors, and serving as technology trainers or as technology managers.

The changes we have made in our program better prepare our students for the world they will enter as newly-minted technical communicators.

Prerequisites: 8 Units

Core Courses: 16 Units

Electives: 8 Units

Perspectives: 4 Units

Full Course List, designed for printing