The Back to School commercials have invaded the airwaves here at Stately STC Manor, so there’s no better time to invite members to go “Back to School” with an STC certificate course! STC offers three different courses starting in September—on localization, usability, and building a business case. The certificate courses are multi-week, in-depth learning opportunities and cost $595 for members, $295 for student members, and $995 for nonmembers.
Writing for Localization: Hands-on Workshop and Best Practices
Presented by Lisa Pietrangeli
Mondays, 9 September-14 October, Noon-1:30 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Decisions made during content development impact the quality and consistency of the translated versions of the content. In this certificate course, you will learn the difference between Translation, Localization, and Internationalization; learn best practices with writing methods and content management; and learn about the tools of the translation industry. Through best practices, tools, and building a dynamic knowledge base, participants will learn how to make their companies’ localization process more efficient and achieve consistently higher quality translations.
Usability Testing Essentials: Hands-on Workshop and Best Practices
Presented by Carol Barnum
Tuesdays, 10 September-29 October, 4:00-5:30 PM EDT (GMT-4)
Whatever job you hold, user experience is—or should be—a part of it. That’s why usability testing is such a good fit for technical communicators. We are the voice of the user, so why not also be able to share what we learn from users by observing how they work with our products? We learn from them, educate ourselves and other product stakeholders about who our users are and how they interact with our products, and make our products better as user experience improves. What’s not to like in this picture?
Whether you are self-taught, unschooled in the topic, or looking to upgrade your skills, this certificate course will take you step by step through the process of planning and conducting a test, analyzing the results, and reporting them—with the goal of educating yourself and other stakeholders on the user’s experience and advocating for more testing, more often.
How to Build a Business Case and Influence Change
Presented by Lisa Pietrangeli
Thursdays, 12 September-10 October, Noon-1:30 PM EDT (GMT-4)
This is a brand-new course for STC, being taught for the very first time this September! As a technical communicator, you are up to date on all of the new writing methods and innovative tools of the trade. You know how important content reuse is, how critical good templates are, and how best to work on a team. However, when you identify a better method or a better tool, or recognize opportunities for process improvements, it can be a challenge to convince your company to explore your solution and to get a budget approved. Through use of a case-study example and hands-on exercises, we will discuss how to be effective at impacting change, getting your company’s support, and helping your company succeed.
See the certificate course page on the STC website for the full schedule. Keep checking, too, as we’ll be adding more in the coming weeks!