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Subject:Publications Management Course From:"George F. Hayhoe" <george -at- GHAYHOE -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 12 Aug 1998 14:16:27 -0400
I will be offering an Internet-based course in publications
management during fall semester 1998 as a part of Utah State
University's online master's program in technical
communication. The course officially begins on 31 August and
runs through 14 December. The first reading assignment is
due 5 September. The major text for the course, JoAnn
Hackos's _Managing Your Documentation Projects_, can be
ordered from AMAZON.COM and usually ships within 24 hours of
order. The articles in the November 1997 issue of _Technical
Communication_ on strategic planning are also required
reading, and will be available online if students do not
otherwise have access to the issue.
This course introduces the basics of project management and
the publications development life cycle. While it examines
the concepts underlying effective project management, the
focus of the course is on applying that theory to real-life
situations. Each written assignment for this course is based
on an actual project the student has worked on during the
past year. These assignments provide an opportunity to step
back and compare actual project plans with the planning
deliverables developed according to the methodology
presented in the course.
The distance-learning approach used in the Utah State
program is asynchronous. It doesn't assume that participants
live in the same time zone or even on the same continent.
Instead, the instructor and seminar members post messages to
a Web-based bulletin board. For example, at convenient times
during the week of 5-11 September, members of the class will
join a discussion of the reading assignment scheduled to be
completed by 5 September. Assignments are submitted by FTP
or e-mail attachment.
If you are a professional communicator with two or more
years' experience and want to learn to manage publication
departments, publication projects, or your own publication
assignments more effectively, this course may be for you.
The course syllabus, with links to details about each of the
written assignments, is currently posted at
