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In an active effort to promote the construction of “first-class universities and first-class disciplines”, invited by the School of Foreign Languages (SFL) of Southeast University, Professor Sam Dragga from Texas Tech University and Professor Kirk St Amant from Louisiana Tech University delivered two academic speeches for our faculty and students on the 7th of September. The event was hosted by Professor Li Xiaoxiang and Associate Professor Gao Jian. Sam Dragga is Professor Emeritus in Texas Tech University, a leading expert in the field of technical communication and Editor-in-chief for the international journal of Technical Communication. Professor Kirk St. Amant is Editor-in-chief and co-editor for several international journals of technical communication. Both experts enjoy a high academic prestige in the area of technical communication.
Professor Dragga first delivered a speech entitled “Ethics and illustrations”. Relying on various types of diagrams and tables, he meticulously explained ethic issues related to illustrations in technical communication. Later, Professor St. Amant delivered a speech entitled “Cognition, Design, and Usability: The Psychology of User Experience Design”. Using interesting life experience, he offered a psychological interpretation of user experience design from the perspectives of cognition, usability and cross-cultural consideration.
A workshop on the design of technical communication course was held after the speeches. It was hosted by Professor Zhu Shanhua, Vice Dean of SFL. Participants included over 20 teachers from various departments. At first, Professor St. Amant gave a talk entitled “Contextualizing Curriculum and Course Design”, providing us a detailed introduction of the technical communication course arrangement in Louisiana Tech University. The survey covered trans-departmental cooperation, course framework, testing and evaluation, and connection between teaching in university and demands in society. Professor Dragga’s talk concentrated on the roles of university teachers and faculty development. All faculty members present have benefitted a lot from his talk which drew on different pedagogical philosophies from west and east. The workshop ended with a lively discussion during which the two professors patiently answered every question raised by our faculty members.
Report / Tang Bin
Photo / Chen Xiangyu Zhu Shanhua
