Contextualizing digital technology within the professional communication classroom

Professional communication has undergone a paradigmatic shift with the incorporation of digital technology such as ePubs into its instruction and practice. With these newer forms of professional communication come a new set of programmatic problems for educators: problems in receiving funding for the expensive technology necessary to create them; problems in finding the training necessary to prepare instructors to teach technologies that they themselves never received formal instruction in; and problems in supporting both the classroom and workplace instruction of these types of technical communication. Businesses, professional organizations, and even textbook publishing companies have begun to replace the traditional educational experience to answer this need. In addition to these problems, these new forms of professional communication require new methods of evaluation and assessment. In measuring the institutional and programmatic effectiveness of instruction in a rapidly changing, technology-intensive field is something professional communication programs may need to look closely at the assessment methodologies of other technology fields such as computer science and engineering technology.