Digital video: contextual reality in the technical communications classroom

This year we filmed and edited two short videos that provide students all of the information they need to design and write two short reports, an accident report and an incident report about an employee complaint. These videos are self-contained within interactive digital slideshow presentations so that the students can view them as often as they choose during their design process and while they write their final document. We believe that engineering and technology students need to view technical communication tasks as design problems where they must use a consistent process to design documents and presentations that fit a particular context.