2 weeks before autumn quarter 2023 began, I was interviewed for what I thought was a TA position. It ended up being an offer to teach an entire class, and would turn into one of the greatest experiences of my career.

With the help of the current teaching staff and the materials of previous courses, I set about developing a university level Introduction of Technical Communication Course. My only prior experience was in corporate user research and some tutoring I had done in high school and college, so I taught myself how to teach by approaching my class the way I would a product - research, prototypes, feedback and iteration.

I first interviewed and surveyed various engineering professionals and university instructors to understand both the field as a whole & what skills were most important for students to learn. This research, combined with the existing curriculum, helped me prioritize skills that would be useful to my students. I also presented these results to the students themselves, showing them concrete data alongside anecdotal evidence on why these assignments were helpful to them. Since there are not required formal classes on job searching, interviewing, presenting, or ethics, this was my one chance to best prepare students for their future careers. Including professional perspectives was an ongoing

The curriculum had 3 major assignments - a personal blog post, an ethics presentation, and a group research paper. We also had minor assignments, like an elevator pitch presentation, and ones I added based on student and professional needs, such as resume making and AI foundation. All of these were developed to teach the foundations of technical communication - Audience, purpose, and context, in various ways, while also preparing students for future professional work.