Views from out there: technical writing and cyberspace

Abstract

For many instructors, when technical communication and distance education are mentioned, the next logical step is into cyberspace. Certainly cyberspace seems to be the promised land-students are able to work at their own pace, on their own schedule and then send the finished projects to the professor for comments and grading. Moving technical communication into cyberspace appeals to many people on many levels, but is it the answer it appears to be? As more and more classes move online, the use of cyberspace as a teaching medium needs to be further investigated. Specifically, what can a professor expect to encounter when she moves her class online? Using his own personal experiences instructing in cyberspace, as well as the commentary of his students, the author offers some insight on one of the main problems of instruction in cyberspace, the crippling dependence that students have on the printer.