TecCOMFrame – finding common ground for a European framework

The meeting started off with a thorough introduction to the dissemination activities that should accompany the project in the next three years. The staff member for corporate communication at tekom Europe, Kiriaki Kampouridou, presented the different opportunities for dissemination, such as presenting results at conferences, distributing marketing material and using the PR channels of each and every partner institution in order to promote the project results. Part of the meeting was also the presentation of a research done by Julia Müller, research assistant at tekom Europe on study programs and curricula in the field of Technical Communication in Europe and also the United States. This research delivers interesting insights into the many different subjects that are part of TC studies throughout the world. Due to its characteristic of being an interdisciplinary field of study many variations can be found in the curricula for TC studies.

Comprehensibility of our framework

When it came to the actual work on the first draft of the TecCOMFrame the project group had to face exactly this challenge – the understanding of how a study program for TC should be designed varies from country to country and from university to university. Being a project consortium of partners from eight European universities and one professional association gives us the chance to really develop a comprehensive framework. During the project meeting we collected different topics that are included in TC education in the university programs of all partners. In groups and individual work we defined skills and competence descriptions as part of the topics and sub-topics. We also used the time together to discuss about the methodical approach that we would like to apply for the framework. Here again, different approaches and perspectives were brought into discussion and it is yet to be defined which approach shall be used.

First multiplier event coming up in April 2016

Until the next transnational meeting in April, the project consortium will meet in web meetings to further develop the framework. Our goal is to present a first draft of the TecCOMFrame at the first official multiplier event, the European Academic Colloquium, taking place on April 13, 2016 in Berlin. There we expect to get feedback from more representatives of higher education institutions as well as from industry experts.