Pub Date : 2026-06-01Epub Date: 2026-02-13DOI: 10.1016/j.compcom.2026.102979
Julie Townsend, Melanie Gagich
Inexperienced writers often resist meaningful revision, which underscores the need for pedagogical approaches that foster deeper engagement. This study explores the use of student-led screen recordings and screencasts as pedagogical tools to promote students’ ownership and confidence in their writing processes. Our study surveyed 76 student writers in First-Year Writing classrooms to investigate this approach. The findings suggest that these assignments are easy to use, focus writers’ attention on the writing process, and leverage learning opportunities afforded by the transmodal blends of writing, video, and speech. Specifically, students reported more benefits from screencast assignments that allowed them to blend spontaneous speech into the writing process. Additionally, students reported that their technology skills improved after completing either the screencast or screen recording assignment. One downside was that students tended to feel self-conscious when recording their screens and voices. Overall, these student-led assignments are worth exploring in composition classrooms as they can lead to a deeper, more hands-on understanding of the writing process.
{"title":"Student perceptions of screen recording and screencast assignments in first-year writing","authors":"Julie Townsend, Melanie Gagich","doi":"10.1016/j.compcom.2026.102979","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.compcom.2026.102979","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Inexperienced writers often resist meaningful revision, which underscores the need for pedagogical approaches that foster deeper engagement. This study explores the use of student-led screen recordings and screencasts as pedagogical tools to promote students’ ownership and confidence in their writing processes. Our study surveyed 76 student writers in First-Year Writing classrooms to investigate this approach. The findings suggest that these assignments are easy to use, focus writers’ attention on the writing process, and leverage learning opportunities afforded by the transmodal blends of writing, video, and speech. Specifically, students reported more benefits from screencast assignments that allowed them to blend spontaneous speech into the writing process. Additionally, students reported that their technology skills improved after completing either the screencast or screen recording assignment. One downside was that students tended to feel self-conscious when recording their screens and voices. Overall, these student-led assignments are worth exploring in composition classrooms as they can lead to a deeper, more hands-on understanding of the writing process.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":35773,"journal":{"name":"Computers and Composition","volume":"80 ","pages":"Article 102979"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146162090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-02-25DOI: 10.1016/j.compcom.2026.102980
Jason Tham
{"title":"Editorial: Technologies of compliance, technologies of care","authors":"Jason Tham","doi":"10.1016/j.compcom.2026.102980","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.compcom.2026.102980","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35773,"journal":{"name":"Computers and Composition","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 102980"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147396396","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-01-08DOI: 10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102978
Jialei Jiang , Gustav Verhulsdonck
{"title":"Designing experience: Multimodal UX in the expanding field of composition","authors":"Jialei Jiang , Gustav Verhulsdonck","doi":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102978","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102978","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35773,"journal":{"name":"Computers and Composition","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 102978"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147396397","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2026-01-19DOI: 10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102974
Stephen J. Quigley, Abigail Zimmerman, Raquel Buege
This study details an interactive touchscreen kiosk project implemented in an undergraduate digital composition course, where students engaged in multimodal UX composition praxis, what we define as a process of blending cultural critical research methods with UX design methods and tools. The project provided opportunities for students to test new modes and media, incorporate AI-powered tools into their workflow, and consider the ethics of their use. Students also attended to issues of usability and accessibility central to UX best practices. While many students possessed prior experience creating multimodal content, our findings suggest incorporating UX design methods into the composing process challenged students to reconsider their preferred modes, media, and other design choices in light of user goals and requirements.
{"title":"Kiosk! An interactive touchscreen project for multimodal UX composition learners","authors":"Stephen J. Quigley, Abigail Zimmerman, Raquel Buege","doi":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102974","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102974","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study details an interactive touchscreen kiosk project implemented in an undergraduate digital composition course, where students engaged in multimodal UX composition praxis, what we define as a process of blending cultural critical research methods with UX design methods and tools. The project provided opportunities for students to test new modes and media, incorporate AI-powered tools into their workflow, and consider the ethics of their use. Students also attended to issues of usability and accessibility central to UX best practices. While many students possessed prior experience creating multimodal content, our findings suggest incorporating UX design methods into the composing process challenged students to reconsider their preferred modes, media, and other design choices in light of user goals and requirements.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":35773,"journal":{"name":"Computers and Composition","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 102974"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146037622","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-12-14DOI: 10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102973
Nupoor Ranade , Daniel L. Hocutt
Content personalization or tailoring content as per the needs of users has been a focus of technical communicators’ work since a very long time. Recently, algorithms have helped trace users’ characteristics such as devices they use, platforms they work on, local language spoken, etc. to personalize content through strategies like responsive content, automatic translation and so on. AI tools have extended algorithmic capabilities for personalization, but at the same time increased the randomness of personalized content. That is, algorithms produce different results for the same user at different times or different results for different users at the same time with the same prompt thus shifting the agency of both rhetors (or content creators) and the audience (or content users). While conventional technical communication pedagogy has focused on writing for users, and more recently on writing for algorithms which serve the users, today it is crucial to understand how technologies like AI impact knowledge consumption processes from a user experience perspective? And how can we teach content personalization and adaptive techniques in the increasingly digital spaces of audience interactions? These questions motivated our research. To follow the roles of algorithms and technical communicators closely, we analyzed three different case studies where algorithms are responsible for a high level of personalization beyond the decisions made by technical communicators. Our findings suggest that we must teach students to investigate concepts such as user personas in UX for understanding audiences, several methods of decision-making for content assets, and rhetorical ecology for a holistic view of content production to dissemination.
{"title":"Shifting rhetorical agency in multimodal UX composition with AI: Sharing rhetorical authority with technologies","authors":"Nupoor Ranade , Daniel L. Hocutt","doi":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102973","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102973","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Content personalization or tailoring content as per the needs of users has been a focus of technical communicators’ work since a very long time. Recently, algorithms have helped trace users’ characteristics such as devices they use, platforms they work on, local language spoken, etc. to personalize content through strategies like responsive content, automatic translation and so on. AI tools have extended algorithmic capabilities for personalization, but at the same time increased the randomness of personalized content. That is, algorithms produce different results for the same user at different times or different results for different users at the same time with the same prompt thus shifting the agency of both rhetors (or content creators) and the audience (or content users). While conventional technical communication pedagogy has focused on writing for users, and more recently on writing for algorithms which serve the users, today it is crucial to understand how technologies like AI impact knowledge consumption processes from a user experience perspective? And how can we teach content personalization and adaptive techniques in the increasingly digital spaces of audience interactions? These questions motivated our research. To follow the roles of algorithms and technical communicators closely, we analyzed three different case studies where algorithms are responsible for a high level of personalization beyond the decisions made by technical communicators. Our findings suggest that we must teach students to investigate concepts such as user personas in UX for understanding audiences, several methods of decision-making for content assets, and rhetorical ecology for a holistic view of content production to dissemination.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":35773,"journal":{"name":"Computers and Composition","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 102973"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145798991","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-12-15DOI: 10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102975
Meng Yu
This classroom-based case study presents a workflow that integrates eye-tracking tools and usability testing into a technical writing course to strengthen evidence-based revision of multimodal documents. Over five weeks, student teams produced user materials, ran task-based usability tests, used eye-tracking tools to visualize eye movements, and interpreted the eye-tracking data through concurrent and retrospective think-aloud reflection. By triangulating gaze data, task performance, and verbal protocols, this teaching case supplements traditional peer review by providing students with objective data about audiences. It also illustrates that eye-tracking technology and usability testing serve as effective teaching tools to enhance students’ awareness of user-centered design.
{"title":"From vision to insight: Enhancing students’ user-centered design skills with eye-tracking technology and usability tests","authors":"Meng Yu","doi":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102975","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102975","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This classroom-based case study presents a workflow that integrates eye-tracking tools and usability testing into a technical writing course to strengthen evidence-based revision of multimodal documents. Over five weeks, student teams produced user materials, ran task-based usability tests, used eye-tracking tools to visualize eye movements, and interpreted the eye-tracking data through concurrent and retrospective think-aloud reflection. By triangulating gaze data, task performance, and verbal protocols, this teaching case supplements traditional peer review by providing students with objective data about audiences. It also illustrates that eye-tracking technology and usability testing serve as effective teaching tools to enhance students’ awareness of user-centered design.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":35773,"journal":{"name":"Computers and Composition","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 102975"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145798955","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-12-25DOI: 10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102977
Morgan Banville , Leah Heilig , Madison Jones
User experience (UX) as both a vocation and a skillset is currently in the center of a wicked knot: emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and large language models (LLMs) are (for the moment) widely accessible in unprecedented ways and are already heavily integrated into modern workplace practices and educational spaces. Further, workplace demands have led to a change in perception of the function and value of UX, and the field is facing new obstacles to hiring and research funding. Our article argues that a resituation of UX is needed: we—as instructors and administrators—need to focus on UX as an act of slow, embodied, and multimodal UX composition. To do this work, we offer the strategy of détournement as central to UX curriculum and preparing students for design work in a variety of rhetorical situations, expressed through our example assignments for instructors to implement within the college classroom.
{"title":"Wicked modes in UX: Pedagogical considerations for data détournement","authors":"Morgan Banville , Leah Heilig , Madison Jones","doi":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102977","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102977","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>User experience (UX) as both a vocation and a skillset is currently in the center of a wicked knot: emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and large language models (LLMs) are (for the moment) widely accessible in unprecedented ways and are already heavily integrated into modern workplace practices and educational spaces. Further, workplace demands have led to a change in perception of the function and value of UX, and the field is facing new obstacles to hiring and research funding. Our article argues that a resituation of UX is needed: we—as instructors and administrators—need to focus on UX as an act of slow, embodied, and multimodal UX composition. To do this work, we offer the strategy of détournement as central to UX curriculum and preparing students for design work in a variety of rhetorical situations, expressed through our example assignments for instructors to implement within the college classroom.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":35773,"journal":{"name":"Computers and Composition","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 102977"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145841249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-12-23DOI: 10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102972
Elizabeth Velasquez, Christa Teston
In place of (or as a complement to) “user experience research,” we propose “reader experience research” as a technique for tracing how contemporary readers make meaning through a host of social-semiotic modes. Significantly, such modes are always already conditioned by cognitive, social, economic, and technological factors. To illustrate how reader experience research can account for such factors, we describe the emergence of our institution’s Reader Experience Lab. We illustrate through three experiences how the lab (and reader experience research, in general) offers opportunities for gaining insight into how contemporary readers make meaning in and/or despite what Dan Keller terms a “culture of acceleration.”
{"title":"UX → RX: creating a culture of curiosity about contemporary reading practices","authors":"Elizabeth Velasquez, Christa Teston","doi":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102972","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102972","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In place of (or as a complement to) “user experience research,” we propose “reader experience research” as a technique for tracing how contemporary readers make meaning through a host of social-semiotic modes. Significantly, such modes are always already conditioned by cognitive, social, economic, and technological factors. To illustrate how reader experience research can account for such factors, we describe the emergence of our institution’s Reader Experience Lab. We illustrate through three experiences how the lab (and reader experience research, in general) offers opportunities for gaining insight into how contemporary readers make meaning in and/or despite what Dan Keller terms a “culture of acceleration.”</div></div>","PeriodicalId":35773,"journal":{"name":"Computers and Composition","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 102972"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145841248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-12-11DOI: 10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102961
Kathryn Lambrecht, Claire Lauer, Stephen Carradini, Poorva Ketkar, Danielle Storey
People working at the intersection of composition and user experience often serve as the connective material that binds content to use. In merging fundamental skills of both in multimodal UX, practitioners position themselves as essential mediators connecting technical information, storytelling, and technologies that carry impactful messages across disciplines, audiences, and contexts. Building on previous work that advocates for the power of narrative in AR/VR storytelling, we demonstrate how combining the composing strategy of narrative layering with user testing can guide the creation of inclusive, community-centered VR experiences. To illustrate the power of this capacity, we ground our analysis in the design of a Virtual Reality experience about advanced water purification, outlining a method for how narrative layering and UX testing can be woven together to address a variety of perspectives through interdisciplinary, layered storytelling. In doing so, we argue that multimodal UX is most powerful when it blends the needs of a range of audiences to build stories that communicate complex information in an inclusive and engaging way.
{"title":"Building narrative layers in virtual reality via multimodal user experience","authors":"Kathryn Lambrecht, Claire Lauer, Stephen Carradini, Poorva Ketkar, Danielle Storey","doi":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102961","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102961","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>People working at the intersection of composition and user experience often serve as the connective material that binds content to use. In merging fundamental skills of both in multimodal UX, practitioners position themselves as essential mediators connecting technical information, storytelling, and technologies that carry impactful messages across disciplines, audiences, and contexts. Building on previous work that advocates for the power of narrative in AR/VR storytelling, we demonstrate how combining the composing strategy of narrative layering with user testing can guide the creation of inclusive, community-centered VR experiences. To illustrate the power of this capacity, we ground our analysis in the design of a Virtual Reality experience about advanced water purification, outlining a method for how narrative layering and UX testing can be woven together to address a variety of perspectives through interdisciplinary, layered storytelling. In doing so, we argue that multimodal UX is most powerful when it blends the needs of a range of audiences to build stories that communicate complex information in an inclusive and engaging way.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":35773,"journal":{"name":"Computers and Composition","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 102961"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145711875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-03-01Epub Date: 2025-12-16DOI: 10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102971
Elizabeth Caravella, Rich Shivener
Virtual reality (VR) systems and other emerging technologies have transformed how professional writers and teams interact with information and navigate digital environments (Caravella, Shivener, & Narayanamoorthy, 2022; Saker & Frith, 2020; Tham, 2024). In Meta's Horizons Workrooms, users interact with shared virtual whiteboards, chalk, and spatial audio (Shivener & Tham, in press). In BigScreenVR, collaborative meetings include shared computer screens, 3D audio, and facial gestures (Shivener & Caravella, 2025). These platforms allow for the integration of visual, auditory, and spatial elements in innovative ways, pushing the boundaries of digital writing and collaboration across various points of the writing process.
Drawing on VR and UX theories, our pedagogies, and recent qualitative studies of writing in VR (Shivener & Tham, in press; Shivener & Caravella, 2025), this piece proposes three considerations that UX writing teachers must contend with before and as they integrate VR into a classroom: hardware, embodied, and spatial access. UX and multimodal composition teachers are well positioned to engage VR but must anticipate accessibility challenges that have complicated previous studies and pedagogies. In addition to the concerns themselves, we also outline potential example assignments and pedagogical methods for addressing these challenges. These practical guidelines inform lesson plans and experiences that are both engaging and equitable for a range of students, and provide a blueprint for teachers to include such technologies in UX classrooms in accessible ways.
{"title":"Accessibility in virtual reality: A multimodal user experience framework for considering hardware, embodied, and spatial access","authors":"Elizabeth Caravella, Rich Shivener","doi":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102971","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.compcom.2025.102971","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Virtual reality (VR) systems and other emerging technologies have transformed how professional writers and teams interact with information and navigate digital environments (Caravella, Shivener, & Narayanamoorthy, 2022; Saker & Frith, 2020; Tham, 2024). In Meta's <em>Horizons Workrooms</em>, users interact with shared virtual whiteboards, chalk, and spatial audio (Shivener & Tham, in press). In <em>BigScreenVR</em>, collaborative meetings include shared computer screens, 3D audio, and facial gestures (Shivener & Caravella, 2025). These platforms allow for the integration of visual, auditory, and spatial elements in innovative ways, pushing the boundaries of digital writing and collaboration across various points of the writing process.</div><div>Drawing on VR and UX theories, our pedagogies, and recent qualitative studies of writing in VR (Shivener & Tham, in press; Shivener & Caravella, 2025), this piece proposes three considerations that UX writing teachers must contend with <em>before and as</em> they integrate VR into a classroom: hardware, embodied, and spatial access. UX and multimodal composition teachers are well positioned to engage VR but must anticipate accessibility challenges that have complicated previous studies and pedagogies. In addition to the concerns themselves, we also outline potential example assignments and pedagogical methods for addressing these challenges. These practical guidelines inform lesson plans and experiences that are both engaging and equitable for a range of students, and provide a blueprint for teachers to include such technologies in UX classrooms in accessible ways.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":35773,"journal":{"name":"Computers and Composition","volume":"79 ","pages":"Article 102971"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145798954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：
京公网安备 11010802042870号