Red Hat helps teach about tech writing

In Brno, Czechia, Red Hat's large local office has been collaborating with Masaryk University's Faculty of Informatics to teach future technical writers. Red Hat's Brno documentation team presented a talk at the Open Source Summit in Prague, sharing their experiences in teaching technical writing through an open-source approach. The team learned from the students, discovering that some methods did not yield the desired results.

The course aimed at students with technical knowledge, but they faced challenges when setting classwork with shell-based tools. Some students had never used the command-line, and others had borrowed laptops without proper permissions. Additionally, students struggled with grading each other's work due to time constraints. The team ultimately created a compromise, teaching students how to grade each other's work respectfully.

Regarding the use of large language models (LLMs), the students were initially prohibited from utilizing them during the course. However, they inevitably used LLMs, which led to challenges in recognition and evaluation of good work. The team had to devise strategies to manage this issue, including teaching students how to use LLMs responsibly.

Some effective techniques included awarding points, even if arbitrarily, and providing feedback through internet-style memes. A final exercise involved role-playing scenarios, where students navigated a cross-functional team to create technical documentation.

The primary focus of the "Birds of a Feather" session was the use of LLMs in tech writing. Despite the students' belief that AI models were poor at writing documentation, creating diagrams, or reviewing them for review purposes, the audience predominantly agreed that LLMs could still be beneficial. They found applications in change management, updating documentation, documenting meeting notes, and summarizing conference or meeting information. However, the audience also expressed concern about the models' shortcomings in these areas.