Research & Publications

Published Research on Scrum in Professional Writing

Pope-Ruark, R. (2015). Introducing Agile project management strategies in technical and professional writing courses. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 29(1), 112-133.

Pope-Ruark, R. (2014). A case for metis in technical and professional communication programs. Technical Communication Quarterly, 23(4), 323-340.

Pope-Ruark, R. (2012, October). “We Scrum every day”: Using Scrum project management framework for group projects. College Teaching, 60(4), 164-169.

Pope-Ruark, R., Eichel, M., Talbott, S., & Thornton, K. (2011, May). Let’s Scrum: How Scrum methodology encourages students to view themselves as collaborators. Teaching and Learning Together in Higher Education.

Select Invited Talks and Workshops on Scrum and Design Thinking

Using Scrum to promote student collaboration, Top Hat educational software webinar.

Understanding Scrum basics: Technical writers and Agile. Webinar for Society for Technical Communication.

What can Scrum do for technical and professional communication students? An Agile primer, Society for Technical Communication Academic SIG pre-conference workshop.

A quick start guide to effective student teams, [Au] Sparks! Design Challenge: Integrating Technology and Engineering into Content-Driven Problems, presented to area high school STEM teachers at Aurora University.

Strategies for encouraging better student collaboration using Scrum, Opening Week keynote address to full faculty at Aurora University, IL.

An introduction to Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research and assessment, webinar for Valley Writing Workshop, Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Agile Faculty: New collaboration strategies for teaching, research and service. Three-hour pre-conference workshop led at International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning International Conference, Raleigh, NC.

Design Thinking Studio in Social Innovation Pilot Program

My most recent work combines my interest in Agile and Scrum, project-based and service learning pedagogies, team teaching, “breaking” higher education, and design thinking. In the Studio pilot program, students take one combined immersive semester experience rather than four separate courses. After a three week design thinking and social innovation “boot camp,” students work with an interdisciplinary team of faculty members and peers in collaboration with community partners interested in wellness in our local community to apply design thinking and Scrum to local issues. Learn more about this unique program on our program website and look for future published scholarship coming soon.