Faculty

Saul Carliner brings his double-dual career path to Concordia University--one that has substantial tenures in both academia and the real world and, in both environments, has spanned work in the disciplines of educational technology and technical communication.

His teaching and research interests focus on the design of learning and communication materials for the workplace.  Because design is affected by the quality of the leadership that guides and leaders' ability to secure the necessary resources for design,he is also concerned about the management of groups that produce these materials.  He teaches courses on Human Performance Technology (basic and advanced), Administration of Educational Technology Units, Educational Communication, and evaluation of educational materials.  

His research, which has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Hong Kong University Grants Council, Canadian Council on Learning, Work and Learning Knowledge Centre, KnowledgeOne, and the Socity for Technical Communication, currently focuses on the perceptions of training held by clients, and perceptions and uses of e-books.  He has published 7 books, over 40 publications in peer-reviewed articles, including several that have received Best of Show Awards, 17 book chapters, 3 technical reports, and 65 articles in professional publications.  He has also given over 100 keynote and featured presentations, 125 peer-reviewed presentations, over 80 invited and peer-reviewed workshops, and 150 additional presentations.

Education & Certification

• Ph.D. Instructional Technology. Georgia State University. Dissertation: "Every Object Tells a Story: A Grounded Model of Design for Object-Based Learning in Museums.
• M.Ag. Technical Communication. University of Minnesota.
• B.A. Economics, Professional Writing, and Public Policy and Management, minor in Administration and Management Science. Carnegie Mellon University.
• Certified Training and Development Professional, awarded by the Canadian Society for Training and Development, 2004.

Professional Experience

• Concordia University. Montreal, Quebec. Department of Education. Associate Professor (since 2007).  Assistant Professor (2003-2007).
• City University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong. 2001, 2002-2003. Department of English and Communication. Visiting Assistant Professor.
• Bentley College. Waltham, Massachusetts. 1999-2002. Assistant Professor, Information Design and Corporate Communication Department.
• University of Minnesota. St. Paul, Minnesota. 1998-1999. Visiting Assistant Professor. Department of Rhetoric.
• Southern Polytechnic State University. Marietta, Georgia. 1992-1996. Assistant Professor of Technical Communication. Department of Humanities and Technical Communication.
• SOLUTIONS, Inc. Reading, Massachusetts. 1993-2001.
• Carliner & Company. 1992-1995 and 1998-2003.
• Fredrickson Communications, Inc. Minneapolis, Minnesota. 1995-1998.
• IBM Corporation. 1980-1992 (Advisory Marketing Programs Administrator (Customer Education), Education Development Administrator (Technical Education) and Information Developer (System Products Division)

Representative Publications

• Books: Carliner, S. (In press for 2012 publication.) Informal Learning Basics.  San Francisco: Pfeiffer. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.
• Carliner, S. (In press.) Using business models to describe technical communication groups. Technical Communication.
• Osana, H. P., Carliner, S., Jabbour, G. W., & Desrosiers, C. (Accepted.) ’Rithmetic and readiness: Exploring the effects of meaningful professional development on three elementary mathematics teachers.  Journal of Applied Research on Learning. 3(Article 8).
• Carliner, S. & Bakir, I. (2010.)  Trends in spending on training: An analysis of the 1982 through 2008 TRAINING Annual Industry Reports. Performance Improvement Quarterly,  23(3),  77–105.
• Carliner, S. (2010.) Computers and technical communication in the 21st century.  In Spilka, R. and Clark, D. (eds.) Digital literacy for technical communication:  21st century theory and practice. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.  23-52.
• Carliner, S. (2009.) Culture conflicts in demonstrating the value of HRD.  In Hansen, C. & Lee, Y. (eds.) The Cultural Context of Human Resource Development. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. 179-196.
• Carliner, S., Legassie, R., Belding, S.,  MacDonald, H, Ribeiro,O, Johnston, L,  MacDonald, J, &Hehn, H. (2009.) How research moves into practice: A preliminary study of what training professionals read, hear, and perceive. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 35(1).  Online
• Araki, M. & Carliner, S. (2008.) What the literature says about using game worlds and social worlds in cyberspace for communicating technical and educational content. Technical Communication, 55(4), 351-260.
• Carliner, S. (2006.) Current challenges of research in information and document design. In Carliner, S., Verkens, J. P., and de Waele, C.A.E. (2006.) Information and document design: Variety on the research. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins. 1-24.
• Carliner, S. (2005.) Commentary: Assessing the current status of electronic portfolios.  Canadian journal of learning and technology, 31(3), 121-132. 
• Carliner, S.  & T. Boswood. (2004.) Genre: A useful construct for researching online communication for the workplace.  Information Design Journal. + Document Design, 14(2), 117-129.
• Carliner, S. (2004.) Business models for training and performance improvement departments.  Human Resource Development Review, 3(3), 275-293.

Current Projects

• Survey of perceptions of e-books in higher education. Funded by KnowledgeOne.
• What Are Customers’ Perceptions of Training and What Drives Those Perceptions.  Funded by Concordia University Seed Funding Program (Individual Stream.)
• Editor-in-Chief, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.  Institute for Electical and Electronic Engineers.

Courses Taught

• Human Performance Technology (ETEC 512/712)
• Topics in Human Performance Technology (ETEC 515/715) 
• Administration of Educational Technology Units (ETEC 591/701)
• Educational Communication (EDUC 298a) (online, through e-Concordia)

Professional Memberships

• Academy of Human Resource Development.  
• Academy of Management.  Human Resources Division. Practice Liaison Committee (since 2009), co-chair (since 2010).
• American Society for Training and Development.  Awards of Excellence Committee (2007-2009).  Dissertation Awards Committee (2007-2008, 2010).  Research Award Committee (2007-2008).  International Conference and Exposition, Program Advisory Committee (2002-2004).  
• Association for Educational Communications and Technology.
• Canadian Society for Training and Development.  Board of Directors (since 2008).  Certification Steering Committee, Chair (since 2008).  Program Coordinator, Research-to-Practice Day, Since 2009.  Program Committee, Annual Symposium, 2004-2006.  Awards of Excellence.  Judge, 2004-2005.  
• Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Professional Communication Society.  Editorial Advisory Board, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.  2001-2007. 
• Society for Technical Communication. Conference Manager, 2007. International President, 1995-96. Conference Manager, 2007 Annual Summit.  General Manager, 1992 STC Annual Conference. Program Manager, 1989 Annual Conference.

Professional Activities

• Editorial Board of the Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, e-Learn Magazine, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (editor-in-chief), Information Design Journal,  Performance Improvement Quarterly, Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

Awards

• Provost's Circle of Distinction. Concordia University. Inducted 2011.
• Best of Show and Award of Distinguished Technical Communication.  2009 STC/Atlanta Technical Publications Competition for The e-Learning Handbook: Past Promises, Present Challenges. 2009.
• Outstanding Service Award for redesigning the Society for Technical Communication Annual Conference.  Society for Technical Communication. 2007.
• Issue of the Year—Special Issue of Technical Communication on Electronic Performance Support Systems.  (Guest editor.)  Frank R. Smith Technical Communication Outstanding Article Competition. 2002.
• Best of Show – Outstanding Article of the Year.  Frank R. Smith Technical Communication Outstanding Article Competition. 2001.
• Best of Show -- Outstanding Article of the Year.  Frank R. Smith Technical Communication Outstanding Article Competition.  2000.
• Fellow, Society for Technical Communication.  2000
• Keith Wharton Award for Excellence in Teaching. Rhetoric's Association for Student Technical Communicators. University of Minnesota. 1999.
• Distinguished Chapter Service Award.  Society for Technical Communication, Twin Cities chapter.  1999.
• 1995. Award of Distinguished Technical Communication.  Frank Smith Outstanding Article Competition for "Finding a common ground: what STC is and should be doing to advance education in information design and development."
• Doctoral Award. Department of Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology. Georgia State University. May 1995.
• Kappa Delta Pi (honor society for education students).   1989