Associate Professor
Director of the Center for the Study of Rhetoric and Applied Communication
Phone: (901) 678-3646
E-mail: loelkim@memphis.edu
Office: Patterson 421

Education

B.A., 1991, University of Wyoming
M.A., 1992, Carnegie Mellon University
Ph.D., 1998, Carnegie Mellon University

Academic Summary

Loel Kim is an associate professor in the Department of English, teaching in the professional writing program. She also directs the Center for the Study of Rhetoric and Applied Communication (CSRAC). Her research encompasses aspects of the social and cognitive factors involved in collaborative settings, particularly those that are electronically created, such as online and multimodal environments. A recent study develops a profile of student technology use in a learning community. Most recently, her research has focused on healthcare professionals and patients engaged in the informed consent process at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. With an interdisciplinary team of researchers and designers, Loel is looking at developing usability methodology for using focus groups data to inform user-centered interactive systems design.

Select Publications

• McCauley, L., D'Mello, S., Kim, L, and Polkosky, M. (2008). "MIKI: A case study of an intelligent kiosk and its usability." In New Advances in Virtual Humans: Artificial Intelligence Environment, Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, Lakhmi C. Jain, and Nikhil Ichalkaranje, Eds. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 153-176.
• Kim, Loel, Young, Amanda J., Neimeyer, Robert A., Baker, Justin N., and Barfield, Raymond C. (2008)." Keeping users at the center: Developing a multimedia interface for informed consent." Technical Communication Quarterly 17(3), Special Issue on Online Healthcare Communication, Amy Koerber and Brian Stills (Eds.), 335-357.
• Kim, Loel, Popham, Susan, Thrush, Emily, Jones, Joseph G., and Donna Daulton. (2008)." A Profile of Students Using Wireless Technologies in a First-Year Learning Community." Going Wireless, Amy C. Kimmehea, Ed. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
• "Tracing Visual Narratives: User-testing Methodology for Developing a Multimedia Museum Show." Technical Communication 52.2 (2005): 1-17.
• "Fitting Academic Programs to Workplace Marketability: Career Paths of Five Technical Communicators." Technical Communication 51.3 (2004): 376-86. With Christie Tolley.
• "Online Technologies for Teaching Writing: Students Respond to Teacher Comments in Voice and Written Modalities." Research in the Teaching of English 38.3 (2004): 304-37.
• "Presenting Information on the Small-screen Interface: Effects of Table Formatting." IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 46.2 (2003): 1-11. With Michael Albers.
• "Web Design Issues When Searching for Information in a Small Screen Display." Technical Communication 49.3 (2003): 314-29. With Michael Albers.
• "Information Design for the Small-screen Interface: An Overview of Web Design Issues for Personal Digital Assistants." Technical Communication 49.1 (2002): 45-60.