This school year, students enrolled in technical communication courses at Missouri S&T gained access to a new tool to help them learn how to create, manage and publish digital content, thanks to software licenses from Vasont Systems.

Vasont Systems granted 25 licenses to its Inspire component content management system (CCMS), which allows organizations to manage content modules, photos and graphics, and applications online. The company says Inspire facilitates topic-based authoring, content storage and management, and multichannel publishing. Organizations typically use this type of content on platforms such as websites, mobile devices, print and social media.

Missouri S&T faculty say students enrolled in technical communication classes will benefit from using a CCMS firsthand this school year.

“We are grateful to Vasont for access to their software,” says Dr. Edward Malone, professor of English and technical communication at Missouri S&T. “Students may someday use such a tool to manage digital content for all types of industries. This type of hands-on learning is what they need to prepare them for careers after graduation.”

Students agreed that using the system was a great learning opportunity.

“I found Vasont Inspire to be not only useful, but also easy to use,” says Amanda Kossuth, a Missouri S&T graduate student in technical communication from St. James, Missouri. “I am looking forward to being able to continue expanding my skills in topic-based authoring and CCMS usage. The documents I can create in Vasont Inspire will be an excellent addition to my portfolio.”

The value of the software licenses is about $28,000, and they are valid through December 2019. Malone plans to continue to use the software tool during the fall 2019 semester.