Rice University’s bioengineering department incorporates written, oral, and visual communication instruction into its undergraduate curriculum to aid student learning and to prepare students to communicate their knowledge and discoveries precisely and persuasively. In a tissue culture lab course, we used a self- and peer-review tool called Calibrated Peer Review™ (CPR) to diagnose student learning gaps in visual communication skills on a poster assignment. We then designed an active learning intervention that required students to practice the visual communication skills that needed improvement and used CPR to measure the changes. After the intervention, we observed that students performed significantly better in their ability to develop high quality graphs and tables that represent experimental data. Based on these outcomes, we conclude that guided task practice, collaborative learning, and calibrated peer review can be used to improve engineering students’ visual communication skills.

Authentic, client-based projects form the foundation of a one-semester freshman design course at Rice University. The course is an elective course available for all freshman students in the School of Engineering. First-year students learn the engineering design process and use it to solve meaningful problems drawn from local hospitals, industry, local community partners, Rice University, and international partners.The objectives for the course are to (a) have students learn and practice the engineering design process early in their engineering education, and (b) increase undergraduate retention in engineering at Rice University by 10 percentage points. These two objectives align with important themes and goals published elsewhere. For this first-year design course, three specific learning outcomes have been defined: students design a product that meets user-defined needs and realistic constraints; students communicate effectively through written reports and oral/visual presentations; and students work effectively on multidisciplinary teams.Steps in the design process form the core of the course lecture material. Most class periods are split between an interactive lecture about a step in the design process and team meetings to complete the design process, including prototype construction.Assessment of students' knowledge of the design process was measured by asking students to critique the strengths and weaknesses of a Gantt chart. The Gantt chart laid out a 14-week design process in which a team was to develop and build an examination bed for a clinic built by Engineers Without Borders in Nicaragua. Using this recently refined assessment tool, students' knowledge and application of the design process was evaluated at the beginning and end of the semester. Written responses were coded by three trained raters on eight aspects: 1) needs assessment/establishing design criteria; 2) design context review; 3) idea generation; 4) analysis and decision-making; 5) building and testing; 6) overall layout of a design process and iteration; 7) time allotments; and 8) documentation.Data presented in the paper includes 72 student responses from fall 2012 and spring 2013. Analysis shows statistical significance between pre-and post-test results for seven of the eight topics evaluated. The refined assessment method described here is an improvement over a previously deployed assessment tool.which is important for first-year engineering students. 12 As discussed below, we have modified Bailey's method to include a specific design challenge prompt.

currently serves as Liaison Librarian to the School of Engineering and the other units within the Padnos College of Engineering & Computing at Grand Valley State University, and to the Mathematics and Statistics departments at GVSU. In that position her primary role is to support students in courses in her liaison areas both in and outside of their classrooms. Helping students make connections between information literacy skills and the "life long learning" skills ABET seeks to see in engineering program graduates is an ongoing challenge. Prior to becoming a Liaison Librarian, Debbie served as Systems Librarian at GVSU and at Michigan Technological University for 25 years. She earned her MLIS at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1983.

Extended AbstractWriting and design are two key skills that engineering students should develop to achieve success. Most commonly, students are exposed to training for these skills separately in the early years of their collegiate coursework followed by their combination in the latter years of study, particularly in upper-level design courses. In fall of 2014, we introduced "Design for Disabilities: Engineering Design Principles for Minimizing Patient Limitations," a new first-year writing intensive seminar (FWIS), in an attempt to expose students to engineering design principles and technical communication in the context of an experiential-learning project early in their college careers. By doing this, we hoped to provide a strong foundation for the development of core competencies in our engineering students. BackgroundIn 2012, Rice University launched a First-year Writing Intensive Seminar (FWIS) Program. In contrast to traditional composition courses, which often emphasize expository writing, FWIS courses focus on a field of study and offer students greater exposure to topics related to their interests. Written and oral communications play a significant role in the course syllabus, assignments, and course grade. To support the faculty's efforts to provide feedback on assignments and to facilitate more personal interaction, FWIS courses are capped at 15 students.

Engineering and Professional Communication at Rice University. She supports written, oral, and visual communication instruction in science and engineering courses. In addition to working with students, Dr. Volz has conducted communication seminars about oral presentations, interviewing, and technical poster design for the Texas Society of Professional Engineers and Baylor College of Medicine.