Exposing First-year Engineering Students to Research-based Technical Communication Through the Use of a Nanotech Project

Wallwey, Cassie; Wilson, Tara Gupte; Egyed, Alexander James; Vick, Olivia; Parke, Michael R.

doi:10.18260/1-2--34651

Cited by 3 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Rather than separating a student's grade into two parts-one grade for technical content, one for writing-you can show students that writing is integral to communicating technical information by tying writing to content. [52, p. 4] Similar sentiment regarding the integration of writing into engineering assignments can be found in abundance within the American Society for Engineering Education's repository of conference proceedings [53], [54], [55], [56], [57].…”

Section: Technical Content and Communication Qualitymentioning

confidence: 91%

The Communication Coefficient Method: A New Faculty Grading Tool Designed to Help Engineering Students Improve Their Technical Communication

Londner,

Dabkowski,

Kloo

et al. 2023

IEEE Trans. Profess. Commun.

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Introduction: Engineering students benefit from understanding the role of technical communication in the professional workplace. This article examines the communication coefficient (CC), a new method for grading student technical communication intended to help students better understand this role. Its goal is to encourage students to treat their communication with the same importance that it has in the professional workplace. About the case: The core philosophy of the CC method is that audiences perceive technical work more positively when it is communicated well and more negatively when it is not. The method captures this philosophy mathematically: students' grades result from multiplying the points earned for technical content by a number-the coefficient-representing how well they communicated that content. Situating the case: The CC method is rooted in established principles, such as holistic grading and the separate yet simultaneous consideration of content and communication. It is novel in how it combines these principles into a grading technique. Approach: The CC method was employed in three undergraduate engineering classes at the United States Military Academy during the spring 2020 semester. Student and instructor feedback were collected to gauge the pros and cons of the method and whether it is worth fielding on a larger scale. Discussion: The CC method was found to encourage better student communication, although mixed student and instructor opinion suggest that changes to the method and the way that it is messaged are necessary. Conclusion: The CC method warrants further study and consideration of its usefulness in other departments and institutions.

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Section: Technical Content and Communication Qualitymentioning

confidence: 91%

The Communication Coefficient Method: A New Faculty Grading Tool Designed to Help Engineering Students Improve Their Technical Communication

Londner,

Dabkowski,

Kloo

et al. 2023

IEEE Trans. Profess. Commun.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Scaffolding is as an educational tool utilized to minimize the difficulty of tasks within a project to then assist students to focus their effort and develop component skills [1,8] Scaffolding involves breaking down large learning outcomes into smaller tasks that students complete in succession [1]. Scaffolding techniques also help engineering faculty integrate manageable writing assignments in their courses and provide timely feedback to students.…”

Section: Instructional Scaffoldingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, scaffolding has recently proven to be a successful tool in improving student learning in writing environments [13]. Scaffolding also allows for additional opportunities for students to receive feedback on their practice of component skills [1].…”

Section: Instructional Scaffoldingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Engineering education has been an evolving process over time to meet the expectations and needs of multiple stakeholders including government, industry, and community [1]. This process has led to incorporation of project-based learning into engineering education, which has been found to be one of most impactful modes to develop and apply skills to help transform students into independent and proficient engineers [2,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Students, pursuing engineering degrees, do not typically identify effective writing as an important aspect of professional communication within the engineering industry [4]. Thus, several universities and colleges have introduced various assignments and projects that further emphasize technical communication skills into courses in their engineering curricula [1,4,5,6,7]. Furthermore, students struggle to implement concepts and skills learned from English and Communication courses into a technical report for Mechanical Engineering courses such as effective technical literature review.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Improve Technical Communication Using Scaffolding Method in Mechanical Engineering Courses

Biswas,

AlShalash

2021 Fall ASEE Middle Atlantic Section Meeting Proceedings

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Cultivating technical writing skills through a scaffold peer review-approach of lab reports in a junior-level laboratory course

2023 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Communication skills is always on the top of list of the largest gaps between the career readiness of new college graduates and employer rated importance across all disciplinaries of higher education including engineering. Unfortunately, many students enter engineering programs with the wrong notion that engineering profession requires much math and science but little literacy. On the other hand, few engineering programs can afford a separate course dedicated to technical writing within the already tight credit budget.The content of the lab reports is generally more directly controlled by engineering faculty teaching the course. Lab reports thus serve as a good tool to sharpen writing skills. Practically, however, providing consistent, quality feedback on lab reports is a time-intensive endeavor for the instructors. One potential solution is to leverage peer feedback. In addition to the obvious benefit of reducing the grading load of the instructor, this approach increases the students' self-awareness of the standards and facilitates internalization of expert judgment abilities about report writing. The challenge of this approach is that without clear structure and guidance, the peer review process will result in students not performing a meaningful review of their peers' work.In this paper, I report my investigation of the effectiveness of a 'scaffold peer review' approach in lab report assignments and grading. The goal of the approach is to cultivate students' technical writing skills with significant buy-in from both the students' side and the instructor's side. The key elements of this approach are scaffolding report assignments with component writing, guided peer review, and revision. The scaffolding part of this approach aims at building up students' writing skill one component at a time towards a full-length report. For each report, students need to review another student's writing and answering a peer review questionnaire. The 'peer review questionnaire' serves as the primary guiding tool for peer-review. By answering a series of questions in the questionnaire, students present the evidence for their rating of others and give suggestions for improvement. They also give an initial grade to their reviewed writing according to a detailed rubric. After the peer review, each student has a chance to revise their own report. By focusing on only part of the full-length report, the grading burden is also reduced.Direct and indirect assessments of students' technical writing skills were carried out in three semesters of the implementation of the 'scaffold peer review' approach in a junior level laboratory course. Results of the assessments show significant improvement of the technical writing skills of students. Students' reflection on about this approach and their perception about technical writing in general also confirmed the positive impact of this approach. Although the implementation is within the Engineering Physics program, the structure of this approach is readily applicable to a wide range of engineering ...

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Exposing First-year Engineering Students to Research-based Technical Communication Through the Use of a Nanotech Project

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

The Communication Coefficient Method: A New Faculty Grading Tool Designed to Help Engineering Students Improve Their Technical Communication

The Communication Coefficient Method: A New Faculty Grading Tool Designed to Help Engineering Students Improve Their Technical Communication

Improve Technical Communication Using Scaffolding Method in Mechanical Engineering Courses

Cultivating technical writing skills through a scaffold peer review-approach of lab reports in a junior-level laboratory course

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