Integrating Technology, English, and Communication Courses for First-Year Technology Students

Chesley, Amelia; Mentzer, Nathan; Jackson, Andrew; Laux, Dawn; Renner, Max M.

doi:10.18260/p.25414

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Administrators and faculty within the Polytechnic Institute and the College of Liberal Arts developed an Integrated First-year Experience program aimed at connecting the curricula of three introductory courses: Design Thinking in Technology, Introductory Composition, and Fundamentals of Speech Communication. In the integrated versions of Design Thinking, half of the students in the course are concurrently enrolled in a Composition (English) course together, and half are enrolled in a Speech Communications course (Chesley, Mentzer, Jackson, Laux, & Renner, 2016). In this integrated version of the Design Thinking course, curricular connections to Composition and Communication courses were meant to support and foster holistic improvement in students' composition, writing, oral presentation, and critical design thinking skills.…”

Section: Integrated Instruction For Design Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impacts of Integrating Introductory Composition, Communication, and Design Thinking Courses

Chesley

Coots

Jackson

et al. 2019

JTE

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Much recent STEM research indicates that course integration improves the student learning experience and fosters stronger connections among concepts and skills; this study attempts to evaluate whether or not students learn the design process more fully in the integrated version of a required first-year course, Design Thinking in Technology. Drawing from an ongoing assessment of an Integrated First-Year Experience at Purdue University, this article reports on the challenges of teaching design thinking and analyzes whether students in an interdisciplinary course integration can demonstrate the work of their design processes more completely and effectively compared to students in a nonintegrated version of the course. We employ a modified version of the Engineering Design Process Portfolio Scoring Rubric (EDPPSR) as a method of evaluating students' design portfolios. Our initial and follow-up analyses show that students in both versions of the course struggle to complete design journal assignments satisfactorily. We assess and analyze the impact of STEMhumanities integration on students' abilities to document and contextualize the design process using journals, and also offer discussion and suggestions about our findings.

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Section: Integrated Instruction For Design Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impacts of Integrating Introductory Composition, Communication, and Design Thinking Courses

Chesley

Coots

Jackson

et al. 2019

JTE

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“…The Integrated First-Year Experience brings together three introductory courses at Purdue University, all three of which are required for students majoring in any of the Polytechnic Institute's seven departments [23]. The courses are as follows:…”

Section: Three Courses One Integrated First-year Experiencementioning

confidence: 99%

Interdisciplinary Pedagogy, Integrated Curriculum, and Professional Development

Chesley¹,

Parupudi²,

Holtan³

et al. 2018

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The challenges involved in facing and solving the most pressing global problems of the 21st century will involve collaboration and critical engagement from multiple disciplines. Interdisciplinary education and the critical skills it can teach-innovation, team-based collaboration, and effective communication, among many others-are crucial to preparing current students for their futures as professional problem-solvers. We introduce an integrated pedagogical approach between three introductory courses at Purdue University: Design Thinking in Technology (Tech 120), English Composition (English 106), and Fundamentals of Speech Communication (Com 114). Instructors and administrators in all three of these programs are working together to reinforce the valuable and important connections between STEM and Humanities work. Along with an overview of the development and implementation of this integration, we present a summary of findings from our ongoing assessment of the program. The integration has the most beneficial effects on students' sense of community, which in turn significantly impacts their performance on team projects. When STEM and Humanities instructors and faculty share goals and spend time innovating together, the potential benefits to students and to the future of engineering education overall are clear. Research Question Relevant Data Summary of Findings Attendance rates Drop/fail/withdrawal rates 4. How and in what ways are English, Communication, and Technology courses being integrated? Student focus group interviews Keys to smooth, successful integration are regular communication among instructors and a willingness to be flexible [27]. Instructor focus group interviews

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“…A description of the Integrated First-Year Experience and related assessment is described more fully in Chesley et al 13 Here we review the general logistics of the program for each year's implementation. During both years, Technology instructors teaching Design were paired with English and Communications instructors to collaboratively connect and reinforce the skills of all three courses for students enrolled in the program.…”

Section: Background and Research Questionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following the preliminary assessment of the program's initial implementation (see Chesley et al 13 ), administrators recognized an opportunity to clarify the goals of the program for instructors, and to offer more explicit support for instructors as they worked to meet those goals. This took the form of a full team meeting and co-teaching workshop before the semester began.…”

Section: Programmatic and Pedagogical Refinementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the Impact of an Interdisciplinary First-Year Experience Program

Chesley¹,

Mentzer²,

Laux³

et al.

2017 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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This research paper builds upon an ongoing exploration of a large-scale, interdisciplinary course integration for first-year Technology majors. Our research begins to show that the program is making measurable differences to students' learning, engagement, and sense of community. Administrators and instructors from 2 colleges within the university collaborated to organize and teach paired sections of Technology, English, and Communication courses. All 3 classroom instructors in each set of sections work together within the Integrated First-Year Experience, which ultimately aims to tie essential skills and concepts from the humanities and STEM fields to realistic global problems and contexts. The program was implemented for more than 500 firstyear students in each academic year (2015-16 and 2016-17). Our research responds to questions about the potential for integrated courses to improve students' conceptual learning and engagement with the university, and about the most effective ways for instructors and administrators to plan, support, and implement this kind of integration. We demonstrate the potential for interdisciplinary pedagogy generally and STEM-Humanities integration in particular to improve students' perceived learning transfer and sense of academic engagement. IntroductionThis research responds to questions about the potential for integrated courses to improve students' conceptual learning and engagement with the university, outlines our methods of evaluating a large-scale course integration, and discusses effective ways for instructors and administrators to plan, support, and implement strong integration. With this paper, we build upon an ongoing exploration of a large-scale, interdisciplinary course integration for first-year Technology majors: the Integrated First-Year Experience. This course integration program grew out of the recognition that Technology students seem to struggle effectively expressing design ideas, while student work in English and Communication courses can sometimes seem to lack a meaningful context outside of the classroom. To address these concerns, and with a goal of enriching the first-year experience for students, administrators and instructors from Purdue's Polytechnic Institute, English Department, and School of Communication all collaborated to organize and teach paired sections of Technology, English, and Communication courses. The resulting Integrated First-Year Experience brings humanities and STEM fields into cooperation, asking instructors from both to collaborate at the classroom level. The program's overall goal has been to improve student learning, transfer, academic engagement, and sense of community.

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Integrating Technology, English, and Communication Courses for First-Year Technology Students

Cited by 4 publications

References 11 publications

The Impacts of Integrating Introductory Composition, Communication, and Design Thinking Courses

The Impacts of Integrating Introductory Composition, Communication, and Design Thinking Courses

Interdisciplinary Pedagogy, Integrated Curriculum, and Professional Development

Assessing the Impact of an Interdisciplinary First-Year Experience Program

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