Relating communication training to workplace requirements: the perspective of new engineers

Bringing an emphasis on technical writing to a freshman course in electrical engineering

“…Although this might be viewed as primarily a weakness in public speaking rather than technical writing, writing ability affects a presentation through preparation of good visual aids and the composition of a logical, to-the-point talk. These findings are consistent with earlier research on the communication practices in a large high technology company that routinely hires our graduates [6], [7]. Over the past decades, training in engineering writing has not been a well-developed part of our own curriculum, nor of those of our sister departments.…”

Communication learning outcomes from software engineering professionals: A basis for teaching communication in the engineering curriculum

“…The emphasis on informal and interpersonal communication that is evident in Table I agrees with and extends the work of Vest, Long, Thomas, and Palmquist [13] in electrical engineering, Pfeiffer [12] in software In Table I, the skills that comprise communication in the software engineering workplace are presented in the form of curricular outcomes. These outcomes may be focused to fit the needs of an individual department.…”

“…In other words, students would learn by participating as professionals as they prepare to become effective members of a community of engineers [21][22][23][24]. Integrating engineering communication in the curriculum is supported by Vest et al who interviewed 6 newly hired electrical engineers and found that "communication [is] a core activity that is not separable from their other tasks" [13]. Vest et al therefore recommend that engineering courses should reflect the engineering workplace by making communication not tangential but integral to the real work of student engineers (see also Patton [25]).…”

“…Despite the fact that good communication skills are vitally important to being an effective engineer [1]- [7], the communication skills of recent engineering graduates typically fall short of employers' expectations [8]- [13]. To design a curriculum that bridges this gap, educators need to know which communication skills are expected in the workplace.…”

“…To design a curriculum that bridges this gap, educators need to know which communication skills are expected in the workplace. Although the expectations of engineering professionals and managers have been the subject of many studies, these studies either focus only on technical skills or treat communication skills in terms that are too general for designing a curriculum [1], [6], [8], [11][12][13]. For example, the participants in Lidtke's [11] research-from academe, business, and industry-were "uniformly concerned about the lack of skills to work in a team environment and to communicate orally and in written form"; yet when these participants described a knowledge base for a computer information science curriculum, the knowledge base contained no knowledge about communication.…”