A Rubric to Assess and Improve Technical Writing in Undergraduate Engineering Courses

Abstract

Although there is consensus in the literature that writing skills are important in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) studies, they are often neglected. However, some efforts have been made to correct this deficiency, one of them being the development of assessment rubrics. This study seeks to contribute to the discussion by presenting the results of the application of a rubric designed to assess the writing skills of a group of 3rd year engineering students. This rubric, which includes linguistic and rhetorical-organizational criteria alongside the mathematical and technical, was used to assess a number of written exercises and essays submitted by students in a 15-week course. The main interest of this study was to test the efficacy of the rubric as a diagnostic tool, conceived to detect the areas of improvement in the students’ written performance and, ultimately, to also help them to achieve higher levels of competence. This goal was achieved, as one of the main conclusions of the study is that, although students usually master the technical aspects of the course, they must improve the linguistic and rhetorical aspects of their written communication. It can likewise be said that all the participants involved in the study profited in one way or another from the application of the rubric and contributed to identifying the ways in which the rubric itself can be improved for future application.

Instrumentos De Evaluación en La Formación De Competencias Profesionales De Estudiantes Universitarios

“…Por ello, en primer lugar, se identificaron las especialidades de los estudiantes que fungieron como objeto de investigación. De esta manera, algunas investigaciones fueron realizadas con estudiantes de Ciencias de la Salud (Almalkawi et al, 2021;Cervantes-Sánchez et al, 2022;Díaz-Veliz et al, 2021;Martín et al, 2019;Mora-Luco et al, 2021;Tsai et al, 2022); mientras que otras se realizaron con estudiantes de Ingenierías (Arribas et al, 2019;Cantera et al, 2021;Flores & Alcalá, 2019;Pui et al, 2021;Tobajas et al, 2019) o de ciencias puras (Tipán, 2021).…”

“…De esta manera, se observa un consenso al afirmar que los instrumentos aplicados beneficiaron la adquisición de competencias (Cañadas et al, 2021;Díaz-Mohedo et al, 2021;Díaz-Veliz et al, 2021;Oseda et al, 2020;Panadero et al, 2022;Prediger et al, 2020;Quincho et al, 2022;Suárez & Castro, 2022;Tsai et al, 2022;Vallés et al, 2018). También, otros estudios indagaron en competencias específicas como las históricas (Álvarez, 2020), clínicas (Martín et al, 2019), lingüísticas (Cantera et al, 2021; y digitales (Wild & Schulze, 2021); todos con resultados positivos.…”

“…Con base en estos resultados, las investigaciones recomiendan el uso de instrumentos de evaluación, teniendo en cuenta que los docentes los consideran métodos novedosos y objetivos (Almalkawi et al, 2021;Artiles et al, 2022;Mendoza et al, 2021;Tipán, 2021). Los instrumentos elaborados con estándares de calidad (Franco et al, 2020;Gray et al, 2019;Pancorbo et al, 2020;Silva-Quiroz et al, 2022) eliminan posibles inconvenientes durante su uso y traen beneficios tanto para estudiantes como docentes (Cantera et al, 2021;Martiáñez-Ramírez et al, 2022;Pérez-Guillén et al, 2022).…”

Analysis of University STEM Students’ Mathematical, Linguistic, Rhetorical–Organizational Assignment Errors

“…In order to facilitate both the students' and the professors' work, a rubric was designed that compiled all the potential errors divided in the areas just mentioned [39]. Using this rubric appropriately the students could avoid, and the professors detect, the errors.…”

Redefining Assessment Formats to Replicate Real-world Aerospace Engineering Applications

“…Comprehensive reviews of rubrics for formative assessment in 2011 [33] and 2018 [34] agree that the use of effective rubrics for formative assessment is inconclusive and requires further research. However, it has been shown that the rubric must be design specifically to complement the progression of coursework to give regular and constructive feedback for self-learning [35] or be specifically designed to target a particular aspect of the learning process such as communication skills [36].…”