Getting Professionally Cool With Hot Media: Teaching The Videotaped Interview

Abstract

Oral communication skills are increasingly important for technical professionals. As new media allow for more fluid and more interactive communication in the workplace, engineers with good oral skills can benefit from video-conferences, on-line real-time "talk" and other "hot media." While the formal engineering report continues to be important, new media offer real advantages: In global market environments and in flattened organizational structures, efficient and coordinated decisions are essential to technical productivity. Skilled use of electronic media by engineers can be fostered by supporting oral communications in the engineering curriculum. Teaching the videotaped job interview is described as one such opportunity. A critical feature of that assignment is the high motivation that students bring to the task because they understand the potential for immediate benefits.