Integrating Workforce Communication Into Senior Design

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

“…Though the goal of Norback and Hardin [14]- [15]-to help industrial engineering seniors to write and speak more effectively in their capstone course-is more narrowly focused than ours, their study provides partial support of our outcomes. In particular, the outcomes in our categories "Design Communication" and "Explain Clearly" overlap to a large extent with the criteria in Norback's categories "Communication Strategy" and "Preparing the Material," and our outcome "Give effective and engaging presentations" is the focus of the criteria in Norback's category "Delivery of Presentations" [15].…”

“…Using interviews conducted with engineers and a review of oral and written materials these engineers had produced on the job, Norback and Hardin [14] generated what they refer to as a master list of oral and written communication skills for a senior design course. Norback's "Criteria for Communication Excellence" [15], based on Norback and Hardin, are guidelines for the process of preparing and presenting engineering discourses.…”

Managerial Communication of Analytical Work

“…Researchers conducted extensive standardized personal interviews with senior executives, engineers, and managers in engineering firms regarding communication skills and the creation of documents and presentations (Norback et al 2001, Norback et al 2002, Norback et al 2004, Norback and Hardin 2005, Norback et al 2005b). To our knowledge, the instruction resulting from the interviews is unique because the workforce interviews served as the sole basis for the instruction.…”

“…6.1. PowerPoint as Written Documentation, Not Solely Visual Aid While conducting two independent empirical research projects (Norback et al 2002) we regularly encountered situations where PowerPoint is used as an important or even dominant method for documenting analytical results. In one company where interviews were conducted, PowerPoint was the main form of written business communication, and the slides were used without any accompanying reports (Norback 2007).…”

Beyond Margin Notes: Utilizing Technology to Improve Feedback to Student Writers

“…Norback & Hardin (2005) note that engineers spend a good deal of time writing on the job, and that writing skill is often a component in promotion decisions. 1 Markel (2013) concurs, noting that writing is considered a "threshold skill"…”