Technical Communication Across the ME Curriculum at Rose-Hulman

Bercich, Rebecca A.; Summers, Sarah; Cornwell, Phillip; Mayhew, James F.

doi:10.18260/1-2--31067

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(8 reference statements)

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“…In keeping with Philosophy 2, some studies demonstrated that the magnitude of the effects noted above depended on the attributes of the audience, such as their spelling ability or their professional background [37], [38], [39], while others demonstrated that communication quality is "in the eye of the beholder" [46], [47]. Philosophy 2 is also consistent with examples in engineering education, such as how departments teach memo writing [48] or account for the influence of professional communities of practice on student communication needs [49]. Philosophy 3 captures the idea that technical communication always matters, but to varying degrees depending on the situation.…”

Section: Three Philosophiesmentioning

confidence: 59%

The Communication Coefficient Method: A New Faculty Grading Tool Designed to Help Engineering Students Improve Their Technical Communication

Londner,

Dabkowski,

Kloo

et al. 2023

IEEE Trans. Profess. Commun.

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Introduction: Engineering students benefit from understanding the role of technical communication in the professional workplace. This article examines the communication coefficient (CC), a new method for grading student technical communication intended to help students better understand this role. Its goal is to encourage students to treat their communication with the same importance that it has in the professional workplace. About the case: The core philosophy of the CC method is that audiences perceive technical work more positively when it is communicated well and more negatively when it is not. The method captures this philosophy mathematically: students' grades result from multiplying the points earned for technical content by a number-the coefficient-representing how well they communicated that content. Situating the case: The CC method is rooted in established principles, such as holistic grading and the separate yet simultaneous consideration of content and communication. It is novel in how it combines these principles into a grading technique. Approach: The CC method was employed in three undergraduate engineering classes at the United States Military Academy during the spring 2020 semester. Student and instructor feedback were collected to gauge the pros and cons of the method and whether it is worth fielding on a larger scale. Discussion: The CC method was found to encourage better student communication, although mixed student and instructor opinion suggest that changes to the method and the way that it is messaged are necessary. Conclusion: The CC method warrants further study and consideration of its usefulness in other departments and institutions.

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Section: Three Philosophiesmentioning

confidence: 59%

The Communication Coefficient Method: A New Faculty Grading Tool Designed to Help Engineering Students Improve Their Technical Communication

Londner,

Dabkowski,

Kloo

et al. 2023

IEEE Trans. Profess. Commun.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We then categorized that instruction by genre, including memos, presentations, reports, and technical drawings. Using memos as a starting point, we then identified threshold concepts, or core things students needed to know to compose successful memos [4]. These threshold concepts represent the communication tasks and skills that the department expects students to transfer across courses.…”

Section: The Impact Of Scaffolded Writing Instruction On Follow-up Course Assignmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Scaffolded Writing Instruction on Followup Course Assignments

Kawano¹

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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“…Scaffolding centers on intentionally connecting graded events (e.g., capstone projects or research papers) with technical communication components across courses, either within the same semester or longitudinally across semesters. Scaffolding events across semesters offers several advantages, to include the ability for students to benchmark against previous performance and continually add to a body of increasingly complex work while simultaneously enhancing technical communication skills (Bercich et al 2018). Currently, all technical communication graded events in our program's curriculum occur discretely within one course except for our senior design capstone courses (EV490/EV491), which cover two semesters.…”

Section: Opportunities For Continuous Improvement Future Work and Application At Other Universitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Engineers need strong communication skills to effectively convey ideas to a range of audiences (Kamarudin et al 2012). Many studies have identified communication as one of the most important transferrable employment skills -one that often influences job performance and career advancement (Grant and Dickson 2006;Leydens et al 2008;Poe et al 2010;Lopes et al 2015;Bercich et al 2018;Young and Ashman 2019). Despite the importance of communication skills, several studies have identified communication-related shortcomings in recent graduates, such as convoluted writing, imprecise or inaccurate content, and an inability to meaningfully Several approaches to coupling general communication skills and discipline-specific technical communication skills exist.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Technical Communications in an Environmental Engineering Curriculum: A Framework for Analysis and Continual Improvement

McCollum

Pfluger

Butkus

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access Proceedings

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The ability to effectively communicate technical information is an important skill for engineers, especially young engineers entering the workforce upon completion of their education. Undergraduate environmental engineering programs normally address technical communications, but some do not provide intentionally placed discipline-specific technical communication experiences designed to progressively increase communication skills through the curriculum. Conducting a crosswalk of graded events with a technical communication component across a curriculum can help an institution understand the placement of technical communication graded events and identify opportunities for improvement. This study presents a survey-based approach for gathering information about all technical communication graded events within an environmental engineering curriculum and a method for analysis using a longitudinal crosswalk of all applicable courses from freshman to senior year. Results from this study indicate that the number of graded technical communication events in our program increases longitudinally from freshman to senior year. Further, the number of individually completed events and written events were highest in the sophomore year, with team events and oral communication events increasing in the junior and senior years. Additionally, the weighting of graded events shifted longitudinally through major courses. Graded events worth < 5% of the course grade were most prevalent in the sophomore year, and events worth ≥ 5% occurred most frequently in the senior year. Implications for our university's environmental engineering program are discussed, to include opportunities for scaffolding events across courses. The methods presented in this study can be used by other environmental engineering programs to identify gaps in technical communication education and methods for improvement within their curriculum.

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Technical Communication Across the ME Curriculum at Rose-Hulman

Abstract: is a professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. He teaches courses in fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, measurement systems, and aerospace engineering. He was a USAF officer for 13 years before joining Rose-Hulman.

Cited by 4 publications

References 7 publications

The Communication Coefficient Method: A New Faculty Grading Tool Designed to Help Engineering Students Improve Their Technical Communication

The Communication Coefficient Method: A New Faculty Grading Tool Designed to Help Engineering Students Improve Their Technical Communication

The Impact of Scaffolded Writing Instruction on Followup Course Assignments

Technical Communications in an Environmental Engineering Curriculum: A Framework for Analysis and Continual Improvement

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