Using a web-based system to integrate workplace communication skills into engineering curriculum

Norback, Judith Shaul; Llewellyn, Donna C.; Donnell, J.C. Ii; Govindaraj, T.

doi:10.1109/fie.2001.963716

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…10 The academic discourse community includes interaction based on essays and reports while the technical workplace discourse community's interaction is based on contracts, status reports, proposals, technical reports, and technical presentations. 11 Of course, maintaining separation of the two spheres is important because students are gaining foundational knowledge in the academic community that they will apply in different ways in the workplace. Technical communications is at a nexus where students can learn how to activate their knowledge base by practicing their analytical skills.…”

Section: Highlights Of Publications Regarding Writing and Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Discipline Specific Communication Instruction Based On Workforce Data Into Technical Communication Courses

McNair¹,

Norback²,

Miller³

2005 Annual Conference Proceedings

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Because of Georgia Tech's collaboration between the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture (LCC), College of Computing (CoC), and Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) departments, our curriculum model combines several approaches. The humanities-driven technical communication instruction teaches narrative professional writing skills within a science, technology, and culture context. The computer science department teaches general analytical skills for adapting to ever-changing demands of a dynamic field. The National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored approach combines these two and provides discipline-specific writing instruction based on actual workforce reports and real-world email protocol. This interdisciplinary pilot is created for Computer Science students, but aims to provide a model for various disciplines that any individual instructor can incorporate into his or her own curricula. This model of curriculum development is based on Georgia Tech's NSF-sponsored project to bring workplace communication into a Technical Communication course. Personal interviews have been conducted with computer science engineers; supervisors; and senior executives. The results of the interviews have been used to tailor Technical Communication to the computer science discipline. These findings will be described along with the course content and preliminary student assessment data.

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Section: Highlights Of Publications Regarding Writing and Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Discipline Specific Communication Instruction Based On Workforce Data Into Technical Communication Courses

McNair¹,

Norback²,

Miller³

2005 Annual Conference Proceedings

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…14 The academic discourse community includes interaction based on essays and reports while the engineering workplace discourse community's interaction is based on contracts, status reports, proposals, technical reports, and technical presentations. 15 One indication of the difference between the two communities is: in more than 100 engineering departments, less than 40 percent of the reports written included at the beginning a clear statement of the purpose, contents, and results, as reports in the workplace do. 16 The third topic of publications relates to incorporating engineering tasks into the curriculum and keeping the curriculum discipline-specific.…”

Section: Highlights Of Publications Regarding Writing and Presentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Teaching Workplace Communication In Industrial And Electrical Engineering

Norback¹,

McNair²,

Laughter³

et al.

2004 Annual Conference Proceedings

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Georgia Tech has National Science Foundation funding to bring workplace communication into a Technical Communication course. Personal interviews have been conducted with industrial and electrical engineers; supervisors; and senior executives. The results of the interviews have been used to tailor Technical Communication to each engineering discipline. These findings will be described along with the course content and preliminary student assessment data. This article describes curricula that have been developed through collaboration between investigators gathering data from the workplace and academic instructors teaching a traditional Technical Communication Practices course. The goal is to bring real-world documents and guidelines into the classroom to help students become aware and proficient in the communication practices of their disciplines. This accomplishment will in turn help technicallyprepared graduates also be prepared for the communication needs of various jobs, enabling them to get good jobs and move up the career ladder. Examples of workplace materials and curricula based on the Criteria of Communication Excellence will be provided in the presentation along with specific steps for replication. Results will be provided for use by other undergraduate programs teaching Technical Communication courses.

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“…In the past we have looked at the change in students' responses to the Audience Analysis guides at three different points in the semester 8 . In this work we also obtained self-descriptions from the clients who played significant roles in the projects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Georgia Tech Ie Workforce Communication: Comparing Senior Design Students' Audience Analyses To Their Clients' Self Descriptions

Norback¹,

Billings²,

Forehand³

2006 Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Before arriving at Tech six years ago, she headed her own firm, the Center for Skills Enhancement. She conducted research and curriculum development on basic and communication skills for the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Skill Standards Board, and a number of universities. Since 2000, her research has focused on workforce communication skills needed by practicing engineers. She has also co-taught Senior Design, Technical Communication, and the Introduction to Statistics; coordinated the activities in the Workforce Communication Lab and co-authored the communication instruction for undergraduate engineers. Her research has been sponsored by NSF and other sources. She has authored a textbook chapter and eight articles in Engineering Workforce Communication. Dr. Norback has presented at INFORMS, ASEE, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

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Using a web-based system to integrate workplace communication skills into engineering curriculum

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

Integrating Discipline Specific Communication Instruction Based On Workforce Data Into Technical Communication Courses

Integrating Discipline Specific Communication Instruction Based On Workforce Data Into Technical Communication Courses

Teaching Workplace Communication In Industrial And Electrical Engineering

Georgia Tech Ie Workforce Communication: Comparing Senior Design Students' Audience Analyses To Their Clients' Self Descriptions

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