scholarly journals Cross-Disciplinary Service-Learning to Enhance Engineering Identity and Improve Communication Skills

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Keshwani ◽  
Krista Adams
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Elementary Education ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Technical Information ◽  
Working Relationships ◽  
Technical Content ◽  
Elementary Education Students ◽  
Student Reflections

Traditional engineering curricula often do not provide opportunities for students to experience working with non-technical collaborators on real projects. Such interactions may help engineering students develop relevant communication skills. In this study, junior level engineering students collaborated with junior level elementary education students to develop afterschool STEM clubs for elementary children. The study sought to identify the effects of a cross-disciplinary, project-based service-learning experience on:  a) the development of a deeper understanding of engineering as a discipline and b) the development of skills necessary to communicate technical information to a non-technical audience. This paper describes the learning outcomes achieved by engaging undergraduate engineering students in cross-disciplinary working relationships. The results suggest that the cross-disciplinary experience affected learning in the knowledge, skills, attitudes and identity of student participants. Student learning was assessed through analysis of questionnaire responses and student reflections. The results also confirmed that simply knowing technical information does not correlate with the ability to communicate that same information. Students reported that they gained experience communicating technical content with non-technical audiences and developed leadership skills. Opportunities to learn communication skills were identified through student comments in course questionnaires and end of the semester focus group discussions.

Behavioral Ethics in Practice: Integrating Service Learning Into a Graduate Business Ethics Course

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 599-616 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin O’Brien ◽  
Dennis Wittmer ◽  
Bahman Paul Ebrahimi
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Assessment Process ◽  
Behavioral Ethics ◽  
Broad Definition ◽  
Descriptive Ethics ◽  
Ethics Course ◽  
Student Reflections

Adopting a broad definition that distinguishes behavioral ethics as science and behavioral ethics in practice, we describe how service learning can be a meaningful component of a four-credit, one-quarter graduate business ethics course by blending both normative/prescriptive and behavioral/descriptive ethics. We provide a conceptual and theoretical grounding for our integration of service learning and describe how service learning is used in the course. We explain how we frame the service-learning project, the challenges we have faced, and final student reflections on the experience. Finally, we describe the assessment process used in the course. Based on the assessment of 215 students’ service-learning reflection papers, the results indicated that over 90% of students were able to make direct connections between major themes of the course and their service-learning experience. This is an indication of the efficacy of the use of service learning in teaching behavioral ethics.

A description of a group-learning experience

1973 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-55
Author(s):  
S. A. Lilge
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Education ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Group Learning ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Mathematics Courses ◽  
Elementary Education Students

In the fall of 1970 I was assigned to teach the first course in a sequence of two mathematics courses required of all elementary education students, and I was informed that 120 students would be permitted to enroll in the course.

scholarly journals Using Community Service Learning to Develop the Writing Skills of Engineering Students

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Meyer ◽  
Helen Triantafellou ◽  
Kim Davis
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Effective Communication ◽  
Community Service Learning ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Engineering Communication ◽  
Audience Awareness

In our Engineering Communication Skills classrooms we aim to provide a meaningful setting in which students move from the classroom sphere to the professional sphere of writing. In this paper, we report on how we can use community service learning (CSL) to bridge these two spheres of writing. We show how the necessity of effective communication with community-based clients leads to audience awareness and subsequent acquisition of professional Engineering communication skills.

scholarly journals COMM151: A PROJECT-BASED COURSE TO ENHANCE ENGINEERING STUDENTS’ COMMUNICATION SKILLS

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 027
Author(s):  
Tanju Deveci ◽  
Roger Nunn
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Intrapersonal Communication ◽  
The Impact

Engineering is a discipline that requires its practitioners to learn and use a variety of soft-skills, which include academic and non-academic written and spoken communication, inter- and intrapersonal communication skills, critical thinking ability, an ability to work in teams and an ability to analyze, interpret and synthesize interdisciplinary information from a variety of sources. However, students who pursue their engineering education in English as their second language can face formidable challenges acquiring these skills. It is our observation that such students are often only given assistance through English courses designed to improve their individual linguistic abilities. We believe that although this approach may help in the short term, it may not sufficiently cater for students’ overall needs and well-being in the long term. With this in mind, this paper describes our attempt to reduce this problem in our local context of the Petroleum Institute (PI) through a long term innovation effort.A project-based approach has been adopted to provide students with an opportunity to enhance their language skills through meaningful learning experiences that also develop professional, personal and academic skills. This approach has also allowed the university to meet ABET criteria related to communication needs of engineering students. In this paper, we give a detailed rationale for our belief that a holistic approach to developing abilities required by engineering and other students is a better option. This is followed by a description of the different components of our current curriculum that has been developed over 12 years. We describe particular activities, and discuss their merits. We also present students’ perceptions about the impact of their project-based learning experience on their language and skills development. We also outline the way the course is designed to be adaptable for unpredictable future needs in a fast developing professional and academic environment.

scholarly journals Volunteerism is Associated with Improved Student Soft Skills

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-73
Author(s):  
Ian I. Llenares ◽  
Custer Deocaris
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Community Service ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Soft Skills ◽  
Thinking Skills ◽  
Private Higher Education ◽  
Ethical Responsibility

In this study, we assessed student soft-skills after a 36-month long community service program in a Philippine private higher education institution. The Soft Skills-Graduate Attribute Scale was developed to measure professional competence, critical thinking skills, communication skills, lifelong learning, social and ethical responsibility, productivity, and interpersonal skills. Sixty (60) marine engineering students were purposively selected based on their participation in the various community service activities. The result shows that students who regularly volunteered have significantly higher measures of graduate attributes relating to professional competence, communication skills, and social and ethical responsibility as compared to non-regular and first-time volunteers. This study underscores the value of service learning programs in higher education in improving soft skills as well as the cross-cultural competencies of students in highly technical fields.

scholarly journals Interdisciplinary, Collaborative International Service Learning: Developing Engineering Students as Global Citizens

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony D. Songer ◽  
Karen R. Breitkreuz
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Engineering Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Formal Approach ◽  
Global Citizens ◽  
International Service Learning ◽  
International Service ◽  
The Village

Recent calls to reform engineering education place emphasis on applied math and science within the broader context of globalization, economics, the environment, and society. This broad and complex challenge necessitates the investigation of new interdisciplinary education approaches for engineering education. This paper presents a formal approach for developing engineering students as global citizens. The 360 Degree Model for Educating Socially Responsible Global Citizens (360 Global Ed model) presented herein includes a framework for foundational theory, educational environment, academic coursework, and outcomes. At the core of the emerging model is an international service learning experience called the Village Network. The Village Network provides an interdisciplinary educational program that combines classroom learning with authentic international field experiences. The program responds to the demands for integrating technical and social domains in a multi-disciplined, globally sensitive paradigm. The multi-disciplined team approached addresses both internal outcomes of self mastery and motivation that propel individuals to engage as socially responsible global citizens and external outcomes of technical and social knowledge and skills to include sustainability, teaming, and leadership. This paper establishes the need for a global imperative for engineering education and provides a background on globalization, social responsibility and service learning. It describes the 360 degree model for educating socially responsible global citizens and provides pilot assessment results through a mixed methods approach.

scholarly journals ENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATES AND THEIR SELF-REPORTED CONFIDENCE AND PROFICIENCY LEVELS IN LIFELONG LEARNING (A12)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Marcynuk ◽  
Anne Parker ◽  
Norma Godavari
Keyword(s):  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Technical Information ◽  
Skills Development ◽  
Computer Engineering ◽  
Learning Skills ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Personal Skills ◽  
Competency Level

This paper reports on what we found when we surveyed second-year students in a Technical Communication class, once at the beginning of the semester and again at the end, and then when we surveyed two senior capstone design classes, one in Mechanical Engineering, one in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and one in Civil Engineering. In all these iterations, we asked students to indicate their levels of confidence and proficiency in their writing and speaking skills (communication skills), teamwork and personal skills development (lifelong learning). When we surveyed our second-year students, they indicated that they were only moderately confident in their communication skills (the aggregate was mostly 3 or slightly more on a scale of 5). At the end of the semester, when we asked them what they believed would be the competency level expected of them in these areas when they graduated, that number jumped to 4.5 on average. These students, however, were also decidedly more confident in their teamwork and lifelong learning skills, where the average hovered close to 3.5. On average, the capstone students were likewise confident in these areas, even slightly more so (3.87).  Given the rapidity with which technical information grows and the complexity of the world around us, engineering students must be more prepared than ever to develop the drive to keep learning so that, as practicing professionals, they are equipped to maintain their competence and contribute to the advancement of knowledge. 

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