scholarly journals THE SELF-REPORTED CONFIDENCE AND PROFICIENCY LEVELS OF UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING STUDENTS IN AN ENGINEERING TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION COURSE

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Parker ◽  
Kathryn Marcynuk
Keyword(s):  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Communication Course ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
Personal Strengths ◽  
Personal Skills ◽  
Initial Survey

We have conducted surveys at thebeginning and the end of semesters in an EngineeringTechnical Communication course, surveys that aredesigned to determine how confident our students feelabout “Communication Skills” and personal skillsdevelopment, or “Lifelong Learning” (defined here asthe ability to devise ways to develop broader knowledgeand to identify personal strengths and weaknesses). Ourobjective is to see whether students’ confidence levelsincrease and then compare these levels with wherestudents believe they should be once they graduate. Inthis paper, we report on the data obtained from thesetwo surveys conducted from Winter 2013 until Winter2015. Normally, one section of the class completed thesurveys, although two sections (A01 and A02) completedthe surveys in both the Winter 2013 semester and in theWinter 2015 semester, for a total of 9 classes thatparticipated.. So far, we have found that students doindeed feel more confident in all the surveyed areas atthe end of the semester.Yet, regardless of their growing confidence,many students also feel they have not yet achieved thelevel of proficiency expected of them once they graduate.For example, for “personal skills” (such as applyingcritical inquiry and analysis to engineering problemsand doing the communications that support theengineering work), 5 represents an ability to lead orinnovate in a particular area, and 3 indicates an abilityto understand and explain. In our surveys the aggregatewas 3.4 for the initial survey (n=450 students) and 3.5for the end-of-term survey (n=378). Most telling,however, is the level students feel they must achieve bythe time they graduate (4.5). In other words, byacknowledging that lifelong learning is an importantattribute, one that they will have to continue to developif they are ever to achieve the level expected of them,students demonstrate a remarkable level of selfawareness.

The Self-Reported Confidence and Proficiency Levels in Communication Skills: A Comparison of Senior Capstone Students and Undergraduate Students in a Technical Communication Course

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Parker ◽  
Kathryn Marcynuk ◽  
Vanier Scholar
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Communication Course ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Personal Skills ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Work Done ◽  
Capstone Design Courses

One study of American college students foundthat students generally rate such attributes as publicspeaking and writing (along with academic ability ingeneral) as above average [6]. So we wanted to see if ourengineering students felt the same. To do so, weconducted our study over two phases and over multipleyears. The second phase grew out of an earlier one, phaseone, conducted between the winter term, 2013 and thewinter term, 2016. In the first phase, we administered asurvey that asked 2nd year technical communicationstudents to self-report on their levels of proficiency andconfidence in their communication skills – writing,speaking, teamwork and personal skills development (orlifelong learning) [2][5]. In all, 370 students completed thesurvey.This survey, administered at the beginning andtoward the end of the course, asked 20 questions relatedto communication tasks that we routinely ask them to doas part of the course, such as writing documents of >5pages or <5 pages, or giving a speech to groups of >20or <20 people. The survey, which took about 10 minutesto complete, was completely anonymous so that studentscould not be matched to grades nor could we determinewhy a student responded in a particular way. This earlierstudy found that students felt they had a moderate level ofconfidence in their communication skills, but they alsobelieved that the expected level of proficiency in theirsenior year would be substantially higher than theircurrent levels; that is, whereas they believed these currentlevels were, on average, 3 on the CDIO scale of 5, theybelieved the expected proficiency levels would be 4.5 onaverage.We were then curious to see how students in thesenior (capstone) design courses would respond to thesame survey. Once again, the survey was anonymous andcould not be matched to a particular student. Our goal insurveying capstone students was to see whether they stillfelt at least moderately confident in their communicationskills (for the most part, they do) and whether they nowfeel more proficient in communicating the informationthat supports the engineering work done in the course.Our expectation was that this cohort of senior capstonestudents would feel more proficient and confident thantheir younger selves

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. 

Needs Analysis for Workplace English Speaking Courses for University Engineering Students in the Kwara State of Nigeria

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-35
Author(s):  
Abdul-Lateef Solihu ◽  
Lilisuriani Abdul Latif
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
English Language ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Needs Analysis ◽  
Workplace Communication ◽  
English Curriculum ◽  
Undergraduate Engineering ◽  
World Markets ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Speaking Skills

The globalization of world markets which has led to the hegemony of English language over other languages requires graduates from different fields of specialization to equip themselves with English communication skills to communicate effectively in local and international workplace contexts. This study was conducted to investigate the English speaking skills needed by engineering students in the Kwara states of Nigeria. A survey was carried out to compare how the respondents’ (undergraduate engineering students and industry workers in the Kwara State of Nigeria) self-rated their speaking interaction and production skills and to observe their perception of the importance of speaking interaction and production sub skills for workplace communication. The study concluded with suggestions for creating a better perception of the importance of English speaking skills among engineering students and creating a better workplace English curriculum so that students’ workplace speaking skills can be improved.

scholarly journals DESIGNING RUBRICS FOR COMMUNICATION COURSES IN ENGINEERING: A Work in Progress

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Parker ◽  
Aidan Topping
Keyword(s):  
Technical Communication ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Individual Performance ◽  
Learning Objectives ◽  
Communication Course ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Capstone Design Courses ◽  
Capstone Design

This paper will focus on the rubrics that we have developed for the technical communication course and the senior (capstone) design projects. As part of the C.E.A.B.’s and our own Faculty of Engineering’s mandate to more clearly define the goals of each course, the learning attributes associated with course content, and how these are assessed, we first developed rubrics that would help us track and assess students’ communicative competence. However, we soon learned that our presentation of the information impacts how well students assimilate it. Consequently, in our rubrics for the senior (capstone) design courses, we began to phrase the assignment requirements as action items, as something that must be done; for example, a document’s “layout and document design” must use “clear markers to create a visually appealing document,” and the illustrations must “communicate design elements and results.” In this way, students are encouraged to reflect on their individual performance, and one outcome for them is the opportunity to engage in a meaningful dialogue with the professor. One outcome for the professor is having the means to indicate a student’s position on a spectrum of performance. Finally, although linking attributes to learning objectives and determining “competency levels” can be very challenging, we hope to show how the rubrics we have designed may indeed make the task less daunting and more manageable for all stakeholders in the education of our engineering students.

scholarly journals Using WebCT to teach grammar selectively

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (31) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Kathleen Vance
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Communication Skills ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Limited Extent ◽  
Attractive Feature ◽  
Technology Program ◽  
Communication Course ◽  
Technology Programs ◽  
Institute Of Technology ◽  
Grammar Lessons

Teachers of business and technical communication are supposed to teach grammar, but only to a limited extent, according to the literature. Technology program faculty at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and employers of graduates want grammar to be taught, along with an ever-expanding list of other employment-related communication skills. In response to these demands, a series of eight mini grammar lessons was developed for students in four technology programs. The software WebCT was used to facilitate the development and delivery of the lessons, which formed a component of the students’ business and technical communication course. Exercises, self-tests, and quizzes used sentences from workplace documents from the students’ technologies in order to hold the students’ attention and to validate the study of language. For students, this online component proved to be an attractive feature of their course.

Teaching Technical Communication at the Graduate Level: An Interdisciplinary Approach

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet H. Potvin ◽  
Robert L. Woods
Keyword(s):  
Technical Communication ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Opportunity To Learn ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Foreign Student ◽  
Team Approach ◽  
Graduate Level ◽  
Communication Course ◽  
University Of Texas ◽  
Technical Writer

Native and international science, engineering, and humanities graduate students at The University of Texas at Arlington experience real-world communication situations in an interdisciplinary, projected-oriented technical communication course team-taught by a technical writer and a mechanical engineer. The course simulates the writing requirements of industry and helps students prepare theses and dissertations. A special feature for international students is a supplementary weekly laboratory session devoted to intensive review of writing fundamentals. The course, which has been offered three times since 1976 with enrollments of eleven, five, and nine students, has been received well by science and engineering students for whom it was initially designed and by humanities students who now also enroll. Even though in some cases the progress that a foreign student makes in one semester is limited, all students have found the course of great benefit. The interdisciplinary team approach is an effective way of teaching graduate-level technical communication, providing engineers an opportunity to learn to express ideas to humanists and providing humanists an opportunity to learn to communicate effectively with engineers and scientists.

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