More Like this

1. Implementation of a Standalone, Industry-centered Technical Communications Course in a Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Program

   https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--47576  

   Buckley, Jenni; Trauth, Amy; Burris, David; De_Rosa, Alexander (June 2024, ASEE Conferences)

   The ability to communicate technical information in written, graphical, and verbal formats is an essential durable skill for engineering students to develop as undergraduates and carry forward into the workplace. Employers have highlighted recent graduates’ inability to formulate tight, cohesive arguments for their engineering decisions, as well as difficulties adjusting their communication style for different audiences. Even though accreditation outcomes now explicitly include durable skills, such as “an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences,” prior research suggests that the field is still far from meeting industry expectations for proficiency in the varying modalities and styles of workplace communication. Laboratory courses are frequently relied upon to teach or reinforce writing and presentation skills. There are two major issues with this approach. First, in lab classes, the communication method is typically narrowly focused on reports that simulate writing for hypothesis-driven research projects, which fail to align with the design-based and project management aspects of professional engineering workloads. Second, lab courses that heavily emphasize technical communications frequently do so at the expense of technical knowledge, that is, the engineering concepts involved with the laboratory experiment. Many students already view communication skills as “soft” in comparison to technical knowledge; and this attitude affects their performance and retention. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a stand-alone technical communications course that was specifically created for first-year mechanical engineering students and centered on multiple, industry-aligned modalities of communication. There are two major writing assignments in the course, both of which are open-ended “technical briefs” that involve background research, data analysis, and justification of an engineering decision for a design firm. For these major assignments, students individually submit a draft and receive detailed feedback for improvement before submitting the final versions. These two major assignments are scaffolded with weekly individual assignments that give students experience with a range of communication skills and modalities, e.g., using a reference manager and composing professional emails. To gauge the effectiveness of this stand-alone course in improving students’ technical communication skills, we conducted pre- and post-course surveys of all students enrolled in the course in 2023 (n=147), and we also tracked improvements in technical writing from draft to final form via established rubrics. Students demonstrated gains in self-efficacy for nearly all technical communication skills covered in the course as well as improved self-efficacy in different communication modalities, e.g., email, slide presentations, and executive summaries. The results of this evaluation suggest that a stand-alone, industry-centered technical communications course builds student competency with communication strategies used in the workplace. Future work will focus on whether students are able to transfer these skills into latter courses and ultimately their careers. 

   more » « less
2. Process Matter(s): Leveraging the Design Process to Build Self-Directed Learning

   Paretti, Marie C.; Kotys-Schwartz, Daria; Ford, Julie; Howe, Susannah; Ott, Robin. (May 2019, Clive L. Dym Mudd Design Workshop XI)

   Capstone design courses, an established component of undergraduate engineering curricula, offer students the opportunity to synthesize their prior engineering coursework and apply professional and technical skills towards projects with practical application. During this unique experience, capstone faculty enable mentored exploration, coaching students to navigate the design process to complete complex and open-ended projects. However, each capstone scope of work requires project specific knowledge and skills that capstone students need to independently research and comprehend. Findings from our study of recent graduates during their first year on the job suggest that self-directed learning isn’t just occurring in the capstone experience, but it is also an essential skill in professional workplaces. In this paper we share data regarding participants’ experiences relying on self-directed learning while working on their capstone projects and later in post-graduation environments. We consider the ways that capstone design educators can design course content and mentor students to help promote this critical skill and conclude by offering recommendations. 

   more » « less
3. First-year engineering students’ identification of models in engineering

   Shah, Nishith; Thaker, Pujan; Rodgers, Kelsey J.; Verleger, Matthew A. (April 2020, Discovery Day presented by The Office of Undergraduate Research at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University)

   Background To succeed in engineering careers, students must be able to create and apply models to certain problems. The different types of models include physical, mathematical, computational, graphical, and financial, which are used both in academics, research, and industry. However, many students struggle to define, create, and apply relevant models in their engineering courses. Purpose (Research Questions) The research questions investigated in this study are: (1) What types of models do engineering students identify before and after completing a first-year engineering course? (2) How do students’ responses compare across different courses (a graphical communications course - EGR 120 and a programming course - EGR 115), and sections? Design/Methods The data used for this study were collected in two introductory first-year engineering courses offered during Fall 2019, EGR 115 and EGR 120. Students’ responses to a survey about modeling were qualitatively analyzed. The survey was given at the beginning and the end of the courses. The data analyzed consisted of 560 pre and post surveys for EGR 115 and 384 pre and post surveys for EGR 120. Results Once the analysis is complete, we are hoping to find that the students can better define and apply models in their engineering courses after they have completed the EGR 115 and/or EGR 120 courses. 

   more » « less
4. Capstone Courses in Middle School

   Berry, Kenneth (July 2021, ASEE annual conference)

   null (Ed.)

   Capstone courses provide teachers the opportunity to address the 4 Cs for job skills: Collaboration, Creativity, Communications and Critical Thinking. These are the skills that industry has identified as important for employee success. Engineering schools have developed Introduction to Engineering Design courses to introduce students to these skills. This paper describes a school district that is attempting to add a capstone course at the end of their eighth grade year. The paper discusses their challenges and how they addressed the challenges. 

   more » « less
5. Addressing the Barriers of Knowledge Transfer: Using ePortfolios to Enhance Student Reflection in Technical Courses

   https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE58773.2023.10343477  

   Thomas, Rebecca; Appelhans, Sarah; Kozick, Rich; Matlack, Christa; Asare, Philip; Thompson, Michael; Thomas, Stewart J; Nickel, Robert; Cheville, Alan (October 2023, IEEE)

   Education literature has long emphasized the compounding benefits of reflective practice. Although reflection has largely been used as a tool for developing writing skills, contemporary research has explored its contributions to other disciplines including professional occupations such as nursing, teaching and engineering. Reflective assignments encourage engineering students to think critically about the impact engineers can and should have in the global community and their future role in engineering. The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at a small liberal arts college adopted ePortfolios in a first-year design course to encourage students to reframe their experiences and cultivate their identities as engineers. Our recent work demonstrated that students who create ePortfolios cultivate habits of reflective thinking that continue in subsequent courses within our program’s design sequence. However, student ability to transfer reflective habits across domains has remained unclear and encouraging critical engagement beyond the focused scope of technical content within more traditional core engineering courses is often difficult. In this work, we analyze students’ ability to transfer habits of reflective thinking across domains from courses within a designfocused course sequence to technical content-focused courses within a degree program. Extending reflection into core courses in a curriculum is important for several reasons. First, it stimulates metacognition which enables students to transfer content to future courses. Second, it builds students’ ability to think critically about technical subject matter. And third, it contributes to the ongoing development of their identities as engineers. Particularly for students traditionally underrepresented in engineering, the ability to integrate prior experiences and interests into one’s evolving engineering identity may lead to better retention and sense of belonging in the profession. In the first-year design course, electrical and computer engineering students (N=28) at a liberal arts university completed an ePortfolio assignment to explore the discipline. Using a combination of inductive and deductive coding techniques, multiple members of our team coded student reports and checked for intercoder reliability. Previously, we found that students’ reflection dramatically improved in the second-year design course [1]. Drawing upon Hatton and Smith’s (1995) categorizations of reflective thinking [2], we observed that students were particularly proficient in Dialogic Reflection, or reflection that relates to their own histories, interests, and experiences. In this paper, we compare the quality of student reflections in the second-year design course with those in a second-year required technical course to discover if reflective capabilities have transferred into a technical domain. We discovered that students are able to transfer reflective thinking across different types of courses, including those emphasizing technical content, after a single ePortfolio activity. Furthermore, we identified a similar pattern of improvement most notably in Dialogic Reflection. This finding indicates that students are developing sustained habits of reflective thinking. As a result, we anticipate an increase in their ability to retain core engineering concepts throughout the curriculum. Our future plans are to expand ePortfolio usage to all design courses as well as some 

   more » « less