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Integrating Professional Communication Into Civil and Environmental Engineering Curricula

D. S. Kukich, S. A. Bernhardt, P. T. Imhoff, M. J. Chajes, and M. Pearlman University of Delaware

D. M. O’Neill Delaware Department of Transportation

Abstract

The University of Delaware’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering has recently undergone major revisions to its two curricula. One important goal of both new curricula is to place a greater emphasis on professional communication. This paper first describes how faculty from engineering and English worked together to incorporate written, oral, and graphical communication throughout the new curricula. In addition, it describes the design and implementation of a case-based technical communication course, wherein students work with actual civil engineering documents and work practices.

An important goal of the new curricula is to coordinate instruction in communication skills throughout the four-year programs, so that students become increasingly skilled communicators in both formal and everyday work contexts. Partnering with technical professionals in the development of the integrated curricula will enable university faculty to more accurately simulate the work experience and will facilitate students’ transition from the academic environment to the professional workplace. The paper details how changes in existing courses have enabled communication skills to be taught and practiced during all four years of the curricula.

The case-based course is structured around a set of actual materials from the Delaware Department of Transportation (DelDOT) that was developed to inform the public about the upgrade of Interstate 95 through Wilmington. Students are working in project teams to develop their own communication strategies and solutions based on documents from the actual project and then comparing their team solutions to those actually used by DelDOT during the project. The course was developed as a traditional classroom course, but with a strong component of virtual interaction through the Web-CT course management system to allow computer-mediated team and full-class communication, access to a library of case documentation, connections to supporting research resources, online meetings in real time, online document development and review, and instructor interaction.

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Bernhardt, S., & Imhoff, P., & Pearlman, M., & Kukich, D., & O'Neill, D., & Chajes, M. (2002, June), Integrating Professional Communication Into Civil And Environmental Engineering Curricula Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10832