Conference Session

Creative and Cross-disciplinary Methods Part I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Chad A. B. Wilson, University of Houston

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

communicate effectively o Outcome (h): the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context o Outcome (i): recognition of the need for and an ability to engage in life-long learning o Outcome (j): a knowledge of contemporary issuesENGI 2304 is one of the few courses in the engineering curriculum that covers the “soft skills”required of ABET. Parts of the ENGI 2304 curriculum must be designed to directly fulfill theseABET outcomes, yet the course must still fulfill the other goals, as well.One of the problems with such a technical communications course is that it is essentially a coursewithout content

Conference Session

Creative and Cross-disciplinary Methods Part I

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Craig J. Gunn, Michigan State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

on engineering freshmen orientation. Page 25.1132.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2012 Revisiting a Liberal Activity in a College of Engineering Engineers as Poets 10 Years laterAbstractTen years ago many people thought for a variety of reasons that encouraging engineers to writepoetry in a college of engineering was a foolish endeavor. These naysayers proclaimed the lackof any value in the pursuit, the foolishness of any endeavor that made use of the weaker right-brained skills (Everyone knew that soft skills were worthless!) and a complete trust

Conference Session

Advances in Assessment of Communication and Interdisciplinary Competence

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Carolyn Kusbit Dunn, East Carolina University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

on eitherissue. And there is yet another salient point. In many engineering curricula, adding courseworkin global studies is difficult because of ―the highly sequenced and content-demanding nature ofthe curriculum‖ [3]. This is also a factor frequently cited as to why more technical writingcoursework is not part of an engineering/technology curriculum. Professional or technical writing and communication, along with global competence, is aso called ‗soft skill‘ that both practitioners and scholars have deemed important to the success ofstudents. The discussion on this issue has been going on for decades. In the October-December2011 issue of Technical Communication Quarterly, Wright et al examines the history oftechnical writing via an

Conference Session

Accreditation and Outcomes-based Education

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jens Kabo, Chalmers University of Technology; Xiaofeng Tang, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Dean Nieusma, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; John Currie, University of Sydney; Hu Wenlong, Beihang University; Caroline Baillie, University of Western Australia

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

, segregation has endured betweenprofessional (math, science and engineering analysis courses) and general education (H&SScourses) or “hard” and “soft skills”4 or, in yet other words, technical and social content. In theeyes of Leydens and Schneider, the outcomes-based criteria of ABET EC 2000 have providednew opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and integration of H&SS (in their case,communication content specifically) approaches into engineering education.5As a counterpoint, Seron and Silbey highlight difficulties for innovative engineering educationinitiatives to align with the instrumentality of ABET requirements.6 Studying efforts at FranklinL. Olin College of Engineering and Smith College’s Picker Engineering Program, Seron