important reasonsfor engineering students to learn to use multiple mediums to communicate with the public. Forone, self-promotion; it is becoming more common for research journals to invite or requireauthors of peer-reviewed work to write summaries for the public. For instance, authors acceptedto PLOS journals are required to submit a non-technical summary of their work, and scientists’social media presence is increasingly recognized by university promotion and tenurecommittees29. Finally, there is an increased need for an informed and scientifically literatecitizenship in democratic societies due to the grand challenges of the 21st century24, and anincreasing expectation for scientists and engineers to take responsibility for contributing to
institutional contexts. In this paper, we analyze the adaptation of one such intervention,the Communication Lab (Comm Lab), a peer-to-peer coaching resource for writing, presenting,and other forms of technical communication [4]. By analyzing three institutions’ iterations of aComm Lab, we argue that a balance between core pedagogical strategies and attention to clientneeds makes the Comm Lab model both identifiable across institutions and flexible enough toadapt to new institutional contexts. For example, the client-based model relies on using peerswith disciplinary expertise to ensure quality feedback. However, the definitions of “peer” and“disciplinary expertise” become more multidisciplinary across institutions according to thestudent population
traits, theCollege’s writing instructor (second author) teaches a first-year online introductory course intechnical writing, Short Engineering Reports (SER). In SER, in addition to learning aboutstylistic traits that distinguish technical writing from other styles, students learn to plan, writeand revise technical memoranda. Students are expected to apply this knowledge and skills, whenthey compose the two memoranda assigned in the co-requisite engineering course, Methods ofEngineering Analysis (MEA). After the students submit the first memo to their engineeringinstructors, the SER instructor provides students feedback and assigns revision tasks. Studentsalso learn to self and peer review their memos, using an analytic “feedback” rubric that
University. Recent research has focused on 1) using writing and communication assignments to improve the teaching of engineering design and 2) developing a flexible mobile studio pedagogy using the Mobile Studio Instrumentation Board.Dr. Matthew W. Ohland, Purdue University, West Lafayette Matthew W. Ohland is Professor of Engineering Education at Purdue University. He has degrees from Swarthmore College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and the University of Florida. His research on the longitudinal study of engineering students, team assignment, peer evaluation, and active and collaborative teaching methods has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the Sloan Foundation and his team received Best Paper
reports which the authors deemed generally unimpressive, so thestructure of the class was changed to address this deficiency. Students now submit two individualwritten assignments prior to the final technical report, which are returned with inline feedbackfrom the instructor. Additionally, students are assigned to blind peer review reports fromclassmates. Evidence has been collected to compare similar final reports between offerings of thecourse, and evaluations show a drastic improvement in the quality of the final reports with theseadditional writing assignments and feedback as part of the course. Surveys are taken at thebeginning and end of the semester to assess student perceptions of their skills in several areas.The results of these surveys
year computing students were asked to keep a weeklyblog to describe their learning experiences. Students were also responsible for doing peer reviewby posting comments on their peers’ reflections. The results of this case study indicated thatstudents progressed to different stages of reflection and engaged in dialogic and criticalreflection. Also, students not only felt positive about the reflection but also showed satisfactionfor the received feedback [20], [32]. In many of these studies, students were reporting theirthoughts from a particular direction, e.g., professional skills in general [20], [28], [34],communication or writing skill [29], [31], or critical thinking [31], [33]. In some cases, studentswere provided with other peers
his lesson, Don mentioned, “I don’t know how to teach writing. I don’t have aclue. I’m not trained in that. But more of these types of activities come through, I’m learningmore.”Don also saw writing as collaborative. In brainstorming ideas, he mentioned that engineersshare their brainstorms and journaling as a team. Later on, in thinking about helping studentsimprove their writing, he suggested have students collaborate on one part of the draft andwork on redrafting individually. He also mentioned peer-editing as a way to help studentsimprove.Practices of WritingCompared to reading instruction, both teachers’ practices did not directly relate to theirperceptions of writing instruction. In the case of the first teacher, the writing activities
faculty and staff. Since students are usually more willing to share concerns with their peermentors, the peer mentors are an invaluable resource for determining student needs, and thefeedback allows the instructional team to adjust each semester accordingly to best serve students.Reflections on Teamwork Topics. In the course management system, students complete weeklyreadings and reflections on teamwork topics. Reflection is a critical component of learning fromexperience [18], and we believe that directed reflection helps students to abstract lessons fromtheir teamwork experiences. Most of the weekly lessons include a link to an outside reading;topics included collaborative writing tools, giving and receiving feedback, the value of diversityon
research results. The final project is a substantive draft of a manuscriptsubmission or other major writing product. Students typically begin submitting drafts of theirfinal project by mid-term.As with Course 1, assignments are submitted via BlackBoard so that the class can view,comment, and discuss the work of their peers. Drafts are generated with critical thinking prompts(analogous to those illustrated in Table 2 for Course 1). A given assignment is intended to resultin only a very few pages of writing; assignments are designed to accumulate, leading ultimatelyto the final term project. The textbook currently used for Course 2 is “Writing Science: How toWrite Papers that Get Cited and Proposals that Get Funded” [18]. We have found that this
difficulties are not inclusive to them and may be shared by native speakers ofsimilar academic backgrounds. One of us mentioned how he restricted his communications withhis peers and faculty due to his internal belief of the existence of a linguistic barrier.Language Language was the second inquiry subject that we examined. We agreed that language hasmainly influenced us in three ways: (1) Interpersonal Communications, (2) Reading and (3)Writing. While reflecting on our experiences, we identified challenges that were common to allof us. Here we share these challenges and describe different ways we have overcome them.Besides, we provide suggestions to support others experiencing these challenges based on howwe wished these challenges were
," ed, 2017.[2] L. A. Riley, P. Furth, and J. Zelmer, "Assessing our engineering alumni: Determinants of success in the workplace," in 2000 ASEE/Gulf-Southwest Section Annual Conference, 2000.[3] ABET, "Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs, 2019-2020," ed, 2019.[4] K. Cho and C. D. Schunn, "Scaffolded writing and rewriting in the discipline: A web- based reciprocal peer review system," Computers & Education, vol. 48, pp. 409-426, 4// 2007.[5] N. Artemeva, S. Logie, and J. St‐Martin, "From page to stage: How theories of genre and situated learning help introduce engineering students to discipline‐specific communication," Technical Communication Quarterly, vol. 8, pp. 301-316, 1999/06
subgoal label tasks that isrepresentative of the topics that are commonly taught in introductory courses. Throughexperience in teaching introductory programming along with reviewing several best-sellingtextbooks, we determined this list to be: Assignment Selection Repetition (both definite and indefinite) Procedure / method writing and invocation (parameter passing) Object usage and class implementation (for object-oriented courses) Array processingNext, we used the Task Analysis by Problem Solving (TAPS) protocol developed byCatrambone to identify the subgoals of the procedures [12]. Figure 1 lists the subgoal labels thatwere developed. Following identification, worked examples and practice
course design and/or revision.2) The instructor completes a self-assessment and writes a brief, reflective narrative explaining their rationale for the practices implemented in their course.3) The evaluator and instructor schedule at least one classroom observation.4) The instructor provides the evaluator with the narrative and access to their course materials at least two weeks prior to the classroom observation. The instructor may request a meeting with the evaluator to provide additional explanation prior to any classroom observation.5) The evaluator assesses the provided materials and classroom instruction using the Peer Evaluation Guide.6) The evaluator meets with the instructor to provide informal feedback, taking the opportunity
benefits of dedicated technical communication training for chemical engineers as abasis for better understanding TC training as a whole.BackgroundAs mentioned, this need to educate engineering students in the written, oral, and interpersonalcommunication skills necessary for career success is manifested differently across manyengineering departments [2]. While some programs provide communication training distributedacross many courses (such as writing or speaking assignments in core technical courses), othershave developed specific Technical Communications (TC) courses targeted for engineers.Dedicated TC courses are at times coupled closely with either a technical course or a capstonedesign course. Other dedicated TC courses in engineering
University Innovation Fellows organization (now part of the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, a.k.a. the d.school).Mrs. Catherine Rose Bates, Institute for STEM & Diversity Initiatives Catherine Bates received a bachelor’s degree in Women’s Studies and Creative Writing from Florida State University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with an emphasis in fiction from Arizona State University. She serves as the Program Director for the NIH Southwest Bridges to Baccalaureate program and the Program Coordinator for the NSF Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program. In her current role at the Institute for STEM & Diversity Initiatives, Catherine is dedicated to expanding re
) .Project-based Learning as a Vehicle for Social Responsibility and Social Justice in Engineering Education.Silvia de Freitas, C. C., Beyer, Z. J., Al Yagoub, H. A., & DeBoer, J. (2018). Fostering Engineering Thinking in a Democratic Learning Space: A Classroom Application Pilot Study in the Azraq Refugee Camp, Jordan.Smith, J. M., & Lucena, J. C. (2018). Social Responsibility in Engineering Education and Practice: Alignments, Mismatches, and Future Directions.Svihla, V., Hubka, C. A, & Chi, E. (2018). Peer Review and Reflection in Engineering Labs: Writing to Learn and Learning to Write.Tang, X. (2018). From 'Empathic Design' to 'Empathic Engineering': Toward a Genealogy of Empathy in Engineering
specificdifferences are not possible in this course. Cases will be developed about topics that are ofinterest for the different students. This will be done in collaboration with teachers fromstudents’ major departments to increase the chance to success. The real-life cases will involvereal stakeholders that are considered experts by the students and will bridge the gap betweenthe technical content they are interested in and the historical and ethical aspects. Onlinetutorials on reading and writing will be provided to assist students’ academic skills. Afeedback platform will be used to facilitate peer and teacher feedback. More time duringtutorials will be given for individual feedback for each team. Finally, students will have thepossibility to form their
working). These peer comments and thenumerical peer feedback grade are used along with reported hours as part of the instructorevaluation grade described below.Instructor Evaluations. In aerospace senior design classes, 20% of the grade comes from"Individual Participation", which consists of two instructor evaluations each semester along withattendance, in-class exercises, and individual writing assignments. As stated in the syllabus, "Theinstructor evaluation considers time card data, input from staff members, faculty and industryadvisors, feedback from student leaders and peers, and the subjective assessment of the courseinstructor." To come up with a grade, first the instructor develops a formula using a weightedcombination of hours worked
presented the need for an implemented hardware variant of securealgorithms with small footprint to help add protection while reducing processing time/overheadon a standard processor.In this work we present two hands-on projects that are designed specifically to teach these twoconcepts using project-based learning techniques in an innovative cooperative learningenvironment. The learning environment served to combine both student-peer learning and jigsawstrategies.The technical contents of the first project teach students the process and methodologies ofdesigning and testing the hardware implementation of a block cipher encryption, the AdvancedEncryption Standard, on a field-programmable gate array. The second project builds on the firstby
a PhD in Computer Science from SUNY, with particular emphasis on Data Mining and Big data analytics. He is an author or co-author of over 25 peer reviewed journal and conference publications and co-authored a textbook – ”Essential As- pects of Physical Design and Implementation of Relational Databases.” He has four patents in the area of Search Engine research. He is also a recipient of the Math Olympiad Award, and is currently serving as Chair Elect of the ASEE (American Society of Engineering Education) Mid-Atlantic Conference. He also serves as an NSF (National Science Foundation) panelist.Prof. Karen Goodlad, New York City College of Technology, CUNY Karen Goodlad is an Assistant Professor specializing in
that feature some of the components ofElizabeth’s self-designed activity. We might ask how a reflection activity in the classroom caninvoke the metacognitive processes that Elizabeth made sense of when reading, writing, andcrafting her blog. Next, we offer a second engagement with reflection that Elizabeth shared inher interview where she attempted to ask her friends reflective questions.Engagement 2: Sharing reflection with peers.When we prompted Elizabeth to think about who asks her to engage in reflection, she respondedwith, “I don’t think anyone directly asks. I usually bring it up in all of my conversations.” Shewent on to share a second engagement she had had with reflection where she attempted toprompt reflection with her peer group
Experiences (FYE - some colleges and universities have a course called first-year experiences or seminars to better prepare students that are currently struggling with motivation to succeed in academic environments) 2. Common Intellectual Experiences (CIE - two or more courses that build upon same background and advance in concepts and difficulty in a given field) 3. Learning Communities (LC - students form groups to study and work on problems or projects together) 4. Writing-Intensive Courses (WIC) 5. Collaborative Assignments and Projects (CA) 6. Science as Science Is Done; Undergraduate Research (UR) 7. Diversity/Global Learning (DGL) 8. Service Learning, Community-Based Learning (SL) 9. Internships (intern
skills for our first-year engineering students. Although this skill can betaught and assessed, the results of past surveys show that engineering students are inadequatelyequipped to meet this need.This need is addressed by teaching and assessing the three pillars of engineering communication:written, oral and graphical through a series of lectures, activities and group assignments. Forinstance, a series of biweekly group assignments, designed to assess and improve the three pillarsof engineering communication are woven into the project-based curriculum, culminating with afinal project exhibition and written reflection. These assignments, not only assess thepresentation, graphical communication and writing skills of the teams but also their
in which guest lecturers (faculty) presented their research. We modified the course to(1) inspire students by focusing on grand challenges [3-4], (2) engage students in their learning,(3) engage upper-level students as mentors in the process, and (4) facilitate early development ofscientific writing and presentation skills. In the modified course, students work in CATMEcreated teams, guided by mentors and instructors, to investigate how each of the fivebioengineering tracks (referred to as “approaches”) may be used to investigate the grandchallenge.Course Design and OfferingsThe goal of the Introduction to Bioengineering course is to introduce freshman students to thebreadth of bioengineering, allowing each student to gain knowledge of the
Figure 4: Overview of the Double-Blind Peer Review Process.single paragraph regarding at least five technical points that they learned through completing thecapstone report.3.3 Double-Blind Peer Review Process In order to implement a double-blind peer review process, we implement an LMS quiz. In order toincrease the effectiveness and learning aspect of the double-blind peer review process, GTA and facultyinstructor review the final capstone report submissions. Furthermore, GTA and faculty instructor selectthe top 10 high quality capstone paper submissions according to certain criteria, such as formatting ofthe capstone report, quality of writing, quality of figures, and quality of the analysis provided. Afterreviewing the capstone report
writing work (with “Katie” again doing more of this than theother names). These results suggest that participants used assumptions about teammatedemographic information as they made decisions regarding task division, at least regarding whowould do managerial and writing work.IntroductionGroup-based learning is a common aspect of undergraduate engineering curricula, and is acritical part of both first-year introductory engineering courses and senior-level capstone designcourses at many institutions across the country and around the world. Engineering educationresearch based on these courses has provided a solid understanding of the manner by whichstudent teams often allocate tasks and the manner by which gender and race influences thesedecisions
capture any change in their most 18 minutes Belbin test preferred/manageable/least preferred roles after the learning sessions and the activity Coursework: N/A Reflective Final course assessment: To capture their 15 days Self-reflection writing (up to leadership journey through the course. 15 pages) Post-coursework 2 6 Peer review: to capture peer feedback and 10 minutes peer feedback the ability to give constructive feedback. Post-coursework N/A
, to support the needs of our engineering students.Fig. 8. GRIC Library services supporting the research lifecycle.Since communication skills in English are fundamental to succeed in STEM fields, especially forEnglish as Second Language students, the GRIC has also integrated peer-to-peer support with ateam of Graduate Writing Facilitators (GWF). The GWF’s are a team of three graduate studentswith diverse multidisciplinary backgrounds (Engineering, Science, and English), trained to offeracademic services in oral and written communication in English to meet the needs of all ourgraduate programs. Through writing clinics (e.g., English grammar and style, tone and audience,visual design, transition and clarity, and oral presentations in general
curriculum design and pilot efforts of a short module in theintroductory bioengineering course [4-5].Course OverviewThe introductory bioengineering course aims to provide broad exposure to several areas ofresearch in bioengineering such as cancer diagnostics, medical device development, regenerativemedicine, global health, and synthetic biology. The course emphasizes critical reading ofscientific literature and technical writing, and broadly covers the engineering design process,creative problem-solving techniques, engineering ethics, social constraints, and other designprinciples.The first offering of the honors section was a 2-credit add-on to the introductory bioengineeringcourse. The honors section was comprised of 12 students who were
thatthey worked with, they were taken to a question which asked themto describe how they worked with that student. Next, students wereasked if and how they used teaching assistants and courseinstructors as resources. Students were then asked to select whichresources they used from a multiple-selection list with an “other”option that allowed students to write in a response. Options Figure 1: Basic Peer Network showing connections between students created using data from survey Version 1.were created by the researchers based upon their perception ofavailable resources for the course. The concluding questionasked students to rate the difficulty of the homework