Conference Session

'Diversity' and Inclusion? Pedagogy, Experiences, Language and Performative Action

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Kathryn A. Neeley, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

. --Oxford Mini Reference Dictionary and Thesaurus, p.172 The definitions above capture three important dimensions of the word “soft.” First, it isoften defined in the negative, as the absence or opposite of something. Second, it is vague in thesense that it means very different things in different contexts. Third, in most contexts, it isfundamentally disparaging. As a term used in engineering education, “soft skills” is filled withcontradictions and ambiguity. For example, the “hard” skills map easily onto recognizedacademic disciplines (mathematics, basic science, engineering), while the expertise thatconstitutes “soft” skills is difficult to locate in academic disciplines and departments. Still,whatever these “soft skills” are, they are

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Endeavors: Engineering and Liberal Arts

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katie Evans, Louisiana Tech University; Kirk St.Amant, Louisiana Tech University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Multidisciplinary Engineering

communication and management acumen (e.g., technicalwriting, technical presentations, and project management). Such an approach is essential topreparing future engineers for the workplace [1]. The challenge becomes providing studentswith effective exposure to both kinds of skills within engineering programs.Traditionally, the development of such skills has been a matter of content-specific courseworkintegrated into a school’s engineering program(s). (A classic example is the technical writingcourse often offer by English or communication departments and required of engineeringundergraduates.) As institutional resources shrink and student demand increases, the need tofind alternative methods for offering training in these “soft-skill” areas grows

Conference Session

Learning Outcomes and Pedagogical Strategies: Problems of Alignment

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Robert Graham, Johns Hopkins University; Tobin Porterfield, Towson University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

successful career in journalism and mar- keting, Graham launched Bigger Pie Strategies, a marketing company formed in 2010, and co-founded Serious Soft Skills, an education and training company, in 2017.Dr. Tobin Porterfield, Towson University Dr. Tobin Porterfield is an active business educator and researcher. While he has an extensive profes- sional career in supply chain management, in 2007 he earned his Ph.D. in Supply Chain Logistics from the R.H. Smith School at the University of Maryland. Since earning his Ph.D. he has focused on teaching and research. He has taught around the world and presented his research at regional, national, and global conferences. His work has been published in journals including Team

Conference Session

The Value of Interpersonal Skills Training in Engineering Education: An Interactive Panel Discussion with the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Futures Program

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katy Luchini-Colbry, Michigan State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

process. On the advice of the LEES program chairperson for 2016, I amre-submitting the abstract (below) along with this explanatory note. The Value of Interpersonal Skills Training in Engineering Education: An Interactive Panel Discussion with the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Futures ProgramFor more than two decades, the Engineering Futures Program of Tau Beta Pi (the EngineeringHonor Society) has provided engineering students with training in the “soft skills” necessary forsuccess in the workplace. Engineering Futures (EF) seminars cover interpersonalcommunications skills; team building and management techniques; creative problem solving;and effective presentation skills. The EF program won the 2007 Excellence in EngineeringEducation

Conference Session

Professional Development and Lifelong Learning

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Serhiy Kovalchuk, University of Toronto; Mona Ghali, University of Toronto; Mike Klassen, University of Toronto; Doug Reeve P.Eng., University of Toronto; Robin Sacks, University of Toronto

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

experience; that many of them value extra-curriculars, and that academic credentials alone cannot explain success or failure in the labor market[8]. The study found that those who were unemployed had less professional work experience andlower levels of engagement in extra-curriculars than those who were employed.Third, internships, cooperatives (henceforth co-ops), and extra-curriculars help to make a successfultransition. Students in Stiwne and Jungert’s study believed that soft skills were better learnedthrough industry placements and extra-curriculars than through academic studies [3]. Industryplacements helped them to gain insights into workplace practice and values and to understand thedifferences between university and the working life

Conference Session

Communication: From Pecha Kucha to Bullets

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Isabel Simões de Carvalho P.E., ISEL, Lisbon, Portugal; Christy Moore, University of Texas, Austin

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

and society’” as well as “globalization and the relatedinternationalization of enterprise.” As a result, one of the crucial challenges facingengineering educators is the need to train future engineers for careers in a multi-faceted,global community that faces enormous energy and environmental problems (NAE, 2005;2008).Unfortunately, as Carol Del Vitto (2008) points out “university engineering programsoften focus on ‘hard’ technical skills” in spite of the fact that “it is becoming increasinglyevident that in order to compete in a global environment” engineering students mustdevelop “soft skills” that will allow them to understand other cultures and respond to thedemands of the global workplace. Researchers such as Grandin (2006) and Camuti

Conference Session

Integrating Engineering & Liberal Education

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Dara R. Fisher, Harvard University; Aikaterini Bagiati, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Sanjay E. Sarma, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

Page 24.623.1 c American Society for Engineering Education, 2014 Fostering 21st Century Skills in Engineering Undergraduates through Co-Curricular InvolvementAbstractAs engineering institutions attempt to prepare their students for today’s global, cross-disciplinaryworkplace, incorporation of 21st century “soft” skills into classroom-based engineering educationhas become the practice of many colleges and universities in the United States and elsewhere.While this method may prove effective in many cases, this paper presents an alternativeapproach to fostering these skills in engineering education: student skill development through co-curricular involvement. For this analysis, we focus

Conference Session

Communication Across the Divisions II: Communication and Transdisciplinary Pedagogies

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeffrey J. Evans, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Amy S. Van Epps, Purdue University, West Lafayette; Michael Thomas Smith; Sorin Adam Matei, Purdue University Polytechnic Institute; Esteban Garcia

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Mechanical Engineering, Technological and Engineering Literacy/Philosophy of Engineering

A Transdisciplinary Approach for Developing Effective Communication Skills in a First Year STEM SeminarAbstractMany STEM graduates leave school academically prepared in their fields however business leaders havebeen stating that they often lack the more intangible qualities such as teamwork, critical thinking,communication skills, and the ability to manage interpersonal relations. These are often referred to as”soft skills”, yet they are tightly coupled with professional performance. Furthermore, they are allconnected to basic communication skills, commonly referred to as oral and written communication, andtheir close counterparts, listening and reading. Such skills are not only add-ons to a STEM job, they canmake the

Conference Session

Engineering Communication II: Curricular Practices, Integrations, and Collaborations

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Mary M. McCall, University of Detroit Mercy; Nassif E. Rayess, University of Detroit Mercy

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

strongertechnical communication skills. In the early 2000s, engineering professional societies reportedunderdeveloped writing and presentation skills in entry-level job candidates while, at the sametime, stressing the time spent in a typical engineer’s day on communication tasks [1, 2]. At thesame time, ABET adopted new criteria for evaluating and accrediting engineering programs [3].The criteria focused on developing “soft skills” including teamwork, ethics, and effectivecommunication, among others. The importance of soft skills has only grown in the interveningyears. Among ABET’s student outcomes as listed in 2019-2020 is “an ability to apply written,oral, and graphical communication in broadly-defined technical and non-technical environments;and an

Conference Session

Trends in Accreditation and Assessment

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Atsushi Akera, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

there may besome questions as to whether all of the relevant constituencies were consulted, the task force amassedthrough this process no less than 75 recommended additions to Criterion 3. Its analysis of evaluationoutcomes meanwhile suggested not only that the struggles over meeting the many outcomes—especiallythose associated with the so-called “soft skills”—were not only hindering innovation, but producinginconsistencies in evaluation outcomes. While the following is speculative, it seems plausible that it wasin recognizing the impossibility of incorporating the recommended additions to Criterion 3 that TF-3considered the radical alternative of reducing the number of learning outcomes, specifically to allowprograms to experiment with the

Conference Session

Communication Across the Divisions III: Writing as Social–Technical Integration

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vukica M. Jovanovic, Old Dominion University; Megan McKittrick, Old Dominion University; Pilar Pazos, Old Dominion University; Daniel Richards, Old Dominion University; Julia Romberger

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Computing & Information Technology, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

, many STEM students see writing aslargely unrelated to their career goals. Many students assume that their “writing career is nowover”5 once they move into courses in their major. Put another way, student perceptions of anengineer’s “community of practice” often do not include writing despite the common presence ofwriting in workplace “communities of practice.” Genre offers a productive way to approach thisdisconnect. Based on the Department of Labor’s definition of workforce readiness skills6, one of themost important “soft skills” is communication. This speaks to the need to resolve the disconnectbetween the perception of writing by students in upper-level undergraduate STEM courses and theskills required by them once they graduate

Conference Session

Integration of Liberal Education into Engineering

Collection

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Vassilios Tzouanas, University of Houston, Downtown; Lea Campbell, University of Houston, Downtown

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Ethics, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

both summativeand formative feedback to students are included.IntroductionAs evidenced by ABET-TAC Criterion 3e, an important soft skill for graduates to posses is theability to function effectively and to lead in teams. Graduates are finding that they are requiredto work within a team environment and to make contributions to the “bottom” line through theirteams as soon as they join the work force. In a 1997 survey of engineering graduates from amajor state university, teaming skills were considered extremely valuable with at least tworespondents indicating in their comments that it is not technical skills but soft skills such as theability to work effectively in teams and to communicate that differentiate those individuals whoare eventually

Conference Session

Critical Thinking, Leadership, and Creativity

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael L. Jones, Faculty of Information, University of Toronto

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

but positive effects on test results [2, 27] but strongpositive effects on development of professional skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork, interpersonal communication, and project management skills [15]. Given such “soft” skills are increasingly in demand by employers and accreditingagencies such as ABET[1], engineering schools have similarly warmed to an adaptedform for PBL for engineering education. Kolmos describes PBL in engineering asinvolving five key differentiating factors:Traditional Education Project-Based Learning1. Given a professional problem 1. Identify a professional project based on inclination, interest, experience or

Conference Session

Design and Making

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Marisa Exter, Purdue University; Iryna Ashby, Purdue University; Colin M. Gray, Purdue University; Denise McAllister Wilder NCIDQ, Purdue University; Terri S. Krause, Purdue University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

“in service of” technological disciplines rather than being equally valued in aprogram that aimed for true transdisciplinarity. Another potential reason for this reaction amongfaculty relates to concerns about how humanities skills and knowledge are gained and assessed.It was clear that concrete, technical skills could be gained in skill-targeted experiences that maybe chunked and assessed in multiple, relatively easy to define ways. In contrast, the developmentof soft skills requires ongoing exposure and acquisition across multiple course and non-courseexperiences,42 which may create a somewhat subconscious assumption that the focus should beon the STEM-courses, while humanities can be more on a “situational” learning level (e.g., 43

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division Poster Session

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kelly Ann Cave, Colorado State University; Zinta S. Byrne, Colorado State University; Thomas J. Siller, Colorado State University; Anthony A. Maciejewski, Colorado State University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

forengineering colleges to evaluate and continuously monitor the success of this approach. It is ourhope that other universities will continue to find new ways to integrate ABET professional skilldevelopment into engineering core curriculum and that they will consider our findings whendeveloping those methods. References[1] National Academy of Engineering, The engineer of 2020: Visions of engineering in the new century. Washington, DC: The National Academics Press, 2004.[2] D. Beard, D. Schwieger, and K. Surendran, “Integrating soft skills assessment through university, college, and programmatic efforts at an AACSB accredited institution,” Journal of Information Systems Education, vol

Conference Session

Programmatic Integration of Liberal Education

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Michael Oudshoorn, High Point University; Claire Lynne McCullough P.E., High Point University

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

and flavor of the institution. However, senior academic leadership rec-ognized that securing employment in a liberal arts discipline after graduation can be a challengeand that potential students and parents are looking for degrees in areas that will lead to long-term,secure employment. Furthermore, these potential students and parents want high-paying jobs postgraduation to provide a worthwhile return on their investment [2], [3] in terms of tuition dollarsand time spent earning the degree. There was no disagreement amongst faculty that a liberal artseducations is valuable and provides skills, particularly professional or soft skills, that employersare seeking [4].2.2 Accreditation RequirementsABET accreditation requirements for engineering

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

Technical Courses and Liberal Education

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Kenneth W. Van Treuren, Baylor University; William M. Jordan, Baylor University; Cynthia C. Fry, Baylor University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

views. They are less likely to trust the government, get involved, or even follow the news.Engineering and iGensWhile much has been published regarding iGens in general regarding their preparation andattitude toward college, there is very little available that isolates those students choosing to studyengineering or computer science.Industry tells us new hire engineering students lack the social and essential skills (sometimesreferred to as soft skills) to be successful [10]. Technology has become an impediment todeveloping interpersonal relationships and people skills. iGens would rather communicatethrough technology than in person, a frustration to industry managers, especially when thecommunication concerns conflict. A KRONOS Workforce

Conference Session

Communication as Performance

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Katherine Golder, British Columbia Institute of Technology; Darlene B. Webb, British Columbia Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

engineers and engineering students – had bought intothe stereotype. And if they had, would they assume this perceived lack of social skillswould carry over to their ability to give an oral presentation? Would the audiencemembers suspect the presenters of not having as much technical knowledge or skill astheir peers if they appeared to not fit the stereotype? Would they feel the presenters wereperhaps relying on “soft” skills to hide their lack of technical skills? The authors of this Page 26.571.5paper had heard this stereotype often enough that we felt it was worth investigating.A number of responses from audience members provide

Conference Session

Assessing Literacies in Engineering Education

Collection

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Christopher Leslie, New York University Tandon School of Engineering ; Lindsay Anderberg, New York University Tandon School of Engineering

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

learning outcomes thatwill persist beyond the classroom into the engineering workforce.Surveys of engineering faculty, students, graduates, and employers have sought to measure theimpact of Criterion 3: Student Outcomes.2 A 2006 study showed positive improvements since theadoption of Criterion 3, which enumerates some soft skills such as problem solving, teamwork,communication, and life-long learning. Engineering faculty were more likely to engage studentsin active learning, graduates rated their ability to apply engineering skills and to understandsocial context as higher, and employers ranked these skills as important.3 It would seem that, forABET at least, the goals of a liberal education and an engineering education are not so

Conference Session

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division Technical Session 9

Collection

2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alyson Grace Eggleston, The Citadel; Robert J. Rabb P.E., The Citadel

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

tostruggling to intermediate-performing students in particular, a result supported in other studies[7], [8]. Figure 2: Means of Incoming GPAs Among Course Sections. Figure 3: Means of Final Scores Among Course Sections.Conclusions and Future ResearchIndustry wants engineering graduates with the requisite technical and soft skills who add valueand have the ability to make a difference in the workplace. Industry values are furtherinstitutionalized through ABET [15] student outcomes, particularly (g): “[demonstrate] an abilityto communicate effectively,” and in the 2020 student outcomes (3): “an ability to communicateeffectively with a range of audiences.” Aligning academic programs with industry needs iscritical in

Conference Session

Communication Across the Divisions I: Communication in Engineering Disciplines

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David A. Saftner, University of Minnesota Duluth; Mary U. Christiansen; Adrian T. Hanson, University of Minnesota Duluth; Jill D. Jenson, University of Minnesota Duluth; Sara Ojard; Rebecca L. Teasley, University of Minnesota Duluth; Emily Woster, University of Minnesota Duluth

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

students improvetheir writing while still covering normal course content. Needless to say, students struggle withtrying to meet standards they have yet to be taught or had the opportunity to practice. The writingguide is meant to help alleviate this problem by offering consistent guidance for studentsbeginning at the freshman year and continuing throughout the degree program.Simply providing the students with the writing guide, however, will most likely not be enough todrastically improve their communication skills. Faculty must also demonstrate to students theimportance of developing these skills as they relate to a successful career in engineering.6 Socalled “soft skills” such as communication, teamwork, information seeking and

Conference Session

Relationships Between Skills and Knowledge Domains

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Zhen Zhao, Arizona State University; Samantha Ruth Brunhaver, Arizona State University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

encounter in the industry, and Nabi and Bagley[12] suggested that career advisors could do more to foster students’ appreciation for theimportance of communication skills in finding a job.Several studies have looked at both engineering students’ self-efficacy and perceptions ofimportance related to communication skills, albeit separately [6,9-10,12]. Direito et al. [9] andNabi and Bagley [12] asked engineering students and recent graduates to rate their proficiencyand perceived importance related to a variety of technical and professional skills. Itani and Srour[10] asked engineering students to report their ability of certain soft skills and their perceivedimportance on these skills to determine a career choice. All three studies noted a skills

Conference Session

Communication, Professional Development, and the Engineering Ambassador Network

Collection

2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Catherine Talbot; Michael Alley, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Melissa Marshall, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Christine Haas, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Sarah E Zappe, Pennsylvania State University, University Park; Joanna K. Garner, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

opportunity to create a presentation about Air Liquide’s internal social network - EA gave me the confidence to attempt such a task. Soon enough, word of my presentation made it to the Head Office in Paris, France. Because of this international exposure so early in my career, I quickly began to make a name for myself. Since last year I have been able to present before executives, meet with senior management from Paris, attend several exclusive meetings and receptions, manage the internal social network that I presented, and now work directly for the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the company. Without both the hard skills (presentation development, communication techniques, etc.) and soft skills

Conference Session

Sociotechnical Thinking II: Interpretation, Curricular Practices, and Structural Change

Collection

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Melissa C Kenny, Wake Forest University; Olga Pierrakos, Wake Forest University ; Monique O'Connell, Wake Forest University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

reports simply called for even more modernengineers.Figure 1: A visual depiction of new competencies needed by engineers upon review of theGrinter Report (1995) and the Vision of the Engineer of 2020 Reports (2004 and 2005).Even from an accreditation perspective, in 1997, ABET released Engineering Criteria 2000which made it clear that engineering education needed to include these global, societal,economic, and environmental mindsets in future engineers [4]. The incorporation of what arecommonly termed “soft skills” in engineering curriculum, including teamwork, communication,ethics, and social consciousness, were soon considered a necessity. Engineering coursework hadalready garnered a reputation as being content-heavy, so innovative and unique

Conference Session

Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: The Role of Engineering Education towards Attaining UN Sustainable Development Goals

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steven J. Burian, University of Utah; Mercedes Ward, University of Utah; Tariq Banuri, University of Utah; Sajjad Ahmad, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; Rasool Bux Mahar P.E., Mehran University, Pakistan; David Lawrence Stevenson, University of Utah; James A. VanDerslice, University of Utah; Kamran Ansari; Abdul Latif Qureshi

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering, Community Engagement Division, Liberal Education/Engineering & Society, Minorities in Engineering

 capacity building not only in terms of technical skills but also soft skills such as effective communication and management. Indeed, in order to achieve the SDGs, higher education must do more than train a high quality workforce; it must both prepare and inspire highly skilled individuals to be innovators—and most importantly, agents of change—in their  institutions  and  industries.  But  to  nourish  the  momentum  of  change  begun  through  its degree and research programs, higher education must be a catalyst for establishing a Community of  Practice by  stimulating  cooperation  among  academia,  business,  and  government,  including providing  opportunities  for  training  and  continuing  education  of  the  water  sector  and

Conference Session

Maps, Metaphors, Tweets, and Drafts

Collection

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sean Michael Ferguson, University of Virginia; Rider W. Foley, University of Virginia; John Kofi Eshirow Jr., University of Virginia; Catherine Claire Pollack, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

experiences in and outside of the class and the freedom tomake connections between subject-areas creates an opportunity for understanding meta-cognitivelearning. Analyzing concept maps by students over a time period can yield metrics on highercomplexity scores, more extensive hierarchies, and appreciation of concept linkages andfeedback loops [5]. For example, previous studies that compare post-course maps to pre-coursemaps show that students become knowledgeable about subjects they had little in the way ofexperience with before attending the course [7]. Course specific testing––e.g. topically1 For a better understanding of the use of “professional skills” rather than “soft skills” please see K. Neeley’s ASEEConference proceeding on the gendered and

Conference Session

Integrating Liberal Education and Engineering

Collection

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ravi T. Shankar, Florida Atlantic University; Diana Mitsova, Florida Atlantic University; Alka Sapat, Florida Atlantic University; David J. Terrell, Florida Atlantic University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

what-if case study-based curriculum): Hypothesis 1: Participation, identification, and development of multiple engineering and non-engineering solutions will help URM and women engineering students to enhance their engineering identity. This translates to: “The PFE skill score is significantly higher in the ‘studied’ group relative to the ‘non-studied’ group.” Hypothesis 2: Exploration of social issues will help improve sensitivity of engineering students to social issues. This translates to: “The T skills survey rank is significantly higher in the ‘studied’ group relative to the ‘non-studied’ group.” Hypothesis 3: Scaffolding of the engineering students will lead to significantly improved soft skills at the time of

Conference Session

Technical Courses and Liberal Education

Collection

2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Authors

Dianne Grayce Hendricks, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Liberal Education/Engineering & Society

professional skills. And althoughsome students recognize that effective communication skills are required for professionalsuccess, we observe that most engineering students enter our Introduction to TechnicalCommunication course with little understanding -- but a strong negative impression -- oftechnical communication. Many students think of technical communication as a “soft skill”rather than a technical or professional skill.Here, we describe our experience using short written reflection assignments to scaffold a majorpresentation assignment in an Introduction to Technical Communication course that is requiredby most majors in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. Our aim is tomake teaching presentation skills more manageable