their ideas informally with their peers--rather than just asking a few students toshare examples in class--each student had the opportunity to develop ideas before submitting amore formalized version to me. This additional writing option provided students with practicecommunicating their ideas and resulted in clearer, more complete memos.In transforming a face-to-face course to a hybrid course, the central challenge is determiningwhich activities are better suited for the LMS vs. the classroom. In the hybrid version of my[Prof. Livingston] course the graded course projects remained the same, but many of theactivities that would take place during class time were moved to the LMS and a portion of thegrade allocated for successful completion of
concepts. In addition,students’ formal reports are peer reviewed and student teams are required to meet with thewriting instructor to receive detailed feedback on the team formal report. Finally, students reviewtheir videotaped presentations from the Fall semester and are required to meet for a rehearsalsession with the oral communication instructor prior to delivering their oral proposal in class.In summary, chemical engineering students receive intensive communication instruction duringtheir two semester senior projects lab sequence. They write a variety of documents, bothindividually and as a team, and practice their informative and persuasive speaking bothindividually and as a team. It is hoped that this intensive instruction will prepare
deal of debugging. Gragson tells arepresentative story of a chemistry laboratory class that was modified in an effort to promotegeneral improvement in student writing skills by offering extended instruction on report writingand better writing feedback on graded reports.9 To meet these goals, the number of projectreports was reduced from 10 to 4, and the instructors created from scratch a writing manual foruse in the course. An elaborate peer-review process was also implemented, along with a systemfor assuring that students actually performed their peer-reviewing tasks. This paper judgesstudent performance to be satisfactory, but large questions remain open; student retention of thewriting lessons was not assessed in subsequent classes or in
their future professional lives. The ways in whichstudents attended to these dimensions of communication varied greatly between students.Introduction Strong communication skills can really make an engineer stand out among their peers, especially since engineers are known for their expertise and creativity, but lack of communication skills. Engineers that can communicate well are better collaborators, and often get more opportunities to shine, since they are usually the team member that presents work.The above quote, taken from a student portfolio, shows a recognition of the empowering natureof effective communication.In this paper we report on an exploratory study aimed at discovering the ways in whichengineering
Beaumont 9 and Reinhold 8 . Page 25.1430.2Tonkin 11 suggests that the use of wikis in education should fall into one of these four categories: 1. Single-user. This allows individual students to write and edit their own thoughts. 2. Lab book. This enables students to peer review notes kept online by adding, for example, comments or annotations to existing lecture notes or seminar discussions. 3. Collaborative writing. This can be used by a team for joint research such as a group project, essay or presentation. 4. Creating a topical knowledge repository for a module cohort. Through collaborative entries, students create
included complaints about having to “know” toomany equations, the existence of an apparent disconnect between theory and real worldexamples, and a textbook they do not enjoy using. We believe that focusing on how studentsunderstand their own work with the textbook addresses not only the last complaint, but also theother two, and to that end have modified our thermodynamics course structure with an emphasison reading activities and self-reflection.Now in class, students practice regular reflection through a short weekly assignment that we call“the reflection paragraph,” which supplements the regular problem solving homework. Studentsare instructed to write 200 words to explain what they have learned and to provide evidence ofthat learning. They are
capstone design and laboratorycourses. The course runs as a one-semester, stand-alone course (not coupled to a complementarytechnical or laboratory course) with assignments ranging from laboratory reports, design reports,resumes, cover letters, interviews, technical presentations, and project proposals tocommunication with lay audiences. This paper takes a case study approach to examine theevolution of the laboratory report assignment over the course of three semesters. We found thatincorporating additional authenticity into laboratory report writing assignment motivated studentengagement and learning. Midterm and final course evaluations are used as data to reflect on theeffectiveness of three iterations of the assignment:· Fall 2011: Common
course, itis also critical that students receive individual feedback to assess and improve theircommunication skills. Similar to most Senior Design courses, the VU course emphasizes teamperformance, and it has been determined that team assignments can mask communicationdeficiencies of individual students. This is especially prevalent in the area of technical writing Page 22.1135.4where the faculty advisor may not know the author of each paper section. Therefore, it isimportant to provide communication feedback to both teams and individuals.Multiple techniques are used to improve the consistency of faculty technical communicationfeedback. First
Kranov (2009) argues, this type of writing center support produces anenvironment where “students learn through interaction with faculty and peers to becomemembers of their disciplinary communities” that “mimics the adult learning communities thatthey are most likely to encounter after finishing their degrees and beginning their professionallives, thus fostering life-long learning skills” (Kranov, 2009).Scientific Writing Learning CommunitiesThe creation of “scientific writing learning communities” has been another pedagogical modelthat has been shown to be highly popular in addressing doctoral level academic and professionalwriting within engineering. Researchers and practitioners have recently argued that currentprogram designs aimed at
skills,both oral and written,[2, 4] and need to be fluent across platforms and in different contexts,including data representation and visual communication.[12]The movement towards more effective teaching of communication skills to engineers hasresulted in opportunity for collaboration with communication experts[9, 13] and the launching ofWriting Across the Curriculum (WAC) or Writing in the Disciplines (WID) programs.[10, 14,15] Interdisciplinary collaborations have occurred in many forms, including creation of stand-alone courses,[16] embedding of communication experts as consultants in engineeringcourses,[17] and training of student technical writing peer tutors to aid in courses.[18]In addition, student learning of communication skills is
, scaffolding the development of the research paper, and assigning some peer review.Yet, no instruction was given on how to effectively revise, resulting in nominal improvementbetween versions of many papers (based both on assessment and instructor perceptions). Ourwork suggests that Phys 280 contained, at least in an embryonic stage, writing learning goalsmore sophisticated than “to enable [a student] to improve [his or her] writing skills,” but thatthese learning goals had not been explicitly communicated to students or fully articulated ininstructional practice.The grading scheme used in Phys 280 before participation in WAE was based on point-deductions. Many sections were devoted to formatting specifications (e.g., -4 points for wrongheader format
Paper ID #12398Work in Progress: Implementation of Peer Review to Enhance Written andVisual Communication Learning in Bioengineering Capstone ReportsDr. Stephanie Pulford, Center for Engineering Learning and Teaching (CELT) Dr. Stephanie Pulford is an instructional consultant within University of Washington’s Center for Engi- neering Teaching & Learning, where she coordinates the Engineering Writing & Communication Devel- opment Program. Dr. Pulford’s professional background in engineering includes a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, an M.S. in Engineering Mechanics, and a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering as well as
Creating a Library Instruction Session for a Technical Writing Course Composed of Engineering and Non-Engineering Students Kevin P. Drees, Kiem-Dung Ta, and Helen Peeler Clements Oklahoma State UniversityAbstractThis paper provides a framework of ideas for librarians and technical writing instructorsinterested in developing library instruction programs to enhance students’ performance intechnical writing courses. A new library instruction program for ENGL 3323: Technical Writingaddresses a concern of engineering faculty that engineering students, the largest studentpopulation enrolled in this course, are not locating the high quality resources needed to round outthe
help from a peer, tutor, or the instructor. This last difference was significant, χ2 (1, N =100) = 5.71, p = 0.017.DiscussionWhile there is no denying the benefits of writing generally, our experience shows that, at least inthe context of our study, writing does not always translate to improved performance on standardengineering exams. In the first iteration of the writing prompt we used, students wrote out thecomputational steps of an engineering problem and then evaluated the correctness of theproblem. We believed that writing out the steps of the problem and evaluating its correctnesswould concretize both procedural and conceptual knowledge and lead students to greatermetacognitive apprehension of the concepts under consideration, as well
language in the learning process all place added emphasis on writing intoday’s engineering curricula. However, most instructors of engineering design believethemselves to be hard-pressed to incorporate additional writing assignments into courses alreadyfilled with content materials. Also, most engineering design instructors may not have either thetime or the expertise to provide commentary on student written work. Thus, the formativeassessment for these assignments, so critical to learning, doesn’t emerge, and the experience maydevolve into “busy work” in the eyes of the student. We report on early results from an NSF-funded1 study using Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) – a web-delivered, collaborative learningenvironment for writing assignments – in
AC 2009-247: USING WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES IN THE AUTOMOTIVEENGINEERING LANGUAGE CLASSROOM AS A TOOL TO IMPROVEWRITING SKILLS AND PREPARE UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS FOR THEINTERNATIONAL WORKPLACEAdrian Millward-Sadler, Joanneum University of Applied SciencesAnnette Casey, Joanneum University of Applied SciencesEmilia Bratschitsch, Joanneum University of Applied Sciences Page 14.1336.1© American Society for Engineering Education, 2009Web 2.0 Technologies in the Automotive Engineering Language Classroom as aTool to Improve Writing Skills and Prepare Undergraduate Students for theInternational WorkplaceAbstractIn times of multi-national engineering companies and international job
disciplinary content, or they can integrate the two in theevaluation process. One of the most critical and time-consuming elements of using writing in theclassroom is preparation by the instructor and for the students in sufficient detail such thatneither will be surprised at grading.Peer evaluation can also be incorporated. Once criteria are clear, students can become morefamiliar with those criteria and practice critical thinking skills by applying them to each other’s Page 24.1406.6work. In addition to helping students learn in multiple ways, peer critiques also provide studentswith feedback while also reducing instructor time spent dealing with
conceptual underpinnings of the subject. The study found thatthere were “positive correlations” between engaging in multi-modal writing tasks and end-of-unit performance.Other studies have also focused on revision as a potentially important component of students’metacognitive competence.9, 10, 11, 12 For example, in another study also involving students inChemistry, researchers had students embed a multi-modal writing task at the end of each unit, aswell as a unit assessment.9 These writing tasks differed depending upon the context of the courseand the particular instructor’s goals. But all of them had in common a “write, react, revise”component, forcing the student to revisit their writing task after input from a peer or instructor orboth. Although
units developed by the CE Writingproject [24], and a switch to individual submissions of all assignments. The decrease in number ofrequired report submissions allowed space for scaffolding and focused assignments, including self-and peer-review, to be added to the curriculum. Additionally, due to assignments being submittedindividually rather than collaboratively, the reduction in reports submitted maintains the TAsworkload. The language units developed by the CE Writing Project provide a framework for aprocess orientation to writing and impart a strong connection to professional civil engineers’writing [23]. Design of rubrics that are aligned with core concepts, course-specific training forTAs, and feedback from TAs were crucial in developing
withoutbecoming discouraged. Beyond reach at present (what students ZPD (what student can cannot do) do with assistance) Prior knowledgeFigure 1. Illustration of ZPDEngineering educators have studied engineering undergraduates’ lab report writing with moststudy results predominately focused on best practices for supporting lab report instruction inclassroom settings [7-14]. The best practices include tutoring support and automated feedback,peer evaluations, self-evaluations, and assessment standards, and a web-based writing supportsystem. Having said that, studies
8this lab applied to the overall research question at hand. Many examples of peer reviewedprofessional biomedical engineering society 1 page abstracts were provided to the students aspart of the introductory workshop on abstract writing. In addition, an abstract template wasprovided to assist the students in formatting and section descriptions. Refer to the Appendix toreview this abstract template. To remain consistent as possible with the evaluation of the writing of the students, abstractswere judged based on the rubric below. Upon evaluation, students were given assistance andsuggestions on areas which they could improve. The rubric also allowed students to self-evaluate efforts before submitting a completed assignment. The abstracts
AC 2007-2210: PRACTICAL ENGLISH: TEACHING TECHNICALCOMMUNICATION ABROAD BASED ON A PREEXISTING TECHNICALWRITING COURSE IN MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY'S BAGLEY COLLEGEOF ENGINEERINGAlexis Powe, Mississippi State University Alexis D. Powe is a technical writing instructor for the Mississippi State University Bagley College of Engineering’s Shackouls Technical Communication Program. She received her B.A. in English from Mississippi State University in 2002, graduating summa cum laude with a minor in history, and her M.A. in English from Louisiana State University in 2004. She is a member of the American Society for Engineering Education and the Modern Language Association. Address: P.O. Box
engineering laboratory courses. Dr. Kim and his collaborators attracted close to $1M research grants to study writing transfer of engineering undergraduates. For the technical research, he has a long-standing involvement in research concerned with manufacturing of advanced composite materials (CFRP/titanium stack, GFRP, nanocomposites, etc.) for automotive, marine, and aerospace applications. His recent research efforts have also included the fatigue behavior of manufactured products, with the focus of fatigue strength im- provement of aerospace, automotive, and rail structures. He has been the author or co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed papers in these areas.Dr. Matt Frye, Oregon Institute of Technology Matt Frye is
that require them to write extensively, whether that be in industry or graduateschool. Additionally, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) lists theability to communicate effectively an expected student outcome of accredited baccalaureateprograms. Because of insufficient writing requirements in undergraduate engineering curricula,however, many engineers are unprepared for the writing-demand necessary to convey their ownideas or understanding of ideas. More rigorous writing practices would not only improve effectivecommunication skills as undergraduate students pursue their education, it can also help studentsdevelop a deeper conceptual foundation of engineering topics. The writing pedagogy of interestfollows a
artificialhearts to rocket propulsion. Based upon these essays, student teams were formed aroundcommon interests, which set the general area of their papers. The selection of themes based uponstudents’ interests was aimed at increasing the students’ motivation to engage in the task, and theuse of teams was intended to provide a supportive environment for undertaking the self-directedlearning. The teams were charged with selecting a paper topic and writing a single term paperbased upon independent research. Three class periods were dedicated to this assignment: one forthe initial team meeting and selection of a topic, one for peer review and editing, and one forfinalizing their papers.Upon completion of the paper, the students were asked to reflect on
Session #3650 “Research, Report Writing, and Representation”: The Most Viable 3Rs for Critical Thinking and Effective Communication Skills in SMET Education. By Christopher C. Ibeh Director, PSU/NSF-REU Program Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS 66762ABSTRACTThe use of research for the development of critical thinking and effective communication skills isa current trend in science, mathematics, engineering and technology (SMET) education. Thistrend is epitomized by the National Science Foundation (NSF
Paper ID #38622Board 216: Areas of Improvement and Difficulty with Lab Report Writingin the Lower-Division Engineering Laboratory Courses across ThreeUniversitiesDr. Dave Kim, Washington State University, Vancouver Dr. Dave Kim is Professor and Mechanical Engineering Program Coordinator in the School of Engineer- ing and Computer Science at Washington State University Vancouver. His teaching and research have been in the areas of engineering materials, fracture mechanics, and manufacturing processes. In par- ticular, he has been very active in pedagogical research in the area of writing pedagogy in engineering laboratory
Session # here Integrated Programs and Cultural Literacies: Using Writing to Help Engineering Students Transition to the Cultural Literacies of College Sarah Duerden, Jeanne Garland, Christine Helfers, & Ronald Roedel Department of English/Department of Electrical Engineering Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287Abstract As educators who work with first-year students, we are all well aware of how difficultsome students find the transition to college, particularly first-year engineering students. Ofcourse, some students fail because they are ill prepared for the courses they are
among four-year higher education institutioncampuses and while there are an increasing number of graduate writing centers nation wide, theyare not legion. The research has generally shown that the writing center peer tutoring model isnot only cost-effective, but also effective in helping students increase their writtencommunication abilities and in fostering the life-long learning skill of seeking feedback fromothers for continual improvement.75, 76Most undergraduate writing centers face the problem of overcoming a wide-spreadmisconception that such centers primarily provide proofreading and editing services, which mostcategorically do not. Rather, their primary purpose is to help the student understand the writingtask, its parameters, and how
Paper ID #38620Investigating Engineering Laboratory Course Assignments and Assessmentsacross Four Institutions and a Case Study on Their Impact on Students’Lab Report WritingDr. Dave Kim, Washington State University-Vancouver Dr. Dave Kim is Professor and Mechanical Engineering Program Coordinator in the School of Engineer- ing and Computer Science at Washington State University Vancouver. His teaching and research have been in the areas of engineering materials, fracture mechanics, and manufacturing processes. In par- ticular, he has been very active in pedagogical research in the area of writing pedagogy in engineering