Board 121: Using Tutor-led Support to Enhance Engineering Student Writing for All
- Conference
- Location
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Baltimore , Maryland
- Publication Date
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June 25, 2023
- Start Date
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June 25, 2023
- End Date
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June 28, 2023
- Conference Session
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Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LIBED) Poster Session
- Tagged Division
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Liberal Education/Engineering & Society Division (LEES)
- Page Count
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18
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--42423
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/42423
- Download Count
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120
Paper Authors
Johanna Bodenhamer Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
Robert Weissbach
Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
orcid.org/0000-0002-0464-2460
Robert Weissbach is currently chair of the department of engineering technology at IUPUI. From 1998 - 2016 he was with Penn State Behrend as a faculty member in Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology. His research interests are in renewable energy, energy storage, and engineering education.
Ruth Camille Pflueger
Pennsylvania State University, Behrend College
orcid.org/0000-0003-1104-2006
Ruth Pflueger has been the director of the Learning Resource Center at Penn State Behrend for 20 years, where she is also an affiliate instructor of English. She has been involved in a number of federal grants, including two NSF STEM grants, an EU-Atlant
Corinne C. Renguette Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
Corinne Renguette, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Technical Communication, Chair of the Department of Technology Leadership and Communication, and Director of the Technical Communication Writing Center in the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI. She is co-coordinator of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion track of the Assessment Institute and her research focuses on inclusion in STEM education, communication in STEM education, user-centered design and user experience (UX), and the assessment of educational materials.
Brandon Sorge Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
Brandon Sorge is an Assistant Professor of STEM Education Research in the Department of Technology Leadership and Communication at the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI. His research interests include all aspects of STEM education, espe
Annwesa Dasgupta
Immanuel Edinbarough P.E. The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Immanuel A. Edinbarough received his B.Sc. (Applied Sciences) degree from PSG College of Technology, University of Madras, India, his B.E.. (M.E.) degree from the Institution of Engineers, India, M.E. (Production Engineering) degree from PSG College of Te
Abstract
Writing Assignment Tutor Training in STEM (WATTS) is part of a three-year NSF IUSE grant with participants at three institutions. This research project seeks to determine to what extent students in the WATTS project show greater writing improvement than students using writing tutors not trained in WATTS. The team collected baseline, control, and experimental data. Baseline data included reports written by engineering and engineering technology students with no intervention to determine if there were variations in written communication related to student demographics and institutions. Control data included reports written by students who visited tutors with no WATTS training, and experimental data included reports written by students who visited tutors who were WATTS-trained. Reports were evaluated by the research team using a slightly modified version of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Written Communication VALUE Rubric. Baseline data assessment also provided an opportunity to test the effectiveness of the rubric. This paper presents findings from the analysis of the control and experimental data to determine the impact of WATTS on student writing in lab reports. An aggregate score for each lab report was determined by averaging the reviewer scores. An analysis was run to determine if there was a statistical difference between pre-tutoring lab report scores from the baseline, control, and experimental rubric scores for each criterion and total scores; there was not a statistically significant difference. The research team ran a Wilcoxon signed-rank test to assess the relationship between control and experimental aggregate rubric scores for each criterion. The preliminary analysis of the control and experimental data shows that the WATTS intervention has a positive, statistically significant impact on written communication skills regardless of the campus student demographics. Since WATTS has been shown to be a low-cost, effective intervention to improve engineering and engineering technology students’ written communication skills at these participating campuses, it has potential use for other institutions to positively impact their students’ written communication. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Nos. 2013467, 2013496, and 2013541.
Bodenhamer, J., & Weissbach, R., & Pflueger, R. C., & Renguette, C. C., & Sorge, B., & Dasgupta, A., & Edinbarough, I. (2023, June), Board 121: Using Tutor-led Support to Enhance Engineering Student Writing for All Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42423
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