Communication Expectations to Industry Realities

Sarah A. Wilson; Renee Kaufmann

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: Postgraduate Pathways and Experiences
Tagged Division: Educational Research and Methods
Page Count: 14
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34305
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/34305
Download Count: 400

Paper Authors

biography

Sarah A. Wilson University of Kentucky

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Sarah Wilson is a lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Kentucky. She completed her bachelor’s degree at Rowan University in New Jersey before attending graduate school for her PhD at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA. Sarah conducted her thesis research on the production of the anti-cancer compound Paclitaxel (Taxol) through the use of plant cell cultures from the Taxus Yew Tree. Throughout her time at Rowan and UMass, she developed a passion for undergraduate education. This passion led her to pursue a career as a lecturer, where she could focus on training undergraduate chemical engineering students. She has been teaching at UK since 2015 and has taught Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Computational Tools and the Unit Operations Laboratory. She is especially interested in teaching scientific communication and integration of process safety into the chemical engineering curriculum.

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Renee Kaufmann University of Kentucky

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Abstract

While the development of communication skills is critical to a successful career in engineering teaching these skills continues to be one of the biggest challenges for engineering faculty. A recent survey of students completing engineering internships indicated that their most frequent forms of communication were informal conversations and discussions either with other engineers (i.e., both in and out of discipline) or non-engineers (i.e., both with and without technical degrees). Additionally, students indicated that their internship experiences were significantly more effective at preparing them for future communication than their college coursework. This is likely because a majority of communication in the classroom and communication practice is focused on formal lab reports and/or discussions targeted towards expert audiences (i.e., other students and faculty). Currently, those students who do not complete an industrial internship (or co-op) are graduating from their engineering programs with limited perspective and practice of the communication requirements necessary for a career in engineering. As a first step to understanding the gap in our curriculum, a survey was developed to investigate student perceptions of communication requirements. The survey asked students to indicate the expected frequency and importance of different communication audiences and types in their future career. To date, data have been collected from 178 incoming freshmen to understand their expectations for communication within their career. Freshmen were in their first semester of college, so they had little exposure to engineering experience or coursework. In parallel, data was collected from 55 post-graduate engineering employees to allow for comparison between students’ perceptions and the lived experiences of engineers in their careers. Overall, it was found that there were significant differences between student perceptions and the actual communication requirements of a career in industry. Student perceptions of importance of communication were better aligned with post-graduate data than expectations for frequency of communication. For non-technical audiences, frequency and importance of communication were underestimated, representing an important opportunity for faculty intervention through integration of non-technical communication skills into the curriculum. By integrating non-technical communication into the curriculum and discussing the prevalence of non-technical communication in industry, this will help to align student expectations with realities. To address the limitations of this study, data from engineering students at different stages of their college careers is being collected. Additionally, data collection is ongoing for post-graduate employees, which will allow for analysis of data by specific subgroups (undergraduate major, career experience, career sector, etc.). These data will again be compared to student perceptions to allow for identification of key opportunities for curriculum changes to help align student expectations with the lived experiences of practicing engineers.

Citation
Format

Wilson, S. A., & Kaufmann, R. (2020, June), Communication Expectations to Industry Realities Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34305

TY - CPAPER
AB - While the development of communication skills is critical to a successful career in engineering teaching these skills continues to be one of the biggest challenges for engineering faculty. A recent survey of students completing engineering internships indicated that their most frequent forms of communication were informal conversations and discussions either with other engineers (i.e., both in and out of discipline) or non-engineers (i.e., both with and without technical degrees). Additionally, students indicated that their internship experiences were significantly more effective at preparing them for future communication than their college coursework. This is likely because a majority of communication in the classroom and communication practice is focused on formal lab reports and/or discussions targeted towards expert audiences (i.e., other students and faculty). Currently, those students who do not complete an industrial internship (or co-op) are graduating from their engineering programs with limited perspective and practice of the communication requirements necessary for a career in engineering.

As a first step to understanding the gap in our curriculum, a survey was developed to investigate student perceptions of communication requirements. The survey asked students to indicate the expected frequency and importance of different communication audiences and types in their future career. To date, data have been collected from 178 incoming freshmen to understand their expectations for communication within their career. Freshmen were in their first semester of college, so they had little exposure to engineering experience or coursework. In parallel, data was collected from 55 post-graduate engineering employees to allow for comparison between students’ perceptions and the lived experiences of engineers in their careers. Overall, it was found that there were significant differences between student perceptions and the actual communication requirements of a career in industry. Student perceptions of importance of communication were better aligned with post-graduate data than expectations for frequency of communication. For non-technical audiences, frequency and importance of communication were underestimated, representing an important opportunity for faculty intervention through integration of non-technical communication skills into the curriculum. By integrating non-technical communication into the curriculum and discussing the prevalence of non-technical communication in industry, this will help to align student expectations with realities. To address the limitations of this study, data from engineering students at different stages of their college careers is being collected. Additionally, data collection is ongoing for post-graduate employees, which will allow for analysis of data by specific subgroups (undergraduate major, career experience, career sector, etc.). These data will again be compared to student perceptions to allow for identification of key opportunities for curriculum changes to help align student expectations with the lived experiences of practicing engineers.
AU - Sarah A. Wilson
AU - Renee Kaufmann
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Communication Expectations to Industry Realities
UR - https://peer.asee.org/34305
DO - 10.18260/1-2--34305
ER -