Re-designing a Technical Communications Course to Address Scaling Challenges
- Conference
- Location
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Portland, Oregon
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2024
- Start Date
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June 23, 2024
- End Date
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July 12, 2024
- Conference Session
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Civil Engineering Division (CIVIL) Technical Session - Professional Practice 2
- Tagged Division
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Civil Engineering Division (CIVIL)
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/47919
Paper Authors
Jennifer Retherford University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Dr. Retherford is an alumna of the University of Nebraska, Omaha, and received her graduate degrees from Vanderbilt University. She currently teaches a variety of courses supporting the department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of
Sarah Mobley
University of Tennessee at Knoxville
orcid.org/0000-0003-1180-3389
Sarah J. Mobley is a Lecturer in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Alaska, Anchorage, as well as a Master of Science in Geotechnical Engineering and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Structural Engineering from the University of South Florida, Tampa. Sarah is a registered professional engineer in the state of Alaska where she worked as a staff engineer for the Department of Natural Resources. She has been a faculty member at the University of Tennessee since the Fall of 2019 where she serves as a laboratory specialist in the fields of materials, geotech and structures. Sarah mentors students by serving as an advisor for the student chapter of the Society of Women Engineers.
Abstract
Technical communication courses are part of the core curriculum for many civil and environmental engineering programs, and scaling of these courses is both necessary and challenging. Technical communications courses focused on writing and speaking require a significant grading effort. Students entering these courses have widely varied knowledge bases, often are not confident in their writing abilities, and typically have negative opinions towards the need for professional communication skills. Personalized feedback for writing assignments is essential in the development of the student writers, but the open-ended nature of the assignments and the many variations of “correctness” in the written products compounds the grading process. Programs experiencing undergraduate population growth may recognize technical communications courses as less “scalable” than computational-based courses. The amount of effort to grade additional papers and presentations is noticeably greater than the additional capacity needed to grade engineering analysis and design styles of homework. At the University of Tennessee, the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering is restructuring their technical communications course to address current and future “scaling” concerns. The proposed method for course modifications adopts the ASCE ExCEEd Teaching Model strategies for new course design, recommends a team-teaching approach, and promotes traits comparable to a flipped classroom structure.
Retherford, J., & Mobley, S. (2024, June), Re-designing a Technical Communications Course to Address Scaling Challenges Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47919
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