Syllabus Review Assessment: Technical Contract Review

Tracey Carbonetto

Download Paper | Permalink

Conference: 2024 Fall ASEE Mid-Atlantic Section Conference
Location: Farmingdale State College, NY, New York
Publication Date: October 25, 2024
Start Date: October 25, 2024
End Date: November 5, 2024
Conference Session: Technical Sessions 4
Tagged Topics: Diversity and Professional Papers
Page Count: 8
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--49456
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/49456
Download Count: 18

Paper Authors

biography

Tracey Carbonetto Pennsylvania State University, Allentown

visit author page

Professional skills continue to be found lacking in early career engineers despite efforts to improve suggested and implemented by faculty, administration, and ABET. Utilizing the early career engineering population as a source of information and specifically, feedback on the ability to meet the professional skills expectations, engineering faculty can include suggested recommendations for improve professional skills development within the undergraduate engineering curriculum.

visit author page

Download Paper | Permalink

Abstract

Syllabus Review Assessment: Technical Contract Review Early career engineers are expected to perform technical contract reviews; many did not have any exposure to this type of task within the engineering undergraduate curriculum. Yet, engineering students recognize course syllabi represent bilateral contracts between the instructor and student (Ulmer, 2018). Instructors often build assignments around syllabus review to ensure students understand the contract's stipulations. “Students read the syllabus to determine the extent to which their expectations will be fulfilled in terms of content and to gauge whether they have the necessary resources and skills to acquire an adequate level of knowledge and competencies.” (Rubio & Llopis-Albert, 2022) A novel approach to deepening this understanding and explicitly expressing expectations while teaching the concepts of contract review incorporating the syllabus produced increased acknowledgment of aspects of the course including learning objectives and prerequisite knowledge. This increase was evidenced through a decrease in communication between students and instructors concerning misunderstanding surrounding the syllabus and in course evaluation comments directed at confusion in components of the syllabus. Further, technical contract review in the form of this assignment guided students in detail-oriented practices including compliance providing benefit to further academic progress and future engineering roles. Students acquired knowledge through assessment allowing them to associate terms of the syllabus to terms of a conventional contract such as observables, conditions, precise description, and formal representation. (Farmer & Hu, 2018). A scaffolded, self-reflective, and self-learned assessment directed students in a detailed review of the syllabus. The data from this study cannot be generalized in predicting success in an engineering course; however, previous studies show that students who have an increased understanding of course objectives and expectations have increased learning outcome success (Ulmer, 2018). The data from this study does indicate that utilization of a technical contract review framework for a syllabus review results in better understanding of the components of the course. The study was not intended to result in an improved syllabus; however, the syllabus review assignment may uncover lack of clarity to which the instructor could address.

References: Farmer, W., & Hu, Q. (2018). FCL: A formal language for writing contracts. Advances in intelligent systems and computing, 561. Rubio, F., & Llopis-Albert, C. (2022). Best practices in syllabus design and course planning applied to mechanical engineering subjects. Multidisciplinary Journal for Education, Social and Technological Sciences,9(2). Ulmer, J. M. (2018). Evolving characteristics of today’s applied engineering college-level educator: 2013 to 2017. The Journal of Technology Studies, 44(1), 28–40.

Citation
Format

Carbonetto, T. (2024, October), Syllabus Review Assessment: Technical Contract Review Paper presented at 2024 Fall ASEE Mid-Atlantic Section Conference, Farmingdale State College, NY, New York. 10.18260/1-2--49456

TY - CPAPER
AB - Syllabus Review Assessment: Technical Contract Review
Early career engineers are expected to perform technical contract reviews; many did not have any exposure to this type of task within the engineering undergraduate curriculum. Yet, engineering students recognize course syllabi represent bilateral contracts between the instructor and student (Ulmer, 2018). Instructors often build assignments around syllabus review to ensure students understand the contract&#39;s stipulations. “Students read the syllabus to determine the extent to which their expectations will be fulfilled in terms of content and to gauge whether they have the necessary resources and skills to acquire an adequate level of knowledge and competencies.” (Rubio &amp;amp; Llopis-Albert, 2022) A novel approach to deepening this understanding and explicitly expressing expectations while teaching the concepts of contract review incorporating the syllabus produced increased acknowledgment of aspects of the course including learning objectives and prerequisite knowledge. This increase was evidenced through a decrease in communication between students and instructors concerning misunderstanding surrounding the syllabus and in course evaluation comments directed at confusion in components of the syllabus. Further, technical contract review in the form of this assignment guided students in detail-oriented practices including compliance providing benefit to further academic progress and future engineering roles. Students acquired knowledge through assessment allowing them to associate terms of the syllabus to terms of a conventional contract such as observables, conditions, precise description, and formal representation. (Farmer &amp;amp; Hu, 2018). A scaffolded, self-reflective, and self-learned assessment directed students in a detailed review of the syllabus. The data from this study cannot be generalized in predicting success in an engineering course; however, previous studies show that students who have an increased understanding of course objectives and expectations have increased learning outcome success (Ulmer, 2018). The data from this study does indicate that utilization of a technical contract review framework for a syllabus review results in better understanding of the components of the course. The study was not intended to result in an improved syllabus; however, the syllabus review assignment may uncover lack of clarity to which the instructor could address.

References:
Farmer, W., &amp;amp; Hu, Q. (2018). FCL: A formal language for writing contracts. Advances in intelligent
systems and computing, 561.
Rubio, F., &amp;amp; Llopis-Albert, C. (2022). Best practices in syllabus design and course planning applied
to mechanical engineering subjects. Multidisciplinary Journal for Education, Social and Technological Sciences,9(2).
Ulmer, J. M. (2018). Evolving characteristics of today’s applied engineering college-level
educator: 2013 to 2017. The Journal of Technology Studies, 44(1), 28–40.

AU - Tracey Carbonetto
CY - Farmingdale State College, NY, New York
DA - 2024/10/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Syllabus Review Assessment: Technical Contract Review
UR - https://peer.asee.org/49456
DO - 10.18260/1-2--49456
ER -