WIP: Reflection to Promote Development of Presentation Skills in a Technical Communication Course

Dianne Grayce Hendricks

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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: Technical Courses and Liberal Education
Tagged Division: Liberal Education/Engineering & Society
Page Count: 14
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--35566
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/35566
Download Count: 1615

Paper Authors

biography

Dianne Grayce Hendricks University of Washington

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Dr. Dianne Hendricks is a Lecturer in the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering and the Director of the Engineering Communication Program at the University of Washington. She designs and teaches courses involving universal design, technical communication, ethics, and diversity, equity and inclusion. She co-founded HuskyADAPT (Accessible Design and Play Technology), where she mentors UW students in design for local needs experts with disabilities. She also leads STEM outreach activities for the UW community and local K-12 students involving toy adaptation for children with disabilities. Dianne holds a PhD in Genetics from Duke University, and BS in Molecular Biology and BA in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Abstract

Although effective communication skills are required for success in all engineering disciplines, many programs do not teach technical communication explicitly for a variety of reasons, including lack of instructor and student buy-in regarding the value of teaching professional skills. In this paper, we describe the classroom application of reflection to help students gain confidence and improve their performance in presentations. Our aim is to make teaching presentation skills more manageable for engineering educators by providing a transferable, easy-to-implement reflection activity that can be implemented in any engineering course that includes a presentation assignment.

Here, we document our experience using short written reflection assignments to scaffold a major presentation assignment in an introductory technical communication course that enrolls almost 300 undergraduate students per quarter and is required by most engineering majors at [institution name]. We observe that students experience several barriers to developing presentation skills, including (1) anxiety, (2) lack of effective tools for practice, (3) absence of opportunities to evaluate their own presentation skills, and (4) receiving feedback only after giving their presentation in class, when it is too late to affect their performance.

Two assignments in the introductory technical communication course require individual presentations: a low-stakes elevator pitch (worth <5% of final course grade) and a high-stakes 5-minute individual presentation on the ethics of an engineering solution of the student’s choice (worth >20% of final course grade). We scaffold the ethics presentation with a multi-part reflection activity: (1) Rehearsal. Students rehearse their presentation in a low-stakes environment. Students may record themselves practicing the presentation and/or do their presentation in front of someone who provides feedback. (2) First Reflection. Students reflect on this rehearsal to prepare for their in-class performance. Reflection prompts in the assignment ask the student to identify both positive and negative aspects of their rehearsal and to comment on whether they are incorporating something from their earlier, low-stakes assignment (elevator pitch). (3) Performance. Students give their in-class presentation, then reflect on how their rehearsal and first reflection affected their in-class performance. (4) Second Reflection. Students are asked to consider how their in-class performance was influenced by their first reflection (post-rehearsal), and identify how this experience will influence their approach for future presentations.

Instructor observations and student work indicate that students value this multi-part reflection activity. In the first reflection, students reported that they felt more prepared for their in-class performance after reflecting on their low-stakes rehearsal. In the second reflection, students indicated that reflecting on their rehearsal (first reflection) positively impacted their in-class performance.

In the full paper, we will provide data from end-of-course student evaluations, instructor observations, and excerpts of student work. In addition, we will include detailed descriptions of reflection activities, allowing instructors to try these activities in their own courses.

In conclusion, we used reflection to help students develop presentation skills in a technical communication course. We hope our approach serves as a model for other engineering educators, as our approach can be implemented in any course that includes student presentations.

Citation
Format

Hendricks, D. G. (2020, June), WIP: Reflection to Promote Development of Presentation Skills in a Technical Communication Course Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--35566

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Although effective communication skills are required for success in all engineering disciplines, many programs do not teach technical communication explicitly for a variety of reasons, including lack of instructor and student buy-in regarding the value of teaching professional skills. In this paper, we describe the classroom application of reflection to help students gain confidence and improve their performance in presentations. Our aim is to make teaching presentation skills more manageable for engineering educators by providing a transferable, easy-to-implement reflection activity that can be implemented in any engineering course that includes a presentation assignment.

Here, we document our experience using short written reflection assignments to scaffold a major presentation assignment in an introductory technical communication course that enrolls almost 300 undergraduate students per quarter and is required by most engineering majors at [institution name]. We observe that students experience several barriers to developing presentation skills, including (1) anxiety, (2) lack of effective tools for practice, (3) absence of opportunities to evaluate their own presentation skills, and (4) receiving feedback only after giving their presentation in class, when it is too late to affect their performance.  

Two assignments in the introductory technical communication course require individual presentations: a low-stakes elevator pitch (worth &amp;lt;5% of final course grade) and a high-stakes 5-minute individual presentation on the ethics of an engineering solution of the student’s choice (worth &amp;gt;20% of final course grade). We scaffold the ethics presentation with a multi-part reflection activity:
(1) Rehearsal. Students rehearse their presentation in a low-stakes environment. Students may record themselves practicing the presentation and/or do their presentation in front of someone who provides feedback. 
(2) First Reflection. Students reflect on this rehearsal to prepare for their in-class performance. Reflection prompts in the assignment ask the student to identify both positive and negative aspects of their rehearsal and to comment on whether they are incorporating something from their earlier, low-stakes assignment (elevator pitch).
(3) Performance. Students give their in-class presentation, then reflect on how their rehearsal and first reflection affected their in-class performance.
(4) Second Reflection. Students are asked to consider how their in-class performance was influenced by their first reflection (post-rehearsal), and identify how this experience will influence their approach for future presentations.

Instructor observations and student work indicate that students value this multi-part reflection activity. In the first reflection, students reported that they felt more prepared for their in-class performance after reflecting on their low-stakes rehearsal. In the second reflection, students indicated that reflecting on their rehearsal (first reflection) positively impacted their in-class performance. 

In the full paper, we will provide data from end-of-course student evaluations, instructor observations, and excerpts of student work. In addition, we will include detailed descriptions of reflection activities, allowing instructors to try these activities in their own courses. 

In conclusion, we used reflection to help students develop presentation skills in a technical communication course. We hope our approach serves as a model for other engineering educators, as our approach can be implemented in any course that includes student presentations. 



AU  - Dianne Grayce Hendricks
CY  - Virtual On line 
DA  - 2020/06/22
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - WIP: Reflection to Promote Development of Presentation Skills in a Technical Communication Course
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/35566
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--35566
ER  -