WORK-IN-PROGRESS: An Interdisciplinary Model for Teaching Technical Communication in Multidisciplinary Capstone Courses

Bob Rhoads; Lynn Hall

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED) Technical Session 3
Tagged Division: Design in Engineering Education Division (DEED)
Page Count: 15
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--44405
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/44405
Download Count: 72

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Paper Authors

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Bob Rhoads The Ohio State University

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Bob Rhoads currently functions as the Multidisciplinary Capstone Program Director for the Department of Engineering Education at Ohio State University. He has a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio State University and Masters in Business Administration from Regis University. Prior to his involvement as the program director, he had over 11 years of experience in industry with roles that varied from process engineering to sales engineering to design engineering. He has also functioned as an engineering technology faculty for three years at Zane State College in Zanesville, Ohio, where he developed and taught courses that included CAD, solid modeling, statics, strength of materials, machine design, and statistical process control. As director of the Multidisciplinary Capstone Program, he brings his experience from over 15 years mentoring over 150 capstone design teams to the cooperative effort of translating the research findings into concrete recommendations for teaching engineering design. He is currently active in curriculum development and education research focused on capstone design and student-centered learning.

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Lynn Hall The Ohio State University

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Lynn Hall is a Senior Lecturer and the Director of Engineering Technical Communications in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. She received her Ph.D. in English from Miami University (Ohio). Her research interests include writing in the disciplines, technical communications, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

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Abstract

Technical communication skills are vital for engineering students to develop over the course of their academic careers. At The Ohio State University, technical communication is particularly emphasized in senior design capstone courses when students are preparing to enter their professional careers. Students have many opportunities to improve and practice their skills through project team meetings, presentations to a range of audiences and for varied purposes, written design documents and reports and status memos, all of which receive detailed feedback from their instructor. At Ohio State, the instructors of these courses are typically non-tenured track faculty with industry experience with limited formal training in technical communications. Noting the importance of these skills, the Multidisciplinary Design Capstone program implemented a co-teaching model, adding a technical communications faculty member to the instructional team with the goal of strengthening technical communications student outcomes and serving as a pilot for possible future iterations of the co-teaching model. This model involved review and revision of course materials (assignments, rubrics, and lecture materials) and integrated the technical communications faculty into class lectures and assignment grading. The integrated faculty created a research study to evaluate the impact of this model on students and their submitted work.

The research study is a multi-year curriculum study, beginning with the 2020-2021 academic year, involving this newly implemented model of co-teaching Multidisciplinary Design Capstone course sequence with an embedded faculty member from the department’s Engineering Technical Communications unit. This collaborative effort is meant as an innovative and proactive effort to provide students with additional instruction in technical/professional communication, alongside their capstone experience, while providing opportunities for students to iteratively practice and receive feedback on their communication skills throughout this two-semester capstone course sequence. The research study involves an evaluation of students’ perceptions of their technical communication as well as evaluating students’ submitted work.

Research consistently demonstrates that sustained, iterative practice in writing/communication skills strengthens not only the communication skills, but also students’ knowledge transfer and critical thinking skills. Further, we know there is industry demand for graduates with both technical and professional skills who can put those skills to immediate use in their careers. The participating faculty hypothesize that this co-teaching model will result in a strengthening of student writing/communication outcomes while also demonstrating the interdisciplinarity skillset students will require in their careers.

This work in progress paper will explore initial data collected from students regarding their perception of their progress in technical communication skills throughout the two-semester Multidisciplinary Design Capstone course sequence.

Citation
Format

Rhoads, B., & Hall, L. (2023, June), WORK-IN-PROGRESS: An Interdisciplinary Model for Teaching Technical Communication in Multidisciplinary Capstone Courses Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--44405

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Technical communication skills are vital for engineering students to develop over the course of their academic careers. At The Ohio State University, technical communication is particularly emphasized in senior design capstone courses when students are preparing to enter their professional careers.  Students have many opportunities to improve and practice their skills through project team meetings, presentations to a range of audiences and for varied purposes, written design documents and reports and status memos, all of which receive detailed feedback from their instructor.  At Ohio State, the instructors of these courses are typically non-tenured track faculty with industry experience with limited formal training in technical communications.  Noting the importance of these skills, the Multidisciplinary Design Capstone program implemented a co-teaching model, adding a technical communications faculty member to the instructional team with the goal of strengthening technical communications student outcomes and serving as a pilot for possible future iterations of the co-teaching model.  This model involved review and revision of course materials (assignments, rubrics, and lecture materials) and integrated the technical communications faculty into class lectures and assignment grading. The integrated faculty created a research study to evaluate the impact of this model on students and their submitted work.

The research study is a multi-year curriculum study, beginning with the 2020-2021 academic year, involving this newly implemented model of co-teaching Multidisciplinary Design Capstone course sequence with an embedded faculty member from the department’s Engineering Technical Communications unit. This collaborative effort is meant as an innovative and proactive effort to provide students with additional instruction in technical/professional communication, alongside their capstone experience, while providing opportunities for students to iteratively practice and receive feedback on their communication skills throughout this two-semester capstone course sequence. The research study involves an evaluation of students’ perceptions of their technical communication as well as evaluating students’ submitted work. 

Research consistently demonstrates that sustained, iterative practice in writing/communication skills strengthens not only the communication skills, but also students’ knowledge transfer and critical thinking skills. Further, we know there is industry demand for graduates with both technical and professional skills who can put those skills to immediate use in their careers. 
The participating faculty hypothesize that this co-teaching model will result in a strengthening of student writing/communication outcomes while also demonstrating the interdisciplinarity skillset students will require in their careers. 

This work in progress paper will explore initial data collected from students regarding their perception of their progress in technical communication skills throughout the two-semester Multidisciplinary Design Capstone course sequence.  


AU  - Bob Rhoads
AU  - Lynn Hall
CY  - Baltimore , Maryland
DA  - 2023/06/25
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - WORK-IN-PROGRESS: An Interdisciplinary Model for Teaching Technical Communication in Multidisciplinary Capstone Courses
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/44405
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--44405
ER  -