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Scaling and Sustaining of a Liberal Arts Speaking Course That Targets Engineering Students
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This survey of 73 top-ranked U.S. and Canadian engineering schools examines initiatives that engineering schools are taking to improve communication instruction for their students. The survey reveals that 50% of the U.S. schools and 80% of the Canadian schools require a course in technical communication. About 33% of the schools utilize some form of integrated communication instruction, and another 33% offer elective courses in communication. Just 10 schools have created engineering communication centers to provide additional individualized coaching and feedback for their students. The most comprehensive preparation that engineering schools provide is a communication-across-the-curriculum approach that combines these instructional methods to offer concentrated instruction, continual practice, situated learning, and individualized feedback.
Communication skills are consistently one of the most valued skill sets sought by employers. Unfortunately, due to the technical nature inherent to the engineering discipline, and often the hobbies that accompany individuals within the profession, the development of communication skills is often overlooked. The ability of an engineer to effectively communicate in the workplace manifests itself in numerous ways. This may be in communicating research progress or objectives, effectively supporting your company's product or service to a client, or in client and peer training. With developed communication skills, engineers will see increased career opportunities and foster personal growth. A variety of means to improve your communication skills can be reached through a number of exciting opportunities that will pay dividends to both you and your employer.
In the last decade engineering education and industry have requested assistance from communication educators. Responding to increased attention on the changing expectations for practicing engineers and an attendant need for better communication skills, these teams of engineering and communication educators have been working to incorporate speaking and writing in engineering education. Despite a great deal of anecdotal evidence that communication is important to working engineers, relatively little data based information is available to help us understand better the specifics of how and why communication is important for these particular professionals. This paper reports the results of practicing engineers' descriptions of the importance of oral communication. These data suggest that engineering practice takes place in an intensely oral culture and while formal presentations are important to practicing engineers, daily work is characterized more by interpersonal and small group experiences. Communication skills such as translation, clarity, negotiation, and listening are vital.
Survey results reveal the impact of engineers' communication skills in adjusting to jobs and achieving career goals. A direct correlation emerges between the amount of technical communication (TC) instruction and career advancement. Former students then spell out recommendations for providing relevant TC instruction within the engineering curriculum.
When students graduate and enter the world of work, they must make the transition from an academic to a professional knowledge community. Kenneth Bruffee's model of the social construction of knowledge suggests that language and written communication play a critical role in the reacculturation process that enables successful movement from one knowledge community to another. We present the results of a national (mail) survey that examined the technical communications abilities, skills, and competencies of 1,673 aerospace engineering students, who represent an academic knowledge community. These results are examined within the context of the technical communications behaviors and practices reported by 2,355 aerospace engineers and scientists employed in government and industry, who represent a professional knowledge community that the students expect to join. Bruffee's claim of the importance of language and written communication in the successful transition from an academic to a professional knowledge community is supported by the responses from the two communities we surveyed. Implications are offered for facilitating the reacculturation process of students to entry-level engineering professionals.
In a national random sample of electrical engineers, respondents
answered questions relating to the adequacy of communication preparation
at their undergraduate institutions, and they provided recommendations
for curricular change to better prepare students for common
communication tasks in the work place. The results of this survey are
compared to observations made by engineers during in depth interviews
(see ibid., March 1995). In both studies, engineers report that
communication is a central activity that consumes fully half of the
working day. Based on both the survey and interview data, the authors
recommend adjusting curricula to include the practice of cooperative
problem-solving, to make evaluation of communication competence a
component of grades, and to require students to take both a technical
writing and public presentation course
Criteria for accrediting engineering programs. Baltimore, MD; ABET "an ability to apply written, oral, and graphical communication in broadly-defined technical and non-technical environments
Engineering Accreditation Commission (2019). Criteria for accrediting engineering
programs. Baltimore, MD; ABET "an ability to apply written, oral, and graphical
communication in broadly-defined technical and non-technical environments...
An Australian Study of the Importance of Communication for Engineers
- S A Male
Male, S.A. (2013). An Australian Study of the Importance of Communication for Engineers.
In Brandt, C. & Prescott, D. (Eds.), Agendas for 21st Century Engineers (pp. 64-84).
Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Educating the engineer of 2020: Adapting engineering education to the new century
National Academy of Engineering (2005). Educating the engineer of 2020: Adapting
engineering education to the new century. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences.
doi:10.17226/11338