"Developing Curriculum for a Multi-Course Interdepartmental Learning Community to Promote Retention and Learning for Underprepared Engineering Students"
About the AuthorsRachel A. Milloy is a Ph.D. student in the Rhetoric and Professional Communication program at New Mexico State University where she teaches first-year writing and technical communication courses. She serves as a writing program assistant and as a co-writer for the English department’s first-year composition textbook, Paideia 14. Her research interests include online pedagogy, composition pedagogy, writing technologies, writing program administration, and student success. When not teaching, she enjoys reading, running, and spending time outdoors. Matthew Moberly is a doctoral student in Rhetoric and Professional Communication at New Mexico State University where he has taught first-year composition and technical communication. His current research interests include writing center administration, incorporating information literacy into first-year writing curriculum, and assessment in higher education. Outside of teaching and research, he enjoys cooking, watching reality television, and figuring out ways to design productive classroom activities based on the reality television he watches. Rebecca Powell is a Ph.D. student in Rhetoric and Professional Communication at New Mexico State University. She revised this article with a baby in her lap. When the baby is not in her lap, she teaches, writes, gardens, runs, and bikes. Her publications include chapters and articles on the intersections of literacy and place, expressivism pedagogy, discourses surrounding motherhood, online instructor identity, and teacher inquiry. Her research interests include writing-across-the-curriculum, literacy, place studies, and composition pedagogy. ContentsThe ILC: Interdisciplinary Collaboration The ILC: Interdisciplinary Collaboration (cont.) Collaborative Curriculum Design for Learner Independence Dependent Learners Become Active Participants Active Learners Gain Confidence Confident Learners Collaboratively Investigate Real World Issues Self-Directed Learners Take on Complex Tasks Formative and Summative Assessment: Gathering Stories and Numbers In Their Own Words: Assessment Outcomes |
Confident Learners Collaboratively Investigate Real World IssuesUnit 3: Writing as an Engineer Website Project So that students gain a broad understanding of what professionals do, the English 111 and SMET 101 learning objectives for Unit 3 include helping students prepare for the new requirements of engineering by exploring the nature of written communication in the profession. Like all units, this unit intends to help students improve writing, reading, and critical thinking skills. As mentioned, in Unit 2 students focused on identifying and analyzing a writer’s argument; Unit 3 builds on Unit 2 by asking students to use rhetorical skills to make an argument that ultimately answers the following question: “What does it mean to write as an engineer?” In the Unit 3 assignment, the Writing as an Engineer Website Project, we continue to emphasize the development of rhetorical skills because they play an important role in the new standards for engineering education as well as engineering professionals. As stated by the National Academy of Engineering in its discussion of the key attributes of contemporary engineers, “[An] increasing imperative for accountability will necessitate an ability to communicate convincingly and to shape the opinions and attitudes of other engineers and the public” (55). Unit 3 teaches students how rhetoric and communication work in various genres, such as a website, and for various audiences. To answer the question “What does it mean to write as an engineer?” students work collaboratively to conduct both library and primary research. In SMET 101, students are asked to interview an engineering professor. Students then use this interview as support for their hypertext argument in the Website Project. In their investigation of engineering written communication, students address the following topics: types of written documents engineers produce; time spent on written communication; persuasion strategies engineers use in writing; types of audiences engineers address; an engineer’s writing process; content, organization, format, and style of engineering documents; communication channels and strategies professional engineers use; strategies for accessing and searching engineering information; and questions of ethics in professional engineering writing. In addition to learning about how engineers communicate with others, students learn more about the engineering profession. One student explained, “One of the most influential experiences for me this semester was when I interviewed a real mechanical engineer for one of my assignments. I was able to ask questions about the profession and get feedback on any doubts that I had.” Seen here, the process of interviewing an engineering professor allowed this student to further explore what it means to be an engineer. Consequently, this assignment reaffirmed the student’s desire to major in engineering and revealed the value in the written communication engineers do. After students complete their interview and collect and analyze their research, they work with a partner to develop a website for a less knowledgeable audience about what it means to write as an engineer. This assignment challenges students in multiple ways by asking them to compose collaboratively with a peer, to make an argument about why writing matters, and to be self-directed learners capable of making rhetorical choices based on audience, purpose, genre, and context. During this unit of the semester, instructors “function as facilitators or co- or joint participants in the decision-making process as it pertains to [the student’s] learning” (Weimer 170). While the instructor provides recommendations for completing the assignment, students become more capable of communicating their goals and making decisions about how to achieve those goals. Perhaps most important, students write for their own professional communities and learn the features of successful engineering communication. The assignment scaffolding teaches students to examine their own writing process and evaluate its effectiveness, to understand the recursive nature of writing, and to practice the traits of engineering communication. |