Title :
Transformations in technical communication pedagogy: engineering, writing, and the ABET Engineering Criteria 2000
Author :
Williams, Julia M.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Humanities & Social Sci., Rose-Hulman Inst. of Technol., Terre Haute, IN, USA
Abstract :
Recent transformations in engineering education accreditation have shifted emphasis away from simple counting of required courses to a focus on the documentation of student learning outcomes. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology´s (ABET) Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC 2000) demands that engineering programs show evidence of eleven skills in their students. Only five of these skills relate to a student´s technical abilities. The remaining six define what have been called “soft” skills, and it is this shift in emphasis that will have a significant impact on technical communication programs and pedagogy. In essence, EC 2000 has redefined both who is responsible for developing students´ communication skills and for documenting evidence of student learning outcomes. Given the changes at the accreditation level, transformations within technical communication departments that serve engineering programs are inevitable. These changes offer problems as well as benefits for technical communication faculty
Keywords :
accreditation; educational courses; engineering education; technical presentation; ABET Engineering Criteria; accreditation; educational courses; engineering education; student communication skills; student learning outcomes; technical communication education; Accreditation; Design engineering; Documentation; Educational technology; Engineering education; Knowledge engineering; Mathematics; Professional communication; Teamwork; Writing;
Conference_Titel :
Professional Communication Conference, 2000. Proceedings of 2000 Joint IEEE International and 18th Annual Conference on Computer Documentation (IPCC/SIGDOC 2000)
Conference_Location :
Cambridge, MA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-6431-7
DOI :
10.1109/IPCC.2000.887263