Driving curriculum and technological change to support writing in the engineering disciplines

Written communication skills are essential for engineers in the workplace, yet developing these skills in undergraduate engineering continues to be an issue. Curriculum innovation can be increased through the use of online writing tools that are designed to support integration of written tasks in engineering courses, along with the appropriate leadership communication and integration in the faculty teaching culture. Moreover, research has shown that there is a need to incorporate writing activities to enhance both learning and communication. The overall aim of this project is to create an integration model in collaboration with leadership, learning support and academics at several Australian universities. The integration model is based on a risk communication framework, which will support the use of engineering-specific online writing tools and drive curriculum innovation in undergraduate engineering. To create this model data is being collected from academics and students on use of the online writing tools.