1. Viable and Sustainable Measures of Meeting Student Outcomes Related to Communication in Graduate Capstone Projects and Specialty Papers
- Author
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Gary Shimek and Subha Kumpaty
- Abstract
The Master of Science in Engineering program at Milwaukee School of Engineering has had its share of curriculum changes based on feedback from various stakeholders and annual assessment of the program leading to continuous improvement. One of the student outcomes is to have demonstrated an ability to integrate and analyze information in a chosen specialty in the form of scholarly work, either as an independent specialty paper or as an independent engineering project. And another outcome that follows is to have the ability to effectively present and communicate technical concepts, both orally and in writing. Even with all the engineering skills developed through discipline-specific coursework, these two outcomes were still quite a challenge to numerous students. While the program director takes measures to connect students with the appropriate advisor and even assists in technical content, the program needed and implemented the constant presence of a non-technical person as a member of the committee to improve communication of students through all stages of proposal writing, progress report and final report. We had tried one class of technical writing as a separate entity for students to take before they embarked on a capstone project, but the effectiveness varied as the principles had to be personally applied by the graduate student for the individual project. With the new approach, the student’s resources have grown, the project path has been made seamless, the effectiveness of working on the technical content and report writing in tandem right from the literature search and proposal development has resulted. The historic development of the current approach, including an overview of program educational objectives and student outcomes, is presented. The paper also showcases the results in terms of publications by the students who have grown in confidence in writing skills. This paper aims at enabling informed discussion for engineering graduate programs across the United States seeking to aid their students in this critical area of communication.
- Published
- 2022