ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has caused global changes in the way of teaching and learning. The new forms of teaching how to write papers to Engineering students that began in 2020 may become a new pedagogical alternative. The literature had already shown the advantages of using technology for teaching, highlighting the possibilities of collaboration, and to give students a leading role in the development of their learning process. The article shows the experience of teaching writing conference papers to Engineering students under a virtual environment. The study was experimental with 54 students in two groups: Control Group and Experimental Group. The students were evaluated through an instrument that considered three dimensions: planning, writing and reviewing. Results demonstrated that it is possible to develop technical writing skills in Engineering students in a virtual environment. © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
This paper summarizes the overall approach and assessment of a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates Site focused on sustainable civil and environmental infrastructure in rural areas. This site has hosted over 60 students over 5 years, including 1 year of virtual participation due to travel restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Detailed discussion and results are provided with respect to the recruitment approach, including particular attention to first-generation college students, and the potential negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on first-generation applicants. This site also incorporates targeted instruction on technical writing, which occurs over several weeks throughout the first half of the summer and culminates with a final conference paper deliverable. This approach has yielded over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, conference papers, or national conference presentations, which have been co-authored by the undergraduate student participants. External evaluation of this site has included both formative and summative assessments, including pre-program, mid-program, and post-program surveys and focus groups, which has enabled a successful continuous improvement cycle, in which cohort-building activities, technical writing deliverables, and mentor training have been gradually incorporated or enhanced. Results of this assessment have also been used to quantify the site's success with respect to student exposure and interest in research and graduate education. In addition to most participants persisting in STEM fields, many have gone on to pursue graduate school in civil and environmental engineering and win national fellowships. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022
ABSTRACT
Purpose This study aims to investigate students' satisfaction, self-efficacy and perceived competencies in a 'technical writing and communication skills' course after the switch of teaching the course from face to face to fully online during and after COVID-19. The study also measured the Achievement of Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology course learning outcomes (CLOs). Design/methodology/approach A descriptive cross-sectional survey design approach was adopted in this study. Students were asked to respond to an online survey after completion of the course to measure the target parameters. The data of 250 respondents, analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics 28, show high scores on all constructs. Findings Statistically significant differences among gender, field of study, grade point average (GPA) level, type of school attended and attainment of English proficiency certificate were detected for students in terms of their baseline perceived competencies, achievement of CLOs and self-efficacy scores. In addition, gender, field of study, GPA and holding an international English proficiency certificate had statistically significant effect, whereas the academic level and type of school were insignificant. Research limitations/implications First, the data had been collected through survey only. A limitation of this method is that there could be survey fraud. Second, as some respondents found the survey long, their responses might have been less reliable. Moreover, as the survey was entirely conducted online, this may have caused limited sampling, because some respondents are less likely to have internet access/disconnection and respond to online surveys. Furthermore, this research had focused on studying the impact of an online course on university students' achievement in a Jordanian university, this limits the generalizability of the result to students of other levels and classes, or ones studying in other universities or living in different countries. Practical implications Because of its impact on effective teaching and achievement, educators need to pay much attention to self-efficacy when designing new curricula for different environmental contexts. Furthermore, it is apparent that some courses, such as "technical writing" can be taught fully online without affecting students' performance and achievement. Because educators always look for ways that make teaching effective, they may need to consider online platforms for teaching specific courses, hence save time, effort and resources. Originality/value A course on technical writing and communication skills offered to undergraduate engineering and information technology students at Princess Sumaya University for Technology was switched from face to face to fully online modality during the COVID-19 pandemic in the period 2020-2021. The effect of such massive and sudden transformation on students' achievement and satisfaction called for immediate scrutiny of the prospect and expectancy of online learning.
ABSTRACT
Students have needed to communicate professionally in various contexts this past year, just as students have always needed to do. They still prepared pre-doctoral proposals, s for online conferences, research articles, theses, dissertations, etc. We say still because it is important to remember that while COVID 19 placed the world in quarantine, professionally, those who could, tried to keep moving ahead. And yet, effective written communication has long been established as a creature that creates loneliness and anxiety [1]. Even before COVID, countless workshops and writing retreats had been offered around the world for graduate students [2]. This difficulty, both before and during COVID, is the reason we attempted to support young academic writers and students struggling with the monolith task of academic and scientific writing. © 2021 IEEE.