ECP Program Outcomes
The Engineering Communications Program began in order to provide MSE and ESM undergraduates with superior skills in professional communication, and this goal remains our primary focus. Specifically, students graduating from these departments should be able to
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Write prose that conforms to Standard Written American English.
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Write clearly, concisely, and coherently.
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Speak clearly and articulately in front of both large and small groups (e.g. appropriate tone, volume, speed).
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Demonstrate proficiency in the common forms ("genres") of engineering communication, such as business correspondence, poster sessions, laboratory reports, proposals (written and oral), progress reports (written and oral), at least one type of professional report (journal articles, recommendation reports, design reports, feasibility reports).
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Identify the explicit and implicit goals, needs and expectations of their audience in any communication situation.
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Identify their own explicit and implicit goals in any communication situation.
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Identify additional factors that bear on the communication situation.
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Identify the genre (e.g. recommendation report, feasibility study, proposal) and the medium (e.g. paper, electronic, oral) best suited to helping the audience and the author achieve their goals.
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Adapt the content, organization, language, tone, and medium of the appropriate genre to meet the demands of the specific communication situation at hand.
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Select the most effective means of visually representing engineering data/information based on the specific situation (audience, purposes, context).
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Design information to make it easily accessible for audiences (e.g. using meaningful headings, subheadings, lists, and related visual cues to make documents easy to skim; designing slides to help audiences easily follow presentations; providing tables of contents, lists of figures/tables, indexes).
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Locate and use resources to learn the communication practices/conventions of any culture, and adapt communication accordingly.
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Conduct effective meetings.
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Maintain effective project documentation.
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Develop documents and presentations collaboratively in a team environment.
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Provide effective feedback to colleagues based on oral or written presentations.
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Communicate ethically.
As it has expanded in recent years, however, the ECP helps students develop skills in communication, collaboration, professional ethics, awareness of contemporary issues, life-long learning, and understanding of the impact of engineering solutions. Through collaborations with the Virginia Tech e-Portfolio project, the first-year Engineering Education course sequence, and the NSF-funded curriculum reform project in Biological Systems Engineering, we are developing and validating comprehensive assessment rubrics for evaluating outcomes in each of these areas. As the results of our research are published, we will add those references to the bibliography.
Complete listing of individual course outcomes are available from the links below:
For details on evaluation rubrics currently in use, please contact Dr. Marie C. Paretti.