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Introduction to communication skills required by practicing professional engineers.
This course was developed to aid engineering students develop and improve their overall communication ability. The ability to write and speak clearly and concisely is an important factor in the effective communication of ideas. Professional engineers need to be able to communicate their concepts and research to a wide audience. Professional engineers might need to express their technical knowledge to conference audiences, co-workers, supervisors, clients, architects, designers, lawyers, councils, public forums, and lay persons. Having a high level of technical and mechanical skill is not enough to achieve success in the modern engineering environment. It is essential that ideas can be conveyed within and between industries and disciplines. Each error you leave in a draft report means extra time and money for your employer, and so attention to detail and proofreading are key skills you will need to develop now to be a valuable employee later. Effective communication can save time, money and even lives. It is with these aims in mind that students taking this course are asked to follow precise guidelines in preparing material for submission and to pay particular attention to fine details.
At the conclusion of this course you should be able to:- Apply the skills learnt from reading the CPG and attending tutorials to course work.- Apply skills learnt in ENCN201 to ENCN301 and beyond.- Improve on communication skills, with an emphasis on clear and concise writing.- Gain a better appreciation of the role of writing in the engineering profession.- Give effective oral presentations
This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:
Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award
Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.
Entry to first professional year of CNRE.
Tonny de Vries
Kim Parrent
For 1st Pro there are four assignments (all due 9am on the given dates unless otherwise stated):1. All assignments must be submitted and three of the four passed in 2017 before a student will be eligible to pass and move into 301 in 2018. All reports must have a signed coversheet. Reports without a signed coversheet will not be marked.2. All assignments must be submitted by the due date. Late submissions will not be accepted. If a student is unable to complete and submit an assignment by the deadline due to circumstances beyond their control they should discuss this with the lecturer involved as soon as possible. Note: An extension given for Portfolio submissions does not carry over into the supporting course. Extensions for those papers must be addressed to the lecturer for the core course.3. All submissions must be submitted to Learn, with a signed coversheet, in the appropriate drop boxes. No submissions will be accepted via email or on paper. To help in assessment, name the file: SubmissionType-Userid-FamilyName (e.g., Lab-mwm24-Milke).Reports not submitted correctly will not be marked.4. All reports must be submitted and passed for ENCN201 in 2017. If a report fails in the first submission students may resubmit in Term 3 and if this resubmission fails, students have a final chance to resubmit in October. The October resubmission is the last for 1st Pro, 2017. Students who do not submit a report for the first submission, without prior arrangement with the course co-ordinator, will fail 201. The October submissions are for resubmissions only.5. Students must meet Portfolio standard on three of the four items and attain an overall communications assessment of at least 5.5 out of 10 in order to pass ENCN201. For each required tutorial that a student misses, one point out of 10 will be deducted from their overall communications score. A student who otherwise might pass ENCN201 could fail because of missing the required tutorials. If in doubt whether a tutorial is required for all students (see Section 16), contact the senior tutor before the tutorials commence. If the tutorial session you have been assigned to conflicts with another compulsory course activity (labs, set tutorial or lecture) contact the senior tutor or course coordinator prior to the start date of the tutorial. If you fail to alert us to any issues regarding tutorial attendance prior to the tutorial, you will be recorded as absent.6. All students are required to use the Portfolio template for their reports. This template is provided on Learn. The template has been created in an attempt to minimise presentation errors and allow students to focus on their writing skills. Students will be asked to sign a declaration on the coversheet that states that they are using the template provided. Failure to do so could result in failure due to presentation issues, and incur a resubmission charge.7. All students must attend the reasoning report tutorial in Term 1. In this tutorial students will write a draft of their reasoning report and submit this onto Learn before leaving the tutorial. This draft must be at least three paragraphs long (no bullet points) and students will receive help with both content and Portfolio standards. Attendance will be taken. Further details will be available on Learn closer to the date of the tutorial. The final report must be submitted on or before the due date on Learn in the normal way.8. After the reasoning reports are marked, students will be assessed on their overall writing ability. Those who do not meet Portfolio standard in overall writing ability will be required to take the Academic Skills Centre (ASC) workshop held in Term 2. Sessions begin in the first week of Term 2. This workshop is run for us by the ASC for those who require additional help with grammar, punctuation, and basic writing skills. The aim is to provide help to students early in the year, so that they can do well in upcoming assignments. These workshops are compulsory for those students notified to attend. If you are notified that you must attend the workshops then failure to do so may result in a low overall communication score at the end of the year and a Fail for ENCN201. There is no fee for the workshops.9. Changes to due dates: Students will be notified prior to the submission date if due dates are changed. It is at times unavoidable that dates need to be changed due to conflicts with other courses, or the submission date is changed in one of the supporting courses. Changes will be posted on Learn in the Forums section and students notified via email. It is the student’s responsibility to check and read all course emails.
Upton, Creon; Communications Portfolio Guide ; Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, 2013 (Can be purchased from University Bookshop).
Required Text: The core text for ENCN 201 course is the Communications Portfolio Guide (CPG) (2nd edition can be purchased from the University Bookshop for approx. $30). Students are expected to read this text and adhere to its guidelines for all submissions.Other supplementary material can be found on Learn. It is the student’s responsibility to check Learn regularly for up-dated course material.
Resubmission DetailsStudents in ENCN201 have four compulsory items – three reports and one oral presentation (the oral presentation is part of the Eng. Materials paper and is also credited towards 201). Students must submit all of these items in order to have a chance at passing 201 in 2017. There are three chances to submit a report for 1st Pro. If a student fails a report in the first submission, they can resubmit via Learn as detailed below.All resubmissions should be submitted via Learn. There are resubmissions in Term 3 and in October.There is a fee of $50 for each resubmission: Students who resubmit must pay $50 to have their reports remarked. This fee is to cover the additional cost of remarking reports (remember this course has zero fees). The procedure for payment is set out below.All payments must be made in-person to Student Services on or before the date of their resubmission (see Sections 4 & 10), 5 pm. Students must then show their receipt of payment to Catherine O’Shaughnessy (Civil-Mechanical Eng. Level 4). Payment will be recorded. Failure to pay the resubmission fee will result in the final grade not being released for that report. Therefore, the report will remain as a ‘fail’.Students who fail their resubmission in October 2017, leading to less than a three out of four pass (and less than 5.5/10) will fail ENCN201 and need to attend and pass the catch-up programme in 2018. Those who only fail one resubmission but receive a pass for ENCN201, 2017, must resubmit that failed report in Term 1, 2018.
For further information see Civil and Natural Resources Engineering .