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Introduction to communication skills required by practicing professional engineers.
This course is very unlike your other courses. It is a programme that we use to ensure you have competency in engineering communication. Our objective is to ensure that you have a good level of communication skills and that you have demonstrated an ability to use independent study to improve your skills.Communications Portfolio 1 is a full-year programme and is the required prerequisite for ENCN301: Communications Portfolio 2. A student may not enrol late (i.e., outside of the UC start times for full- year courses) in ENCN201 without the approval of the Dean.All 2nd Year students are automatically enrolled in ENCN201 (Communications Portfolio 1). This is a compulsory degree requirement and a pre-requisite for ENCN301 (Communications Portfolio 2) and ENCN375, which are pre-requisites for several compulsory 4th year courses including the final year project. ENCN201 is a full year programme and cannot be completed within one semester. Repeating Students: Students retaking ENCN201 must complete the full year (i.e., a student retaking ENCN201 cannot pass mid-year and then enrol in ENCN301; final grades will be released only at the end of the year). Therefore, ENCN201 and ENCN301 cannot be completed in the same year.
Improve communication skills, with an emphasis on clear and concise writing. (UC Attributes: EIE2), WA10) Gain a better appreciation of the role of writing in the engineering profession. (UC EIE2) (WA10)Give effective oral presentations using technology and apply graphics to help deliver an effective message to a wider audience. (UC EIE2, EIE4), (WA10)
Entry to first professional year of CNRE.
Students must attend one activity from each section.
Tonny de Vries
Tonny De Vries (E431) is the Director of the course
Assignment 1 – Short report (Term 2)Assignment 2 – Oral presentation (Term 2)Assignment 3 – S2D/3D Sketch (Term 4)Assessment ResubmissionAssigment 2- Short report (Term 3)Assignment 3 – S2D/3D Sketch (Term 4)QuizResponsible Use of Generative AI (Term 1)Important: students who are not taking any of the supporting courses and, therefore, will not have the appropriate submission(s) for ENCN201, must contact the course coordinator by the end of Week 3, Term 1 to arrange an alternative submission(s).Notes: To pass this course, students must submit all items required for ENCN201 (a non-submission will result in an overall Fail for the course) and Pass all five submissions by the end of 2026. All failed items must also be resubmitted at the required time. Students must also receive an overall communication score of 5/10 (50%) for the course to gain a pass. Those who fail to submit any one or more of the assessments, fail to pass an item by the end of the course, fail to resubmit any failed item, and/or receive less than 50%, will fail ENCN201 and have to retake the course in 2027. Submissions for ENCN201 are electronic only and uploaded onto Learn into the appropriate drop boxes. All submissions must be named using the correct file name format:SubmissionType-Userid-FamilyName (e.g., Short-ttd13-deVries). For resubmissions add -resub to the end of the name. (e.g., Short-ttd13-deVries-resub).Special Consideration for Assignments: For students who miss submissions and then need different arrangements, please follow the special consideration process above.Extensions on assignments: An extension will be granted for evidence-supported requests. Extensions will typically be for up to one week, but the duration will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Students seeking an extension must contact the course coordinator as soon as possible with evidence of their situation, and preferably before the due date.Note: All communication associated with the arrangement of equivalent alternative tests/exams will be conducted using official UC email accounts. The offer to sit an alternative assessment will come with a list of potential dates/times. Students will have a clearly specified amount of time to respond to the offer to sit the alternative assessment and accept one of the listed dates/times. If the offer is declined or no response is received in the specified time frame, the original assessment mark will be used to compute the course grade.
The required text for this course is the Communications Portfolio 3rd edition, 2018 (Author: Kim Parrent). Copies can be purchased from the University Book Shop. A Course Handbook 2024 and other supplementary material will be made available online via Learn. Students must check into the course Learn site regularly and keep up-to-date with course notices and material. Learn attendance/activity may be monitored in some cases to ensure a student is participating in the course during the year
Statement on Generative AI use in ENCN201Generative AI (e.g., ChatGPT, L.L.M) is a new technology with clear implications for civil and natural resource engineering practice. In this course, the use of generative AI is NOT permitted.This courses’ policy is designed to promote your learning and intellectual development and to help you reach course Learning Objectives, which are to develop your writing and communication skills. Therefore, all assignments in this course must be fully prepared by the individual student. To ensure all students have an equal opportunity to succeed and to preserve the integrity of the course, students are not permitted to submit text that is generated (in whole or part) by generative AI.Use of Generative AI in course assessments:You may NOT use generative AI to complete assignments for ENCN201. You may NOT use AI such as ChatGPT or other Large Language Models, or any other plug-ins that automatically generate text within word-processing apps. The only permitted use of generative AI in this course are the grammar and spell check options on your word-processing software or Grammarly Basic (spell & grammar check tool only and no other Grammarly writing function). These approved tools make suggestions for revising work that you have already produced. These should be used with caution and with the understanding that you are ultimately responsible for the work you produce.Consequences of misuse of AI:Students suspected of using AI outside the specifications of this document will be reported to the department's Academic Integrity Officer. As part of their investigation, students may be invited to attend an interview, during which they may be asked to describe how the assessment was completed or to demonstrate their knowledge of the subject. If it is determined that a student is likely to have misused AI, then disciplinary action may be taken, including partial or full denial of credit for an assignment or course, X-mark on transcript denoting breach of academic integrity, suspension, fines and/or expulsion.Further reading: Academic Integrity at the University of Canterbury. https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/about- uc/what-we-do/teaching/academic-integrityEngineering NZ guidelines on ethical use of Generative AI. https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/engineering-and-ai/appropriate-safe-and-ethical- use/
WorkloadSome students will need very little time to meet our objectives and pass; other students will need many hours and use many moreof our resources and methodsof support. To minimise the workload for this programme, whenever possible, students submit a designated report that is part of another course’s assessment. However, due to possible constraints with supporting courses, this may not always be possible, and a written report, sketch or oral presentation may need to be prepared separately for ENCN201 based on work completed in the supporting course. Students are advised that the levels of writing and presentation standards for Communications Portfolio are higherthan in other courses. It is required that students have read and followed the CPG (3rd edition) before submission.Students should spend time carefully proofreading their reports before submitting them. There is a required/compulsory template for the reports available on Learn. Students are required to use this. Failure to use the template will result in the report not being marked. This template can beeasily adapted for other reports, savingstudents time. To cut down on failure due to presentation issues, it is required that all students use this template, adapted for the appropriate report when preparing their reports for submission. It is also something that you will do in professional practice and templates are required within many companies for different forms of communication.Although ENCN201 is a self-directed programme, there is help available that supports the teaching of ENCN201.Workshops: There is a CNRE workshop on the use of Generative AI set for Term 1. Although this is set in the ENCN201 timetable, this workshop is held by the department and run by Dr David Dempsey. Following the workshop, a series of short online videos will be released. Students will be required to revise these and then complete a quiz on the responsible use of Generative AI.Submissions: all students can receive help/advise on their first submissions with the course coordinator before submitting. In addition, those who fail an item and need to resubmit must sign up for a one-on- one compulsory Zoom help session with the course coordinator, which may be in-person or via Zoom, to assist with resubmission before resubmitting. Full details on how to arrange this will be given in Term 2.
For further information see Civil and Environmental Engineering .