WRIT 340: Advanced Writing Communication for Engineers

We all have an image of our better selves—of how we are when we act ethically or are “at our best.” We probably also have an image of what an ethical community, an ethical business, an ethical government, or an ethical society should be. Ethics has to do with all these levels—acting ethically as individuals, creating ethical organizations and governments, and making our society as a whole more ethical in the way it treats everyone.

In this effort, an assessment tool designed for researchers to assess global citizenship values among undergraduate students is cross-validated. Past research shows that engineering students can be resistant to the introduction and addition of global citizenship components into the classroom including social responsibility, environmental sustainability, and economic equality. While some studies have delved qualitatively into how engineering undergraduates approach, accept, and understand global values including sustainability, this study seeks to evaluate a quantitative assessment tool and its ability to measure global citizenship values in a consistent manner for a wide variety of populations.

On November 5-6, 2008, a group of 23 distinguished engineering educators convened in Newport, Rhode Island to discuss the globalization of U. S. engineering education. Their goal was to consider the changes and challenges brought about by the recent wave of globalization and to ask, as so many colleagues are doing around the country, what proactive steps need to be taken by engineering educators to ensure that their graduates are prepared to be productive citizens and professionals in today’s and tomorrow’s complex world.

As the world grows smaller and companies become increasingly international, engineering students with a global education will be in high demand. Given the constraints of the typical undergraduate engineering curriculum, it can be extremely challenging for engineering students to participate in activities designed to promote global awareness.

The term global competence has become a buzzword in recent discussions and publications on the education of today’s engineering student. This paper addresses two questions related to the role of language education for engineers, namely, What role does second language (L2) proficiency play in the education of the global engineer? and, How can engineering programs include language study within the crowded confines of existing curricula?

Borderless ethics and the attempt to develop a global engineering code of ethics have formulated significant driving forces behind trends in engineering ethics education. This is because engineering is no longer limited by borders and therefore the differences in culture and values from one country to another become a significant factor in the outcome of an engineering project, product, or undertaking. There are many sides to the issue of ethics globalization. As educators in this field continuous attempts are made to look at these issues systematically and assess the required modifications for our ethics education to produce engineers that are globally successful.

Engineering programs must prepare students for a global engineering profession. In global markets, processes as well as products can be outsourced. Highly technical engineering work may be completed by large and diverse collaborations. Engineering students need to have foundational work in languages, cultural differences, and strategies for working with diverse colleagues.

This paper describes a new cross-curricular design for an engineering communication course based on four themes: (1) ethics, accountability, and professionalism; (2) intellectual property; (3) design, creativity, and invention; and (4) globalization. It is believed that the thematic structure creates both dynamic and contemporary contexts for writing and research along with enough freedom to pursue individual student interests. The result is a higher degree of intrinsic motivation for the assignments. The course is a collaborative effort between an English department and a school of engineering designed to both improve curriculum and provide more assessment data for engineering accreditation. Among the criteria from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) is the “ability to communicate effectively.” Along with satisfying this criterion, the course discussed in this paper details how to capture data in support of an additional four of ABET's criteria known as “a–k.” After highlighting these ABET criteria and giving an overview of the structure of the course, the paper details each theme, including their respective readings and assignments. This new course was taught for the first time in the 2006–2007 academic year, and the paper closes by weighing the outcomes and implications of adopting a similar format. The current version of the syllabus and reading list for this course are included in this paper.

This paper addresses three questions related to the rationale for global engineering education. These questions are, Why do engineering students need to have a new set of skills, which we will collectively refer to as “global competence?” What does it mean for students to have global competence? and, What are the most important attributes of global competence?

Global markets are currently dictating the way that national economies around the world design and distribute consumer goods and services. Engineers are in the midst of this dynamic development. In this context, universities around the world are increasingly making an effort to establish international partnerships in their educational and research programs.