2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Communication is a critical skill for engineers as they disseminate their novel solutions, experiments, products, etc. to others. ABET has defined one of the seven student outcomes required for preparing students to enter the professional practice of engineering as "an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences" [1]. In past assessments of our Biomedical Engineering (BME) program, we have found from student self-evaluations, course assignments, and external reviews that students have weak technical writing skills. Our university offers courses in technical writing, but the course topics are split into communication in engineering and technology and communication in science and research. However, BMEs need to master both technical scientific and technical engineering writing skills; six credit hours our curriculum can’t accommodate. Thus, we have developed evidence-based writing modules that will be scaffolded throughout our curriculum to provide specialized and more efficient writing instruction.

As a first step in evaluating the improvement and retention of students’ technical writing skills, two groups of ~40 students will be assessed longitudinally for three semesters. Student participants will be grouped based on the sequence in which they take two of the required sophomore level courses in our department (Biomechanics and Biomaterials). Group A will have taken the required Biomechanics course in the Fall 2022 (FA22) semester and biomaterials in Spring 2023 (SP23). The instructors for Group A developed technical scientific writing modules which will be implemented in the lab portion of the course. Group B will consist of students who take Biomaterials in FA22 and Biomechanics in SP23 with lab instruction that does not include technical writing modules. In the Fall 2023 (FA23) semester, students from both groups will enroll in the same required Physiology course with a lab requiring regular scientific reports.
The technical writing modules during FA22 and SP23 concentrate on one section of a scientific report at a time, allowing students to rewrite that section multiple times using feedback. For example, when learning about each section of a scientific report (e.g., Introduction, Methods, etc.), students are provided a handout describing conventions of the genre and appropriate writing style. With this information, they create an initial draft that will be peer reviewed. After making improvements based on the peer-reviewed feedback, they submit a second draft which receives in-person, one-on-one instructor feedback. Finally, they will rewrite and submit a final version of the section. This process is repeated for each scientific section covered by the course. The two courses taken by Group A (FA22 and SP23) will cover a different set of writing sections. Specifically, the Biomechanics lab instruction focuses on Methods, Results, Graphical and Tabular Communication, and Discussion, while the Biomaterials lab teaches Abstracts, Introductions, Hypothesis Formulation, and References. The last assignment in each course is a full lab report. In the FA23 physiology course, students will be provided detailed writing rubrics and multiple opportunities to implement their scientific technical writing skills through four full lab reports. These newly developed scientific technical report writing modules are complemented by industry and FDA style deliverables (e.g., basic business plans, product launch plans, and patents) already integrated vertically into our 2nd-4th year design courses.

Pre- and post-course surveys taken by Group A (FA22, SP23, and FA23) and Group B (FA23), will be used to evaluate students’ self-confidence in and perceived value of technical writing skills and the effectiveness of the technical writing instruction (post-survey only). Using a standardized rubric for each section of a scientific report, intra-subject comparisons of participants in Group A will be made 1) within a semester between drafts and final report submissions, and 2) between the final lab reports submitted in FA22, SP23, and FA23. The former will provide insight on student mastery of technical writing skills, while the latter will assess retention of these skills over time. An inter-group comparison of the first lab report in the FA23 course will be used to assess the impact of the newly developed technical writing modules on technical writing proficiency.

This initial assessment phase will provide insight into the effectiveness of the writing instruction implemented in the Biomechanics and Biomaterials sections and student retention of technical writing skills through their 3rd year physiology course. By distributing the technical writing modules through the curriculum, we provide students more opportunities and more frequent opportunities to practice writing and receive feedback. Ultimately, we expect that scaffolding of writing through each semester of their undergraduate career enhances not only their technical writing skills, but also their perceived value and self-confidence in technical writing skills.