2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Technical communication expertise is important for our current and future engineering graduates, yet its integration into undergraduate curricula remains inconsistent or ineffective. Traditional approaches to teaching technical writing skills often lack connection or alignment with distinct engineering design work, or technical communication is taught in isolation as its own course. This study presents an alternative model to these approaches by examining the integration of technical communication into a second-year introductory environmental engineering course through project-based learning and co-teaching. The work described herein builds on prior research demonstrating the value of embedded communication instruction in engineering courses and the potential of co-teaching in engineering disciplines. It addresses gaps in engineering education literature by describing a co-teaching model that influences students’ perceptions, confidence, and performance on technical communication tasks, thereby better supporting foundational engineering design instruction.

The proposed instructional design aligned and integrated communication lectures within the phases of the engineering design process for a semester-long design project. Within the project, students were required to submit interim products, both written and verbal, prior to a final technical briefing and design report, during which they were to effectively present and argue for their design. Environmental engineering and technical communication professors co-taught the course, providing targeted instruction and feedback specific to their disciplines and areas of expertise. Initial results from the study showed that both self-reported confidence in technical speaking and writing increased for 100% of participants, and that 80% of participants found that the communication instruction also furthered their engineering knowledge.

The study contributes an innovative and scalable instructional framework by aligning engineering-specific technical communication instruction with functional design tasks, thereby enhancing students’ experience and performance in both. Application of this framework at the earlier stages of an engineer’s education is intended to improve longitudinal communication performance by providing dedicated communication instruction in an engineering context. The study offers actionable insights for engineering programs seeking to strengthen communication outcomes without compromising technical rigor.