2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

An Approach to Integrate GenAI Literacy into an Embedded Engineering Communication Program

Presented at How are we training students to use AI and other Technology? Preparing Students for Civil Engineering Industry

The development and implementation of Generative AI (GenAI) has led many instructors in civil and environmental engineering (CEE), as well as in technical communication (TC), to consider updating their curriculum, pedagogy, and policies. One approach to help students gain strategic knowledge about GenAI could be an interdisciplinary collaboration involving CEE and TC instructors co-teaching CEE courses and applying GenAI literacy instruction borrowed from TC to the engineering curriculum. A pedagogical team at a highly ranked public research university is exploring this question: “How can instructors help students develop skills as well as strategic knowledge to use GenAI efficiently, productively, and ethically during their studies as well as after graduation?” Our pedagogical team has started with objectives for GenAI literacy urged by the Modern Language Association (MLA) Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Task Force on Writing and AI (a source widely known among TC instructors). Students can become literate users of GenAI when they (1) “have a basic understanding of how GenAI technologies work,” (2) “understand the policies and frameworks for the ethical use of GenAI outlined by [their] instructors and institutions,” (3) “know how to prompt GenAI to produce useful outputs,” (4) “evaluate the relevance, usefulness, and accuracy of GenAI outputs,” (5) “monitor [their] own learning as [they] use GenAI tools,” (6) “recognize that GenAI is fundamentally different from human communication,” and (7) “understand the potential harms of GenAI, both those inherent to the technology and those that arise from misuse.” Using the MLA-CCCC Task Force objectives—widely supported in the research literature—for a set of courses that vertically build through the civil engineering and environmental engineering curriculum, we developed new course activities and assignments focused on GenAI literacy. This paper explores ways in which GenAI literacy instruction works in two civil and environmental engineering courses: a 1000-level Exploring CEE introductory course and a 2000-level Civil and Environmental Engineering Systems course. Each course is co-taught by CEE instructors and a TC instructor. While GenAI literacy instruction is not the focus of either course, the embedded GenAI literacy instruction meets our pedagogical and programmatic needs. Our paper provides instructors with interdisciplinary approaches for implementing curriculum, pedagogy, and policy to effectively teach GenAI literacy in engineering courses.

Authors

Dr. Olga Menagarishvili Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]

Olga Menagarishvili (Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) directs the Charles E. Gearing Program in Engineering Communication in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology. In 2012-2016, Olga was a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech, where she co-created and taught in-person, hybrid, and online technical communication courses for Computer Science undergraduates. Since she began her teaching career in 1999, she has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in scientific, technical, and professional communication at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities and at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Her research interests include engineering, technical, and scientific communication; technical communication pedagogy; GenAI in technical communication; multimodality; rhetoric; lexicography; and crosscultural and international communication. She has recently published in Technical Communication Quarterly, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, and Programmatic Perspectives. Olga has been teaching GenAI literacy in technical and engineering communication courses for two years and has presented her work at international conferences. She is now integrating GenAI literacy into all Civil and Environmental Engineering Spine courses at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Dr. Adjo A Amekudzi-Kennedy Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]

Professor Adjo Amekudzi-Kennedyâ€™s research, teaching and professional activities focus on civil infrastructure decision making to promote sustainable development. She studies complex real-world systems and develops infrastructure decision support system
Dr. Kevin Haas Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]

Associate Chair of Undergraduate Programs, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Dr. Donald Webster P.E. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3397-9222 Georgia Institute of Technology [biography]

Donald Webster, Ph.D., P.E. is the Karen & John Huff School Chair and Professor in the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering (CEE) at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Webster earned a B.S. from the University of California, Davis (1989), and M.S. (1991) and Ph.D. (1994) degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the Georgia Tech faculty in September 1997 after completing a postdoctoral research appointment at Stanford University and holding a non-tenure-track faculty position at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Webster’s research expertise lies in environmental fluid mechanics focused on the influence of fluid motion and turbulence on biological systems. His contributions have been in three arenas: 1) illuminating the fluid mechanics processes related to sensory biology and biomechanics; 2) developing advanced experimental techniques and facilities; and 3) translating research results into bio-inspired design. In recognition of these contributions, Dr. Webster is a Sustaining Fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO) and has won numerous awards including the Felton Jenkins, Jr. Hall of Fame Faculty Award, Class of 1934 Outstanding Innovative Use of Education Technology Award, the Eichholz Faculty Teaching Award, and the British Petroleum Junior Faculty Teaching Excellence Award.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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