(521e) Reflecting Changes in Communication Styles within Laboratory Courses

Accreditation bodies like ABET, and universities have long recognized the need to equip students with effective communication skills. However, a significant shift towards conciseness and visual representation has transformed traditional communication methods. Engineering employers increasingly expect young professionals to be capable in various communication methods. These include customer presentations, policy drafting, public meetings, standard operating procedures, and graphical instructions, which extend beyond the conventional laboratory report that new recruits are expected to know. The changing styles, coupled with a perception that recent graduates lack the ability to articulate their thoughts spontaneously, call for a solution. These changes have significant implications for engineering education, particularly in laboratory courses where communication skills are emphasized.

Laboratory courses often serve as platforms for practicing communication. They emphasize the ability to communicate complex ideas, technical results, and intricate ideas, technical findings, and overarching concepts. However, evaluating this communication solely through lab reports, formal presentations, and lab notebooks may not sufficiently equip students for their professional lives. This work proposes potential methods to integrate diverse communication modalities into engineering education, particularly in the laboratory setting. These methods involve broadening assessments to include informal presentations, infographic posters, technical memos, standard operating procedures, graphical abstracts, and brief video presentations, in addition to traditional lab reports and formal presentations.

The shift away from written lab reports not only augments student skills but can also expedite assessment grading and bolster student accountability. For example, informal oral presentations cannot be plagiarized from the internet or peers. Instructors or teaching assistants can easily question all group members, thereby promoting individual accountability and reducing free-riding. Effective management of free riding by the instructional team can boost morale and student satisfaction. A second example is that grading a single-page infographic poster is considerably quicker than grading a 20-page lab report, allowing for the assessment to be individualized rather than a team-based approach. Lastly, it is vital for students to verbally express their experiences in addition to writing about them, familiarizing them with the terminology associated with chemical engineering and preparing them for interviews and roles in research and production environments.