A Multimodal Assignment Design to Develop Discursive Skills in Engineering
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31468/dwr.1027Keywords:
Multimodality, engineering communication, pedagogical affordances, applicationAbstract
Multimodality in assignments is increasingly common in higher education, thereby requiring students to demonstrate competency in the employment of multiple modes to communicate. Specifically, the field of engineering communication relies on multimodal resources to construct meaning and convey information. This article describes the integration of multimodality in a second-year software design and communication course assignment. In this assignment, students read the text, Made to Stick that enlists six principles of effective communication strategies and are expected to apply these communicative principles to a tech talk video. Students then produce a written argument which evaluates how effectively the presenter employed Made to Stick principles. Through engagement with multimodal resources, students are afforded the opportunity to practice and develop three skills of application, analysis and argumentation.
References
Airey, J., & Eriksson, U. (2019). Unpacking the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram: A social semiotic analy-sis of the disciplinary and pedagogical affordances of a central resource in astronomy, 11(1), 99–107. https://doi.org/10.16993/dfl.137
Archer, A., & Breuer, E. O. (2016). Multimodality in higher education. Edited by Arlene Archer, Esther Odilia Breuer. (A. Archer & E. O. Breuer, Eds.). Brill.
Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board. CEAB. https://www.engineering.utoronto.ca/about/canadian-engineering-accreditation-board-ceab/
Dannels, D. (2002). Communication across the curriculum and in the disciplines: Speaking in engineering. Communication Education, 51(3), 254–268. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634520216513
D'Silva, F. (2014). Writing from sources: How three undergraduate multilingual writers negotiated elements of source-based writing in an EAP course that used literary and nonliterary source texts. [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1386765963
D’Silva, F. & Kinnear, P. (2021). Developing disciplinary discourse in a first-year engineering course: The DELNA initiative. Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie, 31, 126–135. https://doi.org/10.31468/dwr.909
Du, Q. (2013). “What do you mean ‘In my own words’?” undergraduate ESL writers’ paraphrasing experiences in an advanced academic writing course. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
Giannakos, M.N., Krogstie, J. & Aalberg, T. (2016). Video-based learning ecosystem to support active learning: application to an introductory computer science course. Smart Learn. Environ. 3, 11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-016-0036-0
Hafner, C. (2014). Embedding digital literacies in English language teaching: Students’ digital video projects as multimodal ensembles. TESOL Quarterly 48(4): 655–85. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.138
Heath, C. & Heath, D. (2008). Made to stick: Why some ideas survive and others die. Random House.
Hirvela, A. (2017). Argumentation & second language writing: Are we missing the boat? Journal of Second Language Writing, 36, 69–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2017.05.002
Gopsill, James & McAlpine, Hamish & Hicks, Ben. (2015). Supporting engineering design communication using a custom-built social media tool. Advanced Engineering Informatics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2015.04.008
Guo, P. J., Kim, J., & Robin, R. (2014). How video production affects student engagement: An empirical study of MOOC videos. L@S’14 Proceedings of the First ACM Conference on Learning at Scale, New York: ACM, 41-50.
Keck, C. (2014). Copying, paraphrasing, and academic writing development: A re-examination of L1 and L2 summarization practices. Journal of Second Language Writing, 25(Sep), 4–22.
Sales, H. (2006). Professional Communication in Engineering (1st ed. 2006.). Palgrave Macmillan UK. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230625143
Stander, M. (2020). Strategies to help university students avoid plagiarism: a focus on translation as an intervention strategy. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 44(2), 156–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2018.1526260
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Faye D'Silva, Ken Tallman
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
If this article is selected for publication in Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie, the work shall be published electronically under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA 4.0). This license allows users to adapt and build upon the published work, but requires them to attribute the original publication and license their derivative works under the same terms. There is no fee required for submission or publication. Authors retain unrestricted copyright and all publishing rights, and are permitted to deposit all versions of their paper in an institutional or subject repository.
