Avoiding Another Tower of Babel: Bridging Communication Barriers Among Students and Instructors from Civil Engineering, Humanities, and Other Disciplines in a Multidisciplinary Course

Abstract

Communication among students and faculty from different disciplines – sometimes widely different disciplines – is one of the major challenges facing those trying to mingle civil engineering students with students from other disciplines in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary classrooms. Of particular difficulty is trying to bridge the chasm that seems to separate engineering and humanities students, both in terms of their respective worldviews and the language by which they tend to express those views. Yet when such students are put together into multidisciplinary courses, regardless of the level, a common foundation in terminology, concepts, and techniques is needed to bridge that chasm. Establishing such a foundation is difficult: not only is there a risk of overwhelming students new to the topics, there is also the hazard of losing the interest of students who may already have an established interest in it. This paper describes the techniques used in a water resources management course offered at the University of Utah to bridge the communication barriers among students from civil engineering, humanities, and other disciplines. The strategies and techniques employed in a second offering of the course are described, and the successes and areas for improvement identified through the assessment are highlighted. New tactics applied include lesson learning objectives, student journals, outside events (e.g., conferences and seminars), instructor interaction and disciplinary role playing, and multidisciplinary teams for in-class exercises and the semester project. The course was assessed using an opinion survey of students, an embedded assessor, and instructor reflection on student performance and feedback. The assessment identified several methods to be effective for improving communication among disciplines. Based on a synthesis of assessment tools, guided class discussions, access to outside water resources related events, pre-planned instructor interaction and disciplinary role playing, and multidiscipline teams were found to be the most effective methods to improve communication between students from civil engineering, humanities, and other disciplines.