Communication Skills Of Engineering Students Research Articles

Evaluating the Role of the Communication Skills of Engineering Students on Employability According to the Outcome-Based Education (OBE) Theory

With the advent of the digital age and Industry 4.0, the communication skills of engineering students has been exerting gradually increasing influence on the need for enhanced student employability. To address this issue, this study evaluates the influence of communication skills on the employability of engineering students from the aspects of verbal and non-verbal skills through the four key elements of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) theory. A total of 130 college engineering students and practitioners participated in the questionnaire survey, and the hypotheses were tested by regression analysis and a structural equation model (SEM). The results show that in the digital age, the verbal (p < 0.01) and non-verbal (p < 0.001) components of students’ communication skills play a significant role in the employability of engineering students. Meanwhile, the employer’s assessment simultaneously makes a significant contribution to the further improvement of students’ communication skills, which can help educators further cultivate and improve students’ communication skills through the assessment of their employability by employers. Therefore, this research has theoretical and practical significance, which not only enriches the basic theoretical knowledge, but also broadens the training methods of engineering students in the digital age, thus enhancing their employability.

Presentation Skills a Holistic Way to Develop Communication Skills of Engineering Students: Opportunity for Self-Learning During COVID-19 Crisis

Communication is the very lifeblood to succeed in life, whether it is your personal life or professional life. So, it is important to develop and enhance the communication skills of undergraduates, especially engineering students. Organizations are willing to invest in students who showcase the true potential and are employable. Communication is multi-faceted. It will be beneficial to improve the students’ language skills, such as listening, speaking, reading, and talking. In addition to the four mentioned skills, emphasis should also be given to general knowledge, vocabulary building, and non-verbal communication, thereby growing a versatile, confident and generation of students ready to face the real world. In light of the above-mentioned points, an assignment on creating a recorded video presentation was given to the first-year engineering students using the ICT tool. During lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this assignment was given to develop their communication skills. Moreover, oral feedback was collected from students to understand their key-take away from a virtual learning platform. This paper will focus on how self-learning can also be a good form of pedagogy to improve one’s communication skills by the medium of presentations. The results showed that self-learning could improve communication skills through digital presentations.

Scaffolding the Development of English Language and Communication Skills of Engineering Students

Teaching English in higher institutions is becoming more challenging in this globalised era. With the demand for communication skills in English as one of the important recruitment criteria, future graduates need to be equipped with sufficient English language and communication abilities relevant for their respective fields. This suggests that English language educators need to teach specialised English language such as engineering which may be beyond their expertise. Having trained as English as a second language educators, most of them may have limited knowledge in engineering. This paper is part of a larger research that explores the development of cross-disciplinary curriculum. This study examined the extent to which English language educators addressed the language needs of engineering students academically and professionally. A total of ten language educators from two Malaysian public universities participated in a focus group where they discussed their teaching practices and experiences in teaching engineering students. In addition, six English for Specific Purposes (ESP) practitioners from European universities were also interviewed to obtain information regarding the practices in teaching ESP at their universities. The results show that there is a gap between the development of engineering students' English language abilities in English language classrooms and its maintenance in engineering classrooms in Malaysia. The study highlights the key considerations to develop a framework that scaffolds the development of English language abilities and communication skills among engineering students within engineering education.

The Picture of Modern Workplace Environment and Oral Communication Skills of Engineering Students of Pakistan

Communication plays paramount role for engineers at workplace in this modern age of globalization and industrialization. The purpose of this study was to determine importance of oral communication and oral presentation for engineers at workplace and barriers that hindered effective oral presentation performance of engineering students for workplace environment. Thirty engineers and seven engineering students participated in this study. Purposive sampling method was used for data collection purpose. Data were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The results of the study indicated that oral communication and oral presentation plays important role for engineers at workplace and barriers for instance lack of confidence, lack of knowledge, lack of environment and lack of English language hindered effective oral presentation performance of engineering students. However, the results of this study are consistent with literature review findings on importance of oral communication and oral presentation for engineers at workplace and barriers that hamper effective oral presentation performance of engineering students.

Oral Communication Skills of Engineering Students of Pakistan in Perspective of Industrial Internships

The purpose of this study was to determine impact of industrial internship training on oral communication skills of engineering students during this program. Fifty engineers from two engineering organizations participated in this study. Participants of this study had industrial internship training from different organizations. Purposive sampling method was used for data collection purpose. The results of the study revealed that industrial internship trainings contribute to develop oral communication skills of engineering students such as oral presentation skill, meeting skill, discussion skill, conversation skill, and project participation skill during this internship program. However, the results of this study are consistent with other literature review findings on industrial internship trainings for engineering students.

Developing Mathematical Communication Skills of Engineering Students

In Malaysia and also elsewhere in the world the demands for graduates who have employability skills such as ability to think critically, solve problems and can communicate are highly sought in the workplace. In the early 2006, the development of such skills was recognized as integral goals of undergraduate education at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Since then rigorous efforts have been made to inculcate these skills amongst the undergraduates. In this paper, we will share some of our experiences in coping with the challenges of changing our teaching practices to accommodate this quest though focusing on communication. For mathematics learning to occur, we believed that students should participate actively in the knowledge construction and be able to take charge of their own learning. Taking these aspects into consideration, we had developed a framework of active learning and used it to guide our instruction in engineering mathematics at UTM. Here we will discuss the strategies that we had designed and employed in engaging students with the subject matter as well as to initiate and support student's thinking and communication in the language of mathematics. Some student's responses that gave indications of their struggle, progress and growth encountered in the research implementation will also be presented.