ENGGEN 204 : Professional Skills and Communication
Engineering
2024 Semester Two (1245) (15 POINTS)
Course Prescription
Course Overview
From an engineering perspective, the ability to collaborate is crucial to developing effective integrated solutions to complex multidisciplinary problems. There can be no collaboration without communication. Similarly, and maybe less instinctive to many, there can be no communication without a certain degree of collaboration of minds.
Throughout the ENGGEN series of courses through to your Year-4, and in fact, throughout your undergrad training, effective communication and collaboration will be increasingly expected from you. Thus in this course, you will learn and apply the principles of communication, with the aim to make each of you skilled in the art of effective collaboration. As collaboration requires teamwork, their is a very strong emphasis on collaborative group work, and students will learn about being effective team members. Learnings include how to recognise, prevent, and correct team dysfunction and how to assess and improve team and individual performance through giving and receiving feedback.
There are four parts to this course. The first is on teamwork, the function or dysfunction of teams, conflict management and decision-making. These are all part of the skills needed to form an effective high functioning team. The second is on modes of discourse, reflective practice, and giving and receiving effective feedback. These are all part of the skills needed for communication. The third is on the social skills of participation, perspective-taking, and social regulation. These are key ingredients to any successful collaboration. The fourth is practising and contextualising these skills by discussing current important topics, such as those around health and safety, sustainability, ethics, and stakeholders.
Capabilities Developed in this Course
| Capability 1: | People and Place |
| Capability 6: | Communication |
| Capability 7: | Collaboration |
Learning Outcomes
- Describe the different modes of discourse. (Capability 6.1)
- Perform giving and receiving feedback constructively and effectively. (Capability 6.1 and 7.1)
- Describe the meaning of participation, and distinguish how it is measured in terms of its three elements. (Capability 6.1)
- Demonstrate a good understanding of perspective-taking, and illustrate perspective-taking in action. (Capability 6.1 and 7.1)
- Explain effectively the four aspects of social regulation, within the framework of collaborative problem-solving skills. (Capability 6.1 and 7.1)
- Demonstrate the ability to communicate technical knowledge to a lay audience. (Capability 6.1)
- Demonstrate the ability to collaborate in relation to the learned social skills. (Capability 1.1 and 7.1)
- Discuss ethics, sustainability, health and safety, and stakeholders, as applied to engineering practice. (Capability 1.1, 6.1 and 7.1)
Assessments
| Assessment Type | Percentage | Classification |
|---|---|---|
| Quizzes & Individual Assessments | 38% | Individual Coursework |
| Team Projects | 50% | Group Coursework |
| Tutorials - attendance and participation | 12% | Individual Coursework |
| 3 types | 100% |
| Assessment Type | Learning Outcome Addressed | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |||
| Quizzes & Individual Assessments | ||||||||||
| Team Projects | ||||||||||
| Tutorials - attendance and participation | ||||||||||
Workload Expectations
This course is a standard 15 point course and students are expected to spend 10 hours per week involved in each 15 point course that they are enrolled in.
This course is scheduled for over 12 weeks. Each week there are 2 hour-long lectures and 1 hour-long group tutorial. For self-study, it is expected the student spends approximately 3 hours a week reading and thinking about the content. Averaged-out throughout the 12 weeks, students will also be working with their team on group assignments. These amount to approximately 4 hours a week.
Delivery Mode
Campus Experience
Attendance is required at tutorials as these involve group work serving the intention of this course, which is to teach about collaboration.
Lectures will be available as recordings.
Learning Resources
Course materials are made available in a learning and collaboration tool called Canvas which also includes reading lists and lecture recordings (where available).
Please remember that the recording of any class on a personal device requires the permission of the instructor.
- Lencioni, P. M. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team. Jossey-Bass.
- Friedrich Hesse, Esther Care, Juergen Buder , Kai Sassenberg , and Patrick Griffin: A Framework for Teachable Collaborative Problem Solving Skills. In: Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills. Patrick Griffin, Barry McGaw, and Esther Care. 2011 Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated.
- Polowczyk PŁ (2017) Organizational ethical integrity: good and bad illusions. Palgrave Commun 3:46 (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-017-0044-x)
- Richard Schuldenfrei. (2008). The Problem Of A Democratic Ethic. Ethics, Politics, And Democracy: From Primordial Principles To Prospective Practices. 273-292.
- Hilary Janks. Critical Literacy. The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics, Edited by Carol A. Chapelle. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
- Literary Devices. (2017, May 1). Retrieved December 5, 2017, from https://www.literarydevices.com/
Health & Safety
Student Feedback
At the end of every semester students will be invited to give feedback on the course and teaching through a tool called SET or Qualtrics. The lecturers and course co-ordinators will consider all feedback and respond with summaries and actions.
Your feedback helps teachers to improve the course and its delivery for future students.
Class Representatives in each class can take feedback to the department and faculty staff-student consultative committees.
Lectures and tutorials are aligned to improve the connectivity of the lectures to the tutorials and assessments. Tutorials and peer review system has been improved to help students practice assessing team function and providing feedback.
Academic Integrity
The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting their learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the internet. A student's assessed work may be reviewed for potential plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct, using computerised detection mechanisms.
Class Representatives
Class representatives are students tasked with representing student issues to departments, faculties, and the wider university. If you have a complaint about this course, please contact your class rep who will know how to raise it in the right channels. See your departmental noticeboard for contact details for your class reps.
Inclusive Learning
All students are asked to discuss any impairment related requirements privately, face to face and/or in written form with the course coordinator, lecturer or tutor.
Student Disability Services also provides support for students with a wide range of impairments, both visible and invisible, to succeed and excel at the University. For more information and contact details, please visit the Student Disability Services’ website http://disability.auckland.ac.nz
Special Circumstances
If your ability to complete assessed coursework is affected by illness or other personal circumstances outside of your control, contact a member of teaching staff as soon as possible before the assessment is due.
If your personal circumstances significantly affect your performance, or preparation, for an exam or eligible written test, refer to the University’s aegrotat or compassionate consideration page https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/academic-information/exams-and-final-results/during-exams/aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html.
This should be done as soon as possible and no later than seven days after the affected test or exam date.
Learning Continuity
In the event of an unexpected disruption, we undertake to maintain the continuity and standard of teaching and learning in all your courses throughout the year. If there are unexpected disruptions the University has contingency plans to ensure that access to your course continues and course assessment continues to meet the principles of the University’s assessment policy. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator/director, and if disruption occurs you should refer to the university website for information about how to proceed.
Student Charter and Responsibilities
The Student Charter assumes and acknowledges that students are active participants in the learning process and that they have responsibilities to the institution and the international community of scholars. The University expects that students will act at all times in a way that demonstrates respect for the rights of other students and staff so that the learning environment is both safe and productive. For further information visit Student Charter https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/students/forms-policies-and-guidelines/student-policies-and-guidelines/student-charter.html.
Disclaimer
Elements of this outline may be subject to change. The latest information about the course will be available for enrolled students in Canvas.
In this course students may be asked to submit coursework assessments digitally. The University reserves the right to conduct scheduled tests and examinations for this course online or through the use of computers or other electronic devices. Where tests or examinations are conducted online remote invigilation arrangements may be used. In exceptional circumstances changes to elements of this course may be necessary at short notice. Students enrolled in this course will be informed of any such changes and the reasons for them, as soon as possible, through Canvas.