ENGGEN 204 Professional Skills, Communication, and Collaboration - Course Outlines

Course Prescription

A system-wide view of the role of the professional engineer in society and business. The skills of advocacy, and individual and group-based communication are put into practice. Scenarios representative of real-world issues are addressed through team-based projects and problem solving. The professional issues introduced in ENGGEN 115 (health and safety, ethics, sustainability, cultural diversity, communication, leadership, and teamwork) are continued and developed.

Course Overview

In a society heavily reliant on knowledge and ideas, communication is key. The ability to communicate knowledge and ideas from one’s disciplinary advantage can determine the extent to which one can achieve career success.
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.

Course Requirements

Prerequisite: ENGGEN 115, 199

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

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

A passing mark is 50% or higher, according to University policy.

All assessments are due by the submission time listed on Canvas. Late assessments will not be accepted. Special circumstances must be submitted via the contact form, and extensions are at the discretion of the teaching team.

Marks are normally released within three weeks of the assignment's due date. Marks can be queried for two weeks after the grade is posted on Canvas unless otherwise stated via Canvas Announcement. All mark queries must be submitted via the contact form.

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.

Some sources for lectures and course content

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

Tutorials are in tutorial rooms. No extraordinary health and safety measures to note. Further, students must ensure they are familiar with their Health and Safety responsibilities, as described in the university's Health and Safety policy.

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 have been improved to help students practice assessing team function and providing feedback. Based on the 2024 SET results and feedback surveys, students find the tutorials engaging and a key component of the course.

Academic Integrity

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework, tests and examinations 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. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against electronic source material using computerised detection mechanisms. Upon reasonable request, students may be required to provide an electronic version of their work for computerised review.

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 your assessment is fair, and not compromised. Some adjustments may need to be made in emergencies. You will be kept fully informed by your course co-ordinator, 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 you may be asked to submit your 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. The final decision on the completion mode for a test or examination, and remote invigilation arrangements where applicable, will be advised to students at least 10 days prior to the scheduled date of the assessment, or in the case of an examination when the examination timetable is published.

Capability 1:	People and Place
Capability 6:	Communication
Capability 7:	Collaboration

ENGGEN 204 : Professional Skills, Communication, and Collaboration

Engineering

2025 Semester Two (1255) (15 POINTS)