Principal Investigator
Prof. Clark Colton, Chemical Engineering; Prof. Donald Sadoway, Materials Science and Engineering; Ms. Suzanne Lane, Program in Writing & Humanistic Studies; Dr. Andreas Karatsolis, Comparative Media Studies/Writing; Mr. Howard Silver, Libraries; Ms. Felice Frankel, Center for Matl Science and Engineering
Fund:
d'Arbeloff Fund
Funding Period:
AY2015
Department/Lab/Center:
Chemical Engineering
MIT’s communication requirement provides the backbone for the learning of how to develop, evaluate, and integrate oral, visual and written communication by requiring each student to take two subjects designated as communication-intensive in SHASS (CI-Hs), and two in their majors (CI-Ms). The CI-M subjects, however, are often fast-paced laboratory classes in which students also need to learn new concepts, methods, and techniques in their field, as well as design and complete experiments and analyze results. Consequently, class time is at a premium, with time for communication instruction competing against time for other crucial instruction.
To address the constraints of class time and the different levels of student preparedness in CI-M subjects, and to develop a more coherent and consistent approach to communication instruction, the project will design and implement a comprehensive system of online modules for teaching communication. This project will create a limited set of online communication instructional modules for two engineering laboratories. Because students will be able to access this instruction outside of class, it is expected that the modules will allow instructors to deliver better-targeted and more interactive communication instruction without increasing the amount of in-class time devoted to such instruction.