Improving students' professional communication skills through an integrated learning system

This paper presents an approach to technical communication pedagogy that considers the student's learning environment as a system consisting of multiple learning opportunities - including both digital and human resources. In this system, in-class instructions, short video descriptions, a writing center, and relevant exercises function as scaffolded steps in the learning process to pique the students' interests and motivate them to engage in the lessons, while industry professionals emphasize the importance of communication in the workplace. This paper situates the design of the learning system in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University, where it is being developed. It provides an overview of the system of learning opportunities, describes the instructional design process and the just-in-time online self-learning tutorials, and discusses the design rationale based on the recent findings in learning sciences.