Course syllabus for Communication and professional development

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During the first year the course Communication and professional development aims at making the role as IT-engineer clear, what is required of an engineer and to create motivation for continued studies. Further the course aims at deepen the students' communication competences and train written and oral presentation. The course intends to create linguistic awareness and to work with perception about what factors that guides and constitutes efficient communication.

The communication part of the course The course objective is to enable an increased understanding of communicative as well learning situations through studying communication and language. It also aims at providing enhanced knowledge of the engineering discipline the students choose to link to the course. The specific aim of the first part of the course is to facilitate a deeper understanding of the topic 'engineering competence' through an introductory writing course to support the written presentation of assignments relevant to engineering disciplines. The course establishes good methodology and proficiency in writing process related issues. Active participation in course provides an increased ability to reflect on one's writing and to offer constructive peer response. Focusing on oral presentation techniques, the objective of the second part of the course is to enhance the students' understanding of a project area they have chosen to work with in an adjunct course. The goal of the second part of the course is to establish methodology for and proficiency in oral presentations. On completing the course, the students should be able to give an oral presentation on the basis of reworking written source material, showing good command of presentation technology, speech, selection, audience analysis and communicative strategies generally.

The personal development part of the course The course aims at making the student aware of possible professions, competences needed for coming studies and working life and at the same time relate these to own abilities and valuations. This part of the course also aims at creating an understanding of how groups function and how you work efficient in groups.

• Apply an effective writing process in groups as well as individually
• Implement methods to adjust content and register according to audience and communicative context
• Document and describe engineering methods and results in an engineering project
• Incorporate basic principles for argumentation and discussion in a text
• Plan and deliver presentations in accordance to professional and academic conventions
• Use text editing tools and methods for text enhancement
• Read and critically analyze content, handle sources and references according to academic principles
• Analyze texts concerning content and language
  

• Account for common professional roles and the competences required in these roles within IT engineering
• Reflect on skills and future possibilities in professional engineering roles
• Identify and adapt methods for group dynamics in project groups
  

The course Communication and professional development consists of a number of courses aiming at developing professional and linguistic awareness. The course comprises textual awareness, some elements of textual analysis, rhetorics, referencing, and layout. A natural element of the course is the discussion of an established report writing framework which is continuously evaluated. Another large area of the course is oral presentaion techniques. In the course there are recurring practice presentations which are given after an introductory discussion of the requirements normally placed on oral presentations. The methodology for restructuring information for oral presentations is established through workshops and seminars with an emphasis on audience analysis. The importance of effective body language, strategic visuals, and appropriate style is also discussed in the workshops and seminars.

In the personal development part engineers from industry and academy presents their job in the Software engineering area. The students reflect on their own skills, abilities, valuations and goals on their way to becoming an engineer.
The following elements are emphasised in group dynamics: content/process, values, group norms, the group's development process, goal focus, group roles, feedback and personal strengths.

The course is compulsory. It consists of guided seminars and workshops to facilitate the completion of the various writing assignments in an adjunct course, for example 'engineering competence'. These seminars and workshops are complemented by a series of lectures on related issues including pedagogical aspects of communication. This course is in Swedish.

Course compendium, hand-outs web site.

Communication: Compulsory assignments, both written and oral. Assessment of student presentations in terms of structure, language, delivery, visuals. Professional development: Compulsory lectures.