INFORMATION COMMUNICATION AND TECHNOLOGY UNDERGRADUATES’ PERCEPTIONS ON E-PORTFOLIO AS A TOOL IN A TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION COURSE

The demands for soft skills have arisen tremendously over recent years as universities incorporate these skills into their curriculum. Graduates need the technical knowledge as well as the soft skills in order to perform effectively in the workplace. This paper investigates the impact of an e-Portfolio in a technical communication course to enhance the information technology students’ soft skills in communication, critical thinking and problem solving and teamwork. The objective of the research is to find out the undergraduates’ perceptions on e-Portfolio as a tool in a technical communication course. An open-ended questionnaire was distributed to 65 students to elicit information at the end of the semester. The findings showed that most of the students’ found that e-Portfolio had helped them to improve their learning. This indicates that e-Portfolio has the potential as a tool to enhance students’ soft skills in their learning

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION COURSE IN A MALAYSIAN TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY: ENGINEERS’ PERSPECTIVES

Communication has become a crucial requirement for all engineers. The global engineering world has created demands on engineers to be able to collaborate on cross-functional teams, manage virtual-project teams and write for multiple complex audiences. This study investigates on the engineering undergraduates’ perceptions about the effectiveness of the Technical Communication course in terms of course content as well as viable suggestions to improve on the course. The instruments that were used for data collection in the study are survey questionnaires and recorded interviews. The findings of the evaluation by the undergraduates reveal that on the overall the effectiveness of the course content is at a moderate level. Thus, this is indicative of the fact that the Technical Communication course needs to be revised in terms of the course content. The respondents have also provided viable solutions to improve on the course. Keywords: technical communication, assessment, course content, teaching material, engineers’ perspectives

MANAGING ENGINEERING UNDERGRADUATES’ LANGUAGE ANXIETY: INSTRUCTOR ROLE IN ONLINE THREADED DISCUSSIONS

The advancement of communication technologies has revolutionized language classrooms via the instrumentality of computer networks and its text-based nature has brought about applications such as online threaded discussions. This paper firstly aims to determine whether the engineering undergraduates of Limited English Proficiency (LEP) are affected by the psychological aspects of language learning as well as explore how they interact in online threaded discussions. Besides, it also investigates the instructor’s point of view on instructor intervention in the activity. The Language Profile Forms and the focused group interviews indicate that they lack confidence and are affected by language anxiety. The postings of the 15 LEP undergraduates which were analyzed for emerging themes reveal that they mainly asked questions. Even though their discussions lacked substance and were akin to ‘educationally less valuable talk’ (ELVT), the activity has provided them with the motivation and autonomy to socialize and interact, thus reducing their anxiety. The instructor being the main content provider in the discussion has played an important role in facilitating and enhancing cognitive processing besides keeping the learners engaged