ENCN201-21A (C) Any Time Start 2021

Communication Skills Portfolio 1


Details:
Start Date: Monday, 22 February 2021
End Date: Sunday, 14 November 2021
Withdrawal Dates
The withdrawal dates for this course (both with and without fee refund) will be confirmed once a) the course start date and b) course length is confirmed. Students are advised to consult the department for further information.

Description

Introduction to communication skills required by practicing professional engineers.

This course is very unlike your other courses. It is a programme that we use to ensure you have competency in engineering communication. Our objective is to ensure that you have a good level of communication skills and that you have demonstrated an ability to use independent study to improve your skills.

All Second Year Civil and Natural Resources Engineering students are automatically enrolled in ENCN201 (Communications Portfolio 1). This is a compulsory degree requirement and a pre-requisite for ENCN301 (Communications Portfolio 2) and ENCN375, which are pre-requisites for several compulsory Fourth Year courses including the final year project. ENCN201 is a full year programme and cannot be completed within one semester. Students must pass ENCN201 before enrolling in any Fourth Year courses. In addition, students must pass ENCN301 prior to going on exchange. Students who fail ENCN201 or ENCN301 become a year behind in their studies.

Repeating Students: Students retaking ENCN201 must complete the full year (i.e., a student retaking ENCN201 cannot pass mid-year and then enrol in ENCN301; final grades will be released only at the end of the year).

Learning Outcomes

  • Apply the skills learnt, from reading & applying the Communications Portfolio Guide (CPG) 3rd edition, and attending lectures, workshops & tutorials, to all course work.
  • Apply skills learnt in ENCN201 to ENCN301 and beyond.
  • Improve on communication skills, with an emphasis on clear and concise writing.
  • Gain a better appreciation of the role of writing in the engineering profession.
  • Give effective oral presentations.

Prerequisites

Entry to first professional year of CNRE.

Course Coordinator

Kim Parrent

Tonny De Vries (E431) will the acting as engineering oversight

Assessment

Assessment will be as follows (actual due dates will be confirmed in Term 1 via Learn and all assignments are due 5:00 pm unless otherwise stated):

Assessments - Semester 1

Writing test
Assignment 1 – lab report
Assignment 2 – Oral Presentation
Assignment 3 – Reasoning report
Assignment 4 – 3D sketch

Assessment - Semester 2

Resubmission of Assessment (if required; note incurs a fee of $20 per resubmission):

Assignment 1 – lab report 2
Assignment 2 – Oral Presentation 2
Assignment 3 – Reasoning report 2
Assignment 4 – 3D sketch 2

Please contact the course co-ordinator, in advance, if you have genuine difficulties meeting submission dates. All submissions, expect for the oral presentation, are electronic submissions made via Learn.

 All assignments are compulsory.
 Resubmissions are required if the first attempt fails. There is only one chance to resubmit each item.
 To pass this course, students must submit all items required for ENCN201A (a non-submission will result in an overall Fail for the course) and Pass all four submissions. That is, a student must pass both written reports (lab & reasoning reports) and the two other items (oral presentation & sketch). All failed items must also be resubmitted at the required time. Students must also receive an overall communication score of 5/10 (50%) for the course to gain a pass. Those who fail to submit any of the four course assessments, fail to pass an item by the end of the course, fail to resubmit any failed item, and/or receive less than 50%, will fail ENCN201A and have to retake the course in 2022.

Textbooks / Resources

Required Texts

Parrent, Kim Louise et al; Communications portfolio guide ; 3rd edition; Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, 2018 (Copies can be purchased from the University bookshop).

A course handbook 2020 and other supplementary material will be made available online via Learn

Additional Course Outline Information

Attendance

Workload

Some students will need very little time to meet our objectives and pass; other students will need many hours and use many more of our resources and methods of support. In order to minimise the workload for this programme, students submit a designated report that is part of another course’s assessment. However, students are advised that the levels of writing and presentation standards for Communications Portfolio are higher/different than other courses. It is required that students have read and followed the CPG (3rd edition) prior to submission. In order to reduce the time spent on Communications Portfolio we advise students to bring all their reports up to a high standard, using the CPG (3rd edition), in conjunction with the Communications Portfolio report template, so that they do not have to rewrite reports to submit for Communications Portfolio.

Students should spend time in carefully proofreading their reports before submitting. There is a template for the reports available on Learn. Students are required to use the template. This template can be easily adapted for other reports, saving students’ time. In order to cut down on failure due to presentation issues, it is required that all students use this template, adapted for the appropriate report, when preparing their reports for submission.

There are set tutorials and/or workshops that support the teaching of ENCN201A. Not all are compulsory for all students. Please be sure to check whether you are required to attend.

Tutorials: 90 minute writing assessment test; a 60 minute resubmission help session.

Workshops: Writing help workshop: 1 hour per week for five weeks – the workshop is run by ASC for those considered to need further assistance with writing; the need to participate will be assessed and students notified after the writing assessment tutorial (Term 1); attendance at the tutorial is compulsory.

In addition, there will be a 1 hour workshop for those who are resubmitting their oral presentation.

For further information see Civil and Natural Resources Engineering .

All ENCN201 Occurrences

  • ENCN201-21A (C) Any Time Start 2021