Bringing Writing Into The Ece Laboratory

Drexel University has instituted an across-the-board policy requiring all students to complete three Writing Intensive (WI) courses after their freshman year. The freshman and sophomore years at Drexel, called The Drexel Engineering Curriculum (TDEC), are an integrated experience in engineering, science and humanities. Two of the courses must be within the student’s major, while the third can be in any discipline. Presently, there are over 200 WI classes at Drexel. Undergraduates, representing all majors are trained and paid peer tutors who work with 10-15 students in a specific writing intensive class. Peer tutors read drafts of student writing. One of the hallmarks of the program is that it is not housed in the English Department. Because of its location within the University’s Honors Program, the program’s dual mission is to create a culture of writing at Drexel. The ECE Department has decided to exceed the minimum of two writing intensive courses within the CE and EE degree programs by changing four lab and design oriented courses to the WI style. The ECE WI courses are required for all EE and CE students, with the exception of some bachelors-masters students. In this paper we will describe how ECEL 301, a third year laboratory course, and ECE 491, the first quarter of Senior Design, were modified to meet the new requirements. Changes to course schedules and assignments as well as the development of writing assessment tools have been required. End-of-term assessment tools will be modified to collect feedback on the effectiveness of the program.