Effectiveness of an Online Writing System in Improving Students’ Writing Skills in Engineering

Technology and Civilization is an advanced general education course (Area V: Culture, Civilization & Global Understanding) in the College of Engineering at San José State University (SJSU) that is designed to introduce students to the realm of history and usage of technology in society from an international perspective and to increase their awareness of both the uncertainties as well as the promises of the utilization of technology as a creative human enterprise. This paper will present detailed data on student achievement of the course and General Education learning objectives. This course utilized the ETS Criterion Writing Evaluation System to allow the students to get enhanced feedback on their writing. In this paper, we will analyze the effects of Criterion on student learning outcomes. We will compare student performance from the Criterion pilot with existing assessment data from this course.