WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS, UNDERGRADUATE LEVELS OF CONFIDENCE AND THE ENGINEERING PORTFOLIO

– In this paper, we will summarize some of the results, first, from our course syllabi project that we conducted at the University of Manitoba and, secondly, from our study of second-year students’ levels of confidence in a communication class. In the course syllabi project, we discovered that course outlines in our Engineering school gave little information on the assignments expected of students, so much so that students may have found completing them to be difficult. In the second study, we found that students generally lacked confidence in writing tasks, especially at the beginning of term.  These two studies suggest that we need to find a way to guide students in the writing of the assignments that we expect of them if they are to develop the necessary confidence in their ability to write well within a professional context. One way to do that may be the introduction of a portfolio requirement within the Engineering curriculum, A portfolio will serve as a record of students’ ongoing achievements in written assignments throughout their academic programs and, as they compile their portfolios, they can reflect on that achievement and move forward – more communicatively competent and more confident.