FOCUSING ON COMMUNICATION-SKILLS IN ENGINEERING-EDUCATION

The development of communication skills is now considered to be a desi rable feature of engineering undergraduate courses. However, to conver t what is desirable into reality requires finding space in an already overcrowded syllabus. The solution proposed in this paper is to use th e development of communication skills as the focus for active learning assignments relevant to the particular engineering discipline being s tudied. A 'Learning from Disasters' exercise and two mock public inqui ries recently held in the Civil Engineering Department at Queen's Univ ersity, Belfast (QUB) are illustrations of how this may be achieved an d of the benefits to be gained.