Professional accountability in the senior engineering lab

At the University of Akron, mechanical engineering students learn technical communication skills in their senior laboratory course. Experiments are designed to allow role-playing by both student and instructor, so that work is conducted and findings are presented within hypothetical contexts of realistic interactions between industrial firms and their clients. Through role-playing, students learn to analyze an audience and to state objectives clearly. Role-playing reinforces the realistic training students receive in cooperative education programs by allowing them to experience the pressures of professional communication responsibilities. It also narrows the gap between classroom and industry by focusing students´ attention on the results and organizational implications of their work as well as on theory and method.