Learning through inquiry: a creative pilot program for teaching communications in a learner-centered environment

Learning through inquiry, a course designed for first-year engineering students was implemented for the first time in Fall of 1997. Learning through inquiry was created to provide first-year students an opportunity to participate in the development of their abilities to conduct and present research, to identify and articulate problems and to critically reflect on their own work and that of others. All of these skills are critical ones for engineering students, and they make up the essential core of skills that fall under the often vague heading of "communications". The 60 students who registered for the course were able to learn how and why engineers communicate in the context of a truly learner-centered class, as the class was run primarily by a group of seven junior and senior engineering students or engineering learning assistants (ELAs). This presentation describes the progress of this pilot program, and some of the changes the authors are implementing as they run the course again in the Fall of 1998, and looks at the particular challenges of teaching communications in a learner-centered setting.