Integrating Communications Skills with Discipline Content

Abstract

The development of communication skills in Computer Science majors has become a priority, with industry identifying the development of communication and critical thinking skills as an area in need of reform in the higher education sector. There are benefits in the teaching of communications skills as a dedicated course, such as extensive face-to-face time and feedback on communications activities. However, there are also benefits in the teaching of communication skills as embedded activities within a discipline course: activities become more relevant to students when they are directly tied to discipline tasks that all students are undertaking. This paper reports on an intensive communications and critical thinking course that provides both depth in the study of communications skills and relevance through integration with discipline content. The main contribution of this paper is a description of a set of course activities within the ICT discipline; these activities represent examples of both informal activities designed to engage students regularly with developing their communication skills, and formal activities designed to assist assessment, including self- and peer-assessment. Our initial analysis of the progress of these students demonstrates increased clarity in the students’ understanding of study and communication requirements, and improved performance in language-rich assessments.