English 352 - Undergraduate Technical Writing at New Jersey Institute of Technology

English 352 - Undergraduate Technical Writing at New Jersey Institute of Technology: "Big Changes
Starting in the Fall of 2003, we began assessing 'best' technical writing papers to provide a measure for continual curriculum change and improvement. In the Spring of 2004, we instituted our first change - a common, required syllabus ending with a web portfolio. This syllabus was designed in conjunction with the technical communication instructors. Future changes will also be suggested by the instructors.
The data from the assessment already shows that there was significant improvement in student work between the Fall 2003 and Spring 2004 semesters - our first step in curriculum change was successful. We followed up the Fall assessment with a paper portfolio reading during the spring semester which provided more data for correlation purposes.
The most dramatic innovation in the Spring 2004 curriculum was that, at the end of the semester, each Engl. 352 student had to design their own web portfolio to display their semester's work. Since not all instructors had web experience, the students broke into groups and taught each other. The results that we saw at assessment were very impressive.
If you have comments or would like to test the syllabus, email me at cjohnson@njit.edu."