CC BY
2
Original article
UDC 378+316.4+32.019.52
DOI10.24147/2413-6182.2024.11(1).173-190
ISSN 2413-6182 eISSN 2658-4867
COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN ENGINEERING CURRICULUM: THE CHALLENGE OF MEDIATIZED SOCIETY
D.Yu. Baskakova1, O.Yu. Belash2, S.O. Shaposhnikov3, L.V. Sharakhina4B
1 2' 3' 4 St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI" (ETU) (St. Petersburg, Russia)
Abstract: This article investigates the needs of engineering specialists for specific communication skills of junior, senior students, and young professionals. The results obtained allow designing education environment and specific courses to meet these needs and correspond to mediatized society issues. Background: University programs in engineering have to provide soft skills education courses to encourage the generic communication skills development, which allows to perform tasks and to function successfully in new circumstances. CDIO and STEM education approaches forces universities to introduce communication courses to engineers' curricula in addition to specific engineering courses and basics. A comprehensive view of the necessity to master generic and specific communication skills from students' in engineering and young professionals' perspectives is represented in the study. Research Questions: RQ1: Which communication skills and knowledge are necessary for engineering students and recent graduates for their professional occupation?; RQ2: Is there any dynamics of communication skills demand evaluations depending on respondents' professional experience?; RQ3: Are communication skills of engineering graduates of value for employers? Methodology: The conducted comprehensive research covers several groups of respondents: engineering students (N = 827), recent graduates (N = 92), and employers (N = 72). A questionnaire method was chosen for data collection. Findings: Research results demonstrate that 99% students in engineering consider necessary for their future professional performance to master specific communication skills: ability to manage conflicts, persuasion and argumentation skills, ability to criticise in a well-argued manner, to substantiate criticism, ability to react to criticism constructively, establishment and maintenance of business relations, team relationship management, understanding of business ethics, keeping business negotiations, keeping business correspondence. 89% of them are ready to study these skills. Willingness to train business and conflictual communication, self-presentation and business presentation is rising as professional career is progressing.
Key words: mediatized society, communication skills, students in engineering, young professionals, engineering curriculum.
© Д.Ю. Баскакова, О.Ю. Белаш, С.О. Шапошников, Л.В. Шарахина, 2024
For citation:
Baskakova, D.Yu., Belash, O.Yu., Shaposhnikov, S.O., Sharakhinа, L.V. (2024), Communication skills in engineering curriculum: the challenge of mediatized society. Communication Studies (Russia), Vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 173-190. DOI: 10.24147/2413-6182.2024.11(1).173-190.
About the authors:
1 Baskakova, Darya Yurievna, PhD, Senior Specialist at the Marketing Department
2 Belash, Olga Yurievna, PhD, Head of the Marketing Department
3 Shaposhnikov, Sergey Olegovich, PhD, Head of the Center for Engineering Education Development
4 Sha^kh^, Larisa Valentinovna, PhD, Head of the Public Relations Study Department
Corresponding authors:
i, 2, 3, 4 Postal address: 5/F, Professora Popova ul., St. Petersburg, 197022, Russia
1 E-mail: marketing@etu.ru
2 E-mail: oybelash@etu.ru
3 E-mail: soshaposhnikov@etu.ru
4 E-mail: lvsharakhina@etu.ru Conflict of interest:
The authors declare no conflict of interest Received: September 20, 2023 Revised: October 18, 2023 Accepted: December 27, 2023
Introduction
Nowadays the issues of engineering professional practices are constantly changing and the modern world demands integration of professionals in different subject areas to face global challenges such as climate changes, SaRS-COVID-19 outbreak. Fluid and flexible managerial approaches, project and product-oriented business strategies also require professional teams able to meet such business objectives. Above these issues we observe a high level of digital communication penetration into different social practices, and it is followed by media discourse development, communication environment transformation. Scientific reflection of media market influence on social development crystallized the term and the phenomena of mediatization [Krotz 2009; Schultz 2004; Hepp 2019].
General publics of today are in habit to use high-speed communication technologies which greatly influenced traditional practices of communication subjects (the source versus the receiver]: we can't already understand a feedback to a message as a dispatch laid over a prolonged time. Digital communications embodied the transaction communication model, featured by the constant changes of addressant and addressee roles [Gavra 2011]. And if a person is involved in social media communication it is already nearly impossible not to practice mass communications [Efanov 2022]. Above all this, the perspective of artificial intelligence machines to restructure labour market actualizes human fluid cognitive skills, ability to work in teams, empathy and other. Thus, we consider communication skills as necessary features of modern mediatized postindustrial society professional. This understanding led to a communicative competence of an individual in mediatized world conceptualization [Chankova 2018; Chankova, Sorokin 2021].
Moreover, "while the intense mediatization of our worlds brings with it a de facto openness to and the possibility of connectivity with the other (cosmopolitanism], it also makes it possible to create mediated bubbles of closure, clash, monitoring and exclusivism as extensions of offline reality" [Christensen 2014: 160]. These controversial trends of the mediatized society require additional skills of communication (i.e. abilities to stay calm in communication overload cases, to master confrontation in a positive manner, to present personal position or a project in different communication channels and platforms, etc.] as far as "affordances of media that make them attractive to people - sustaining self-expressivity, the micromanagement of everyday life, and the overall realization of life-changing plans and projects - may also lead to experiences of stress, frustration, and diminishing control over one's life" [Jansson 2018]. Mediatized communication practices implicate "various forms of industrial design, from hardware to graphics to customized services, contribute to making the process of media appropriation smoother: making the product easier and more efficient to use; more attractive as an accessory within the consumer's lifestyle; and adapted to the spatial and temporal dynamics of the contexts of use" [Jansson 2018]. Thus, engineers continue their influence on social practices and they are in need to master different communication practices to be successful in mediatized environment and to get understanding of social design influenced by digital communication technologies [Margolin, Margolin 2002; Koskinen, Hush 2016] and communities, values they are committed as employees and citizens [Sharakhina 2023].
We observe the interest for engineering curricula modeling to meet these needs and communication courses embedding. Worth to mention that communication skills can be treated as transversal ones and the European Commission in communication stresses that "Beyond technical skills, the labour market increasingly needs transversal skills like working together, critical thinking, and creative problem solving" (https://ec.europa.eu/social/main. jsp?catId=1223&langId=en 26.02.2023].
International CDIO project was launched in 2000 as an initiative to transform engineering education (http://cdio.org], and the leading Russian engineering universities joined the project. The project objective is to develop engineering curricula according to the model "Conceive - Design - Implement - Operate" to overcome contradictions between engineering theory and practice which is the worldwide observed [Kutuzov, Shaposhnikov 2012: 3]. The specific focus is made on embedding to engineering curricula interpersonal competencies such as interdisciplinary team work and communication skills [Crawley, Malmqvist, Lucas, Brodeu 2011].
The leading Russian service for recruitment and employment conducted a survey among more than 100 employers to reveal the most necessary skills for employees (the list of skills was based on the experts forecast made during the Davos World Economic Forum in 2008], see Fig. 1.
ability to manage people creativity In a general sense critical thinking
personal opinion formation and decision-making Integrated and multilevel problem solving emotional Intelligence
5,9
8,1
Fig. 1. The most important skills of job seekers
The employers were proposed to estimate on a 1-10 scale the most valuable for the company skills of job seekers.
The most important skill according to the employers' point of views is the ability to interact with people. Intellectual flexibility and customer-oriented approach took the second place, and then goes an ability to carry on negotiations and emotional intelligence. Thus we observe that the most important skills for any job seeker are related to successful human-to-human communication and we decided to explore the vision of necessary generic and specific communication skills among engineering students studying at St. Petersburg Electrotech-nical University "LETI" and recent graduates - young professionals.
This situation inspired authors to conduct a survey targeted to evaluate the demand of modern engineers for communication skills. Study research questions were the following:
RQ1: Which communication skills and knowledge are necessary for engineering students and recent graduates for their professional occupation?
RQ2: Is there any dynamics of communication skills demand evaluations depending on respondents' professional experience?
RQ3: Are communication skills of engineering graduates of value for employers?
Fragmented results of the study were presented in the authors' publication [Baskakova et al. 2023].
Related works on communication skills in electrical engineers curricula
The importance of soft skills, media literacy in general, and communication skills specifically development for engineering students successful employment is widely discussed among representatives of industries, higher education management, and the topic was brought to scientific researches.
For example, issues of curriculum development in engineering education, embedding training in communication skills were revealed by Clifford Whitcomb and Leslie E. Whitcomb. The authors stress the necessity to start soft skills development from "micro skills" (effective interpersonal and team communication skills: how to engage, listen, manage conflict, and influence others with highly constructive, repeatable communication exchanges] and help to develop higher-level skills for more complex situations, such as dealing with confrontation and conflict negotiation [Whitcomb, Whitcomb 2013].
10 years before "a methodology for incorporating effective communication skills into the engineering curriculum" was presented by M. Dakich [Da-kich 1991]. The author offers to "to integrate written and oral communication skills directly into the engineering curriculum" as a starting point, while "Laboratory and senior design projects are ideal for an interdisciplinary approach to improving communication skills".
Aidan O'Dwyer studied cases "in which the ability to communicate effectively was embedded into modules for which the author had academic responsibility, on both Level 8 (Bachelors] and Level 9 (Masters] engineering programs" [O'Dwyer 2010]. He outlines that "The generic competency was developed using formal student presentations, mostly done individually, with a minority done in teams".
In the 1990s, when the topic soft skills for engineers demonstrated its being in demand, we also observe a national study of aerospace engineering students in USA: "The study included questions about the importance of certain communications and information skills to professional success, the instruction students had received in these skills, and perceived helpfulness of the instruction" [Pinelli, Barclay, Kennedy 1995].
Similar issue was presented in 2018 by S.M. Ghouse, M. Chaudhary and S. Garg research demonstrating situation in the National Capital Region, India [Ghouse, Chaudhary, Garg 2018].
Their focus was made on a gap of students and employers perception importance of non-technical skills (see Table 1].
Table 1
Comparative ranking of skills
Skills Students Employers
Mean Score Rank Mean Score Rank
Basic skills
Oral communication skill (speaking, listening) 4,64 1 4,14 5
Reading skill 4,00 12 3,14 16
Writing skill 3,94 14 3,30 15
Numeracy and quantitative literacy 4,05 11 4,16 3
Social skills
Teamwork skill 4,31 5 4,16 4
Inter-personal skill 4,18 9 4,02 7
Conceptual skills
Problem solving skill 4,20 8 4,30 2
Planning and organizing skill 4,24 6 3,52 13
Decision making skill 4,40 4 3,39 14
Learning skill (ability to learn) 4,47 2 4,39 1
Personal skills and traits
Dependability 3,10 16 3,66 12
Responsibility 3,76 15 3,93 9
Self-confidence, positive image 3,98 13 3,80 11
Adaptability, flexibility 4,21 7 4,05 6
Honesty, integrity 4,06 10 3,95 8
Ability to work without supervision 4,42 3 3,84 10
The topic is still of high interest and importance: in 2021 we observe similar research for IT students, which demonstrates once again that "In order to respond to job market's demand IT professional is expected to work upon building soft skills like communication skills, team-building and leadership" [Burbekova 2021].
Engineers of mediatized knowledge society, especially IT professionals, are engaged in technologically-mediated work, and the "new media technologies encourage and exacerbate an older tendency among salaried professionals to put work at the heart of daily concerns, often at the expense of other sources of intimacy and fulfillment" [Gregg 2013].
The motivation of our research is in creating an understanding by higher education management of generic and specific communication skills requirements from students in engineering and young professionals' perspectives. This will help to embed such courses to electrical engineers curricula in a more effective and smoother way.
Methodology
The conducted comprehensive research covers several groups of respondents: engineering students, recent graduates, and employers.
Respondents' selection parameters were the following:
- engineering education of recent graduates;
- studying engineering professions for students;
- recent engineering graduates employed for employers.
A questionnaire method was chosen for data collection.
Students.
2 basic groups of student were the respondents: junior students (1, 2 years, bachelors, 581 respondents, sampling error is 4%]; senior students (3, 4 years bachelors and 1, 2 years magister, 246 respondents, sampling error is 6%].
Recent graduates.
The group is represented by engineering graduates, who got their diplomas within 2 years before. 92 respondents participated the survey, sampling error s 10%.
Employers.
Heads of organisations, human resources managers, heads and specialists of organizations' technical units were polled. 72 representatives of 68 organisations participated the survey represent the following branches of economic activities:
- IT;
- Electronics engineering;
- Radio engineering;
- Electrical engineering;
- Shipbuilding industry;
- Fuel and power industry;
- Science and education.
Results
RQ1: Which communication skills and knowledge are necessary for engineering students and recent graduates for their professional occupation?
The vast majority of students and recent graduates (99% and 96% con-cordantly] distinguish the necessity of communication skills and knowledge for their professional activity.
Communication skills and knowledge evaluated were grouped together into 3 areas: skills of effective communication in conflict situations (hereinafter - conflict communication]; business communication; presentation skills (self-presentation and business presentation]. More detailed description of communication skills and knowledge areas which are in demand of students and recent graduates is presented later.
Conflict communication skills.
The most of students and recent graduates review these skills as important (Fig. 2].
Ability to react to criticism constructively
Ability to criticise in a well-argued manner, to substantiate criticism
Persuasion and argumentation skills
Ability to manage conflicts
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
recent graduates ■ students Fig. 2. The demand for conflict communication skills, %
More than 70% of students and recent graduates consider abilities to react to criticism constructively and to criticise in a well-argued manner, to substantiate criticism, to persuade interlocutors as necessary for their future professional career.
Business communication skills.
Business correspondence skill is reviewed as demanded by more than half of respondents (both by students and recent graduates, see Fig. 3).
Moreover, the ability to establish and keep business relations and negotiations is reviewed as a necessary skill by 15% fewer number of recent graduates in comparison to students' extent.
Presentation skills.
In general, self-presentation and business presentation skills are more in, demand by students, rather than recent graduates (Fig. 4). Furthermore, more than a half of students perceive self-presentation skills and public speaking as important, but for recent graduates these skills are 17% and 26% lower in importance concordantly.
Thus we observe that the most demanded communication skills for student and recent graduates are the skills of effective communication in conflict situations.
RQ2: Is there any dynamics of communication skills demand evaluations depending on respondents professional experience?
Figures 3-5 illustrate that the demand for specific communication skills of recent graduates is lower than of students. But, nevertheless, it is necessary to stress that the proportion of recent graduates, who consider communication skills as demanded for their professional career, is very big, equaling to 96%. Therefore recent graduates answering to the question of necessary communication skills were choosing only those from the whole range, which they feel as a need for their occupation.
77%
81%
71%
79%
74%
78%
45%
60%
On the contrary, students don't have a developed expertise in specific communication skills they really need for their career. It resulted in a wider variety of preferences in measuring the demand of student for specific communication knowledge and skills.
recent graduates »students
Keeping business correspondence
Keeping business negotiations Understanding of business ethics
Team relati onship management
Establishment and maintenance of business relations
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Fig. 3. The demand for business communication skills, %
Self-presentation
Pubic speaking
Presentation management
Ability to write about professional
activit és or development for corporate web-page or social media
Ability to create scientific articles
0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
recentgraduates ■ students Fig. 4. The demand for presentation skills, %
65%
66%
46%
60%
49%
36%
48%
29%_
^■44%
47%
64%
38%
64%
33% 42%
15%
34%
19%
34%
100%
Conflict communication skills Bus ness communication skills Presentation skills
■ Junior students f. Graduate students I Recent graduates
Fig. 5. Average demand for communication knowledge and skills groups
Figure 6 represents an average estimation of communication knowledge and skills in demand by the respondents groups.
We observe the following differences in the demand by different group for communication knowledge and skills:
- The existence of significant differences of conflict communication skills demand by different respondents groups were not outlined.
- We observe a slight reduction of business communication skills demand with gain in job experience.
- Self-presentation and business presentation (presentation management] skills are more in demand by recent alumni (30%); but the demand of these skills is 20% higher among students.
The biggest difference in demands by alumni and students is observed in the following skills:
- Public speaking (recent alumni observe such a skill as a necessary by
26%].
- Ability to write about professional activities or development for corporate web-page or social media (recent alumni observe such a skill as a necessary by 19%].
- Self-presentation skill (recent alumni observe such a skill as a necessary by 17%].
RQ2: Is there any demand for engineering alumni communication skills from employers?
The study helped to evaluate employers' satisfaction by recent alumni communication skills.
The vast majority of employers (56%] observe the level of communication skills excellence by recent alumni as average or high (42%), according to the scale "low - average - high". Only 2% of employers specify the level of communication skills excellence by recent alumni as low.
Within the study employers also assessed the importance of communication skills for recent alumni: 64% of industry representatives perceived it as important and 36% of them as "sometimes important and sometimes not".
The Table 2 represents the level of communication skills importance by recent alumni in correlation to employers' vision.
Table 2
Employers Assesments of Communication Skills Importance and its Possession by Recent Alumni, %
Recent Alumni Communication Skills Level The Level of Communication Skills Importance for Recent Graduates By Employers Assessments
Important Sometimes important and sometimes not
High level 52 25
Average 45 75
Low 3 0
Total 100 100
The Table 2 demonstrates that employers, who assess recent alumni communication skills as "sometimes important and sometimes not" mostly perceive recent alumni communication skills as average. At the same time we fix that in case of growing importance of employers' demand for recent alumni communication skills possession the demand for communication skills is rising among recent alumni. Such correlation may be обусловлена требованиями к молодым специалистам при приеме на работу. And we would like to draw the attention to the prevailing number of employers participated this poll who review applicants communication skills as important.
Moreover, the study outlined the economic sectors with different opinions on recent alumni communication skills importance (Fig. 6). But it is necessary to mention that the results are concerned to engineering sector and do not претендуют to cover all the economic sectors.
IT and Electronics Engineering sectors representatives mark higher importance of recent graduates communication skills. The following fact explored by the survey is of interest too: these economic sectors representatives with a higher demand for communication skills also outline the importance of the ability to work in team by 14% more frequent in comparison to other sectors representatives. Thus, we are able to propose that there's some specificity in these sectors occupation based on employees' interaction, which should be noted by universities' management in planning and realization of education processes.
On the contrary, representatives of fuel and power industry perceive recent alumni communication skills as important while recruiting them by 16% less.
100%
81%
80%
a> re xz
V)
e 60%
o *->
M
| 40% O
20% 0%
IT Electronics engineering Fuel and power industry
^^All surveyed employers
Fig. 6. Economic sectors with levels of demand for communication skills groups, different from average ones
Conclusion
The research results demonstrate that engineering and IT-students are conscious of communicative skills possession (either present day students or young professionals]. Moreover, employers stress the necessity of communication skills for modern professional engineers.
Represented findings are of interest and usefulness for higher education institutions to include communicative skills development in curricula of IT and engineering students for successful employment. We would like to pay attention to the fact that the absolute majority of students require the following skills: ability to criticise in a well-argued manner, to substantiate criticism, keeping business correspondence and negotiations, presentation skills, etc.
At the same time some communication skills are required by a specific ratio of students, i.e. establishment and maintenance of business relations, ability to write about professional activities or development for corporate web-page or social media, ability to create scientific articles. The request for these types of communication competencies is explained by students' professional interests; whether they are planning to establish private business structure or plan scientific career development. We think of a more focused approach for such requests in the form of elective courses and special trainings. Anyway, we observe the necessity either of interpersonal or mass communication skills possession, what is of great importance for any specialist in mediatized environment.
Understanding of these specific communication skills requirements can be followed by engineering curricula development which are targeted to educate engineers as communicative competent professionals with 'broad minds' who perform technical engineering tasks with a social design perspective. Me-
76%
66%
50%
diatized society can't presume engineers with lack of communication expertise according to McLuhan 'the medium is the message' concept [McLuhan 1964].
Nevertheless, we also explored the consistency of decrease in the need of mastering communication skills among young professionals. The identification of the factors influencing decrease in the need of mastering communication skills among young professionals has a potential to become an interesting research objective.
References
Baskakova D.Yu., Belash O.Yu., Shaposhnikov S.O., Sharakhina L.V. (2023), Development of communication skills in engineering curriculum. Quality. Innovation. Education, no. 5 (187), pp. 93-102. (in Russian) Burbekova, S. (2021), Soft Skills as the Most In-Demand Skills of Future IT Specialists. 2021 IEEE International Conference on Smart Information Systems and Technologies (SIST), Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, 28-30 April 2021, pp. 1-5. DOI: 10.1109/SIST50301.2021.9465935. Chankova, E.V. (2018), Kommunikativnaya kompetentnost' v usloviyakh izmenyayu-shcheisya sotsial'noi real'nosti [Communicative competence of an individual in the conditions of a changing social reality], Prof. Thesis, Moscow, 384 p. (in Russian)
Chankova, E.V., Sorokin, O.V. (2021), Personal user's communicative competence of "mediatized world" construction. RUDN Journal of Studies in Literature and Journalism, Vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 730-737. DOI: 10.22363/2312-9220-2021-26-4730-737.
Christensen, M. (2014), Technology, Place and Mediatized Cosmopolitanism. Hepp, A., Krotz, F. (eds.). Mediatized Worlds. Culture and Society in a Media Age, London, Palgrave Macmillan publ., pp. 159-173. DOI: 10.1057/9781137300355_10. Crawley, E.F., Malmqvist, J., Lucas, W.A., Brodeur, D.R. (2011), The CDIO Syllabus v2.0. An Updated Statement of Goals for Engineering Education. Proceedings of the 7th International CDIO Conference, Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, June 20-23, 2011, available at: http://cdio.org/files/project/file/cdio_ syllabus_v2.pdf (date of accessed: June 10, 2023). Dakich, M. (1991), Integrating writing and speaking skills into the engineering curriculum. IPCC 91 Proceedings The Engineered Communication, Orlando, FL, USA, Vol. 1, pp. 88-92. DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1991.172741. Efanov, A.A. (2022), Glubinnaya mediatizatsiya v neoinformatsionnom obshchestve (na primere sovremennykh mediapraktik) [Deep mediatization in neoinformation society (by the example of moderm mediapracticies)], Prof. Thesis, Samara, 391 p. (in Russian).
Gavra, D. (2011), Osnovy teorii kommunikatsii [Basics of Communication Theory],
Teaching aid, St. Petersburg, Piter publ., 288 p. (in Russian). Ghouse, S.M., Chaudhary, M., Garg, S. (2018), Importance of Non-Technical Skills for Employment Opportunities: A Gap Analysis of Students and Employers Perception Importance of Non-Technical Skills. 2018 Eleventh International Conference on Contemporary Computing (IC3), Noida, India, pp. 1-6. DOI: 10.1109/IC3.2018.8530663.
Gregg, M. (2013), Work's intimacy, Wiley publ., 200 p.
Hepp, A. (2019), Deep mediatization, 1st ed., London, Routledge publ., 260 p. DOI: 10.4324/9781351064903.
Jansson, A. (2018), Mediatization as a Framework for Social Design: For a Better Life with Media. Design and Culture, Vol. 10, iss. 3, pp. 233-252. DOI: 10.1080/17547075.2018.1511140.
Koskinen, I., Hush, G. (2016), Utopian, molecular and sociological social design. International Journal of Design, Vol. 10, iss. 1, pp. 65-71.
Krotz, F. (2009), Mediatization: a concept with which to grasp media and societal change. Lundby, K. (ed.). Mediatization: Concept, Changes, Consequences, New York, Peter Lang publ., pp. 21-40.
Kutuzov, V.M., Shaposhnikov, S.O. (eds.) (2012), Perspektivy razvitiya inzhenernogo obrazovaniya: initsiativa CDIO [Perspectives of engineering education development: CDIO initiative], St. Petersburg, St. Petersburg Electrotechnical University "LETI" publ., 29 p. (in Russian).
Margolin, V, Margolin, S. (2002), A 'Social Model' of Design: Issues of Practice and Research. Design Issues, Vol. 18, iss. 4, pp. 24-30.
McLuhan, H.M. (1964), Understanding Media: The Extensions Of Man, 1st ed., McGraw Hill, 328 p.
O'Dwyer, A. (2010), Learning and Assessment of Student Communication Skills on Engineering Programs: Some Experiences. 2010 IEEE Transforming Engineering Education: Creating Interdisciplinary Skills for Complex Global Environments, Dublin, Ireland, pp. 1-13. DOI: 10.1109/TEE.2010.5508840.
Pinelli, T.E., Barclay, R.O., Kennedy, J.M. (1995), Workplace communications skills and the value of communications and information use skills instruction-engineering students' perspectives. 1995 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference. IPCC 95 Proceedings. Smooth Sailing to the Future, Savannah, GA, USA, pp. 161-165, DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1995.554892.
Schultz, W. (2004), Reconstructing mediatization as an analytical concept. European Journal of Communication, Vol. 19, iss. 1, pp. 87-101.
Sharakhina, L. (2023), Neoinstitutional Approach as a Methodology of Corporate Citizen-ship Phenomenon Analysis. Discourse, Vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 73-85. DOI: 10.32603/2412-8562-2023-9-4-73-85. (in Russian).
Whitcomb, C., Whitcomb, L.E. (2013), Develop Fluency with Encouraging, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing. Whitcomb, C., Whitcomb, L.E. Effective Interpersonal and Team Communication Skills for Engineers, IEEE publ., pp. 89-95. DOI: 10.1002/9781118514283.ch12.
Список литературы
Баскакова Д.Ю., Белаш О.Ю., Шапошников С.О., Шарахина Л.В. О развитии коммуникативных навыков при подготовке инженеров // Качество. Инновации. Образование. 2023. № 5 (187). С. 93-102.
Гавра Д. Основы теории коммуникации: учеб. пособие: стандарт третьего поколения. СПб.: Питер, 2011. 288 с.
Ефанов А.А. Глубинная медиатизация в неоинформационном обществе (на примере современных медиапрактик): дис. ... д-ра социол. наук. Самара, 2022. 391 с.
Перспективы развития инженерного образования: инициатива CDIO: информ.-метод. изд. / пер. с англ. и ред. В.М. Кутузова и С.О. Шапошникова. СПб.: Изд-во СПбГЭТУ «ЛЭТИ», 2012. 29 с.
Чанкова Е.В. Коммуникативная компетентность в условиях изменяющейся социальной реальности: дис. ... д-ра социол. наук. М., 2018. 384 с.
Чанкова Е.В., Сорокин О.В. Коммуникативная компетентность личности пользователя в конструировании «медиатизирующегося мира» // Вестник Российского университета дружбы народов. Серия: Литературоведение. Журналистика. 2021. Т. 26, № 4. C. 730-737. DOI: 10.22363/2312-9220-2021-26-4730-737. (На англ. яз.).
Шарахина Л.В. Неоинституциональный подход как методологическая основа исследования феномена корпоративного гражданства // Дискурс. 2023. Т. 9, № 4. С. 73-85. DOI: 10.32603/2412-8562-2023-9-4-73-85.
Burbekova S. Soft Skills as the Most In-Demand Skills of Future IT Specialists // 2021 IEEE International Conference on Smart Information Systems and Technologies (SIST), Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan, 28-30 April 2021. IEEE, 2021. P. 1-5. DOI: 10.1109/SIST50301.2021.9465935.
Christensen M. Technology, Place and Mediatized Cosmopolitanism // Mediatized Worlds. Culture and Society in a Media Age / eds. A. Hepp, F. Krotz. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. P. 159-173. DOI: 10.1057/9781137300355_10.
Crawley E.F., Malmqvist J., Lucas W.A., Brodeur D.R. The CDIO Syllabus v2.0. An Updated Statement of Goals for Engineering Education // Proceedings of the 7th International CDIO Conference, Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, June 20-23, 2011. URL: http://cdio.org/files/project/file/cdio_syllabus_v2.pdf (дата обращения: 10.06.2023).
Dakich M. Integrating writing and speaking skills into the engineering curriculum // IPCC 91 Proceedings The Engineered Communication, Orlando, FL, USA, 1991. IEEE, 1991. Vol. 1. P. 88-92. DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1991.172741.
Ghouse S.M., Chaudhary M., Garg S. Importance of Non-Technical Skills for Employment Opportunities: A Gap Analysis of Students and Employers Perception Importance of Non-Technical Skills // 2018 Eleventh International Conference on Contemporary Computing (IC3), Noida, India. IEEE, 2018. P. 1-6. DOI: 10.1109/IC3.2018.8530663.
Gregg M. Work's intimacy. John Wiley & Sons, 2013. 200 p.
Hepp A. Deep mediatization. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 2019. 260 p. DOI: 10.4324/9781351064903.
Jansson A. Mediatization as a Framework for Social Design: For a Better Life with Media // Design and Culture. 2018. Vol. 10, iss 3. P. 233-252. DOI: 10.1080/17547075.2018.1511140.
Koskinen I., Hush G. Utopian, molecular and sociological social design // International Journal of Design. 2016. Vol. 10, iss. 1. P. 65-71.
Krotz F. Mediatization: a concept with which to grasp media and societal change // Mediatization: Concept, Changes, Consequences / ed. K. Lundby. New York: Peter Lang, 2009. P. 21-40.
Margolin V., Margolin S. A 'Social Model' of Design: Issues of Practice and Research // Design Issues. 2002. Vol. 18, iss. 4. P. 24-30.
McLuhan H.M. Understanding Media: The Extensions Of Man. 1st ed. McGraw Hill, 1964. 328 p.
O'Dwyer A. Learning and Assessment of Student Communication Skills on Engineering Programs: Some Experiences // 2010 IEEE Transforming Engineering Education: Creating Interdisciplinary Skills for Complex Global Environments, Dublin, Ireland. IEEE, 2010. P. 1-13. DOI: 10.1109/TEE.2010.5508840.
Pinelli T.E., Barclay R.O., Kennedy J.M. Workplace communications skills and the value of communications and information use skills instruction-engineering students' perspectives // 1995 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference. IPCC 95 Proceedings. Smooth Sailing to the Future, Savannah, GA, USA. IEEE, 1995. P. 161-165. DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1995.554892.
Schultz W. Reconstructing mediatization as an analytical concept // European Journal of Communication. 2004. Vol. 19, iss. 1. P. 87-101.
Whitcomb C., Whitcomb L.E. Develop Fluency with Encouraging, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing // Whitcomb C., Whitcomb L.E. Effective Interpersonal and Team Communication Skills for Engineers. IEEE, 2013. P. 89-95. DOI: 10.1002/9781118514283.ch12.
Научная статья
КОММУНИКАТИВНЫЕ НАВЫКИ В ПРОГРАММЕ ПОДГОТОВКИ ИНЖЕНЕРОВ: ВЫЗОВЫ МЕДИАТИЗИРОВАННОГО ОБЩЕСТВА
Д.Ю. Баскакова1, О.Ю. Белаш2, С.О. Шапошников3, Л.В. Шарахина4в
1 2' 3' 4 Санкт-Петербургский электротехнический университет «ЛЭТИ» (Санкт-Петербург, Россия)
Аннотация: Статья посвящена исследованию потребностей инженеров (студен-
тов младших и старших курсов, а также молодых специалистов) в специальных коммуникативных навыках. Полученные результаты представляется возможным использовать при формировании образовательной среды в вузе, а также разработке специальных дисциплин для удовлетворения выявленных потребностей и возможности соответствовать новым вызовам ме-
диатизированного общества. История вопроса: Университетские программы инженерной подготовки должны содержать общие курсы по развитию мягких навыков (soft skills), чтобы обучающиеся могли соответствовать современным обстоятельствам и успешно выполнять профессиональные задачи. Вузы должны внедрять коммуникационные дисциплины в программы подготовки будущих инженеров в соответствии с образовательными стандартами CDIO и STEM. Всесторонний обзор потребностей студентов инженерных направлений подготовки и молодых специалистов в общих и специальных коммуникационных навыках представлен в настоящем исследовании. Вопросы, раскрываемые в исследовании: 1) Какие коммуникационные навыки и знания необходимы студентам инженерных направлений подготовки и недавним выпускникам в их профессиональной деятельно-
сти?; 2) Есть ли динамика в оценке потребностей в коммуникационных навыках в зависимости от профессионального опыта респондента?; 3) Важно ли наличие коммуникационных навыков у выпускников инженерных направлений подготовки для современного работодателя? Методика исследования: Проведенное исследование охватывает несколько групп респондентов: студентов инженерных направлений подготовки (827 чел.), недавних выпускников инженерных направлений подготовки (92 чел.) и работодателей выпускников инженерных направлений подготовки (72 чел.). Сбор данных проводился методом анкетного опроса. Полученные результаты: Результаты исследования показали, что 99 % студентов инженерных направлений подготовки испытывают потребность в освоении специальных коммуникационных навыков для своего успешного профессионального развития, например навыки аргументации, справляться с конфликтами и убеждать, умение аргументированно и грамотно высказывать критические замечания, а также обосновывать критику и конструктивно реагировать на критические замечания, способность устанавливать и поддерживать деловые связи, управлять работой команды, понимать этику ведения бизнеса и деловых переговоров, а также вести деловую переписку. Обучаться указанным навыкам готовы 89 % из них. Потребности в формировании коммуникативных навыков в деловой и конфликтной средах, самопрезентации и бизнес-презентации растут по мере развития профессиональной карьеры.
Ключевые слова: медиатизированное общество, коммуникационные навыки, студенты инженерных направлений подготовки, молодые специалисты, программа подготовки инженеров.
Для цитирования:
Баскакова Д.Ю., Белаш О.Ю., Шапошников С.О., Шарахина Л.В. Коммуникативные навыки в программе подготовки инженеров: вызовы медиати-зированного общества // Коммуникативные исследования. 2024. Т. 11. № 1. С. 173-190. DOI: 10.24147/2413-6182.2024.11(1).173-190. (На англ. яз.).
Сведения об авторах:
1 Баскакова, Дарья Юрьевна, канд. социол. наук, старший специалист по маркетингу Центр маркетинга
2 Белаш, Ольга Юрьевна, канд. техн. наук, доцент, директор Центра маркетинга
3 Шапошников, Сергей Олегович, канд. техн. наук, доцент, руководитель Информационно-методического центра развития инженерного образования
4 Шарахина, Лариса Валентиновна, канд. филос. наук, доцент, заведующий кафедрой «Связи с общественностью»
Контактная информация:
1, 2, з, 4 Почтовый адрес: 197022, Россия, Санкт-Петербург, ул. Профессора Попова, 5/Ф
1 E-mail: marketing@etu.ru
190 D.Yu. Baskakova et al. Communication Studies, 2024, Vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 173-190
2 E-mail: oybelash@etu.ru
3 E-mail: soshaposhnikov@etu.ru
4 E-mail: lvsharakhina@etu.ru Конфликт интересов:
Авторы заявляют об отсутствии конфликта интересов Дата поступления статьи: 20.09.2023 Дата рецензирования: 18.10.2023 Дата принятия в печать: 27.12.2023
