Target Audience Undergraduate engineering students at Virginia Tech
Overall Goal The learners will compose written materials and design visual artifacts, applying the principles of visual rhetoric and expository, argumentative, and persuasive writing skills, to communicate complex ideas effectively with non-engineers.
Scope This Instructional Unit intends to use the development of a crowdfunding campaign as the "vehicle" by which the learning and practice of communication will take place. Therefore, some aspects of this project are beyond the scope of this unit’s defined learning objectives. For example, this unit does not intend to teach students how to create a business plan, how to use video-recording and –editing equipment, or how to develop a product for rapid prototyping. This unit is concerned with teaching the learners how to communicate effectively and helping them develop a portfolio to showcase their communication skills.