King Abdulaziz University

Faculty of Engineering

General Courses Unit – IE200

Course Outline

Mission Statement

The mission of the General Courses Unit is to serve the students of the Faculty of Engineering by assisting them to acquire the English proficiency and communication skills they need for their current studies and future careers as engineering professionals.

General Objectives

The course is primarily aimed at developing the students’ speaking and oral abilities in English. Students of the Faculty of Engineering are required to engage in various situations that require a specific verbal ability. These situations are primarily subject matter specific. This not only holds true in their academic studies but plays a more important role in their professional careers. To this end, the course aims to foment specific verbal skills that would allow students to actively and successfully engage in various oral situations with the correct understanding of the context.

Aside from oral abilities the course also aims to expose students to reading, writing, presentation skills and technical communication skills. This is primarily achieved by using the research process as a vehicle of language acquisition. The course will provide students with the tools to complete background and in-depth reading, design research tools, conduct research, write reports and make recommendations based on the research. The course will further extend the students’ use of spoken English at the upper Intermediate and advanced levels, through exploring contemporary issues.

Course Learning Outcomes – IE200

1. Describe the course design, rules, regulations and evaluation breakdown.
2. Demonstrate verbal communication skills in various subject matter specific situations. (e.g. role plays, dialogues, presentations, group presentations, discussions and debates).
3. Identify elements of report writing and the AIMRAD research structure.
4. Write a research proposal dealing with one contemporary issue.
5. Access information from a variety of sources and critically assess their quality, validity and accuracy.
6. Analyze and interpret in a meaningful way.
7. Use reliable and credible citations to support the credibility and authenticity of the information presented.
8. Demonstrate knowledge of terminology and research process and ability to reflect upon the learning experience.
9. Demonstrate integrity, punctuality, enthusiasm and active class participation.

10.  Maintain a weekly diary reflecting on various aspects of the course.

11.  Maintain an organized and well-kept course portfolio.

Course Book

1. IE200 Communication Skills 2016 – Authored by GCU Staff

Course Structure

1. The course duration is for 14 weeks, with 10 instructional hours per week. This results in 140 instructional hours.
2. The course is divided into 2 tiers.
3. Tier 1 is for the first 8 weeks.
4. Tier 2 is for the last 6 weeks.
5. All students will enter tier 1 and move to tier 2.
6. Tier 1 will focus mainly on speaking skills (but also listening, reading & writing) by introducing students to various oral activities with specific subject-matters.
7. Tier 2 will focus on technical communication and report writing, introducing students to the research process and presentation skills, which will end in the student producing their subject specific research report and defending their work through an oral final defense.
8. An overall grade of 60% is needed in order to pass IE200.

Flipped Classroom

IE200 will make use of the ‘Flipped Classroom’ model as much as possible. What this means is that videos, lectures and exercises are done at home by the student in order to prepare for specific practical activities that will occur in class. This method allows for in-class time to be spent on practically applying what has been learnt at home. Students who do not prepare at home in an adequate manner, by watching the assigned videos, lectures and exercises will suffer in class via poor performance on the in-class activities.  

Attendance Rules

1. Students who have 25% or more unexcused absences will be assigned a DN regardless of their final grade.
2. 1 period is defined as 1 fifty minute session. 1 absence is defined as missing 1 period. The course is composed of 140 periods.
3. Students are expected to be in class on time and ready to participate fully in the lesson. This means students should be present and well equipped for class, having their books and portfolios with them.
4. Students who arrive more than 15 minutes late to class will be recorded as absent for that period.
5. Students who arrive late by more than 5 minutes and less than 15 minutes will be recorded as late. 2 lates will equal 1 absence.
6. In the case of a student being absent, a student must provide a valid excuse to his teacher for that lesson, within 3 days of being absent. If a timely valid excuse is not presented then the absence will remain.
7. For emergency situations that do not fall under point 6, the student is to refer to his teacher.

Student Portfolio

Organization is an important aspect of academic life, and more so professional life. Therefore it is of extreme importance that students of IE200 maintain all of their work in an organized manner by maintaining a portfolio. The portfolio is to be maintained from the beginning of the course and not half way through or just at the end. Students are expected to bring their portfolio with them to every class.

1.    Front Cover

a.     Student Name

b.     Student University Number

c.     Course Title, Course Code, Section & Start Date

d.     Institution Name

e.     Email address

f.      Teacher Names’

2.    Contents Page

3.    Weekly Diary

a.     A diary to be maintained by the student, with weekly entry logs. Students will reflect on the course, what they are studying and learning, if it is helpful, what is positive about the course and what is negative, how the course has/will aid the student in his academic and professional pursuits. All logs are to be dated.

4.    First Divider – Course Outline Material

a.     Course Outline

b.     Course Outline Quiz

c.     Course Documentation

5.    Second Divider – Classwork (Weeks 1 – 8)

a.     Class Notes

b.     All Handouts, Rubrics, Oral Activities, Activity Sheets, Quizzes

6.    Third Divider – Classwork (Weeks 8 – 14)

a.     Class Notes

b.     All Handouts, Activity Sheets, Quizzes

7.    Fourth Divider – Research Material

a.     All Research Material

b.     Data Collection Tools i.e Surveys, Interviews, Observations

c.     Collected Data

d.     All Relevant Background Information

8.    Fifth Divider – Report Write Up

a.     Research Proposals

b.     Written Drafts of all Report Sections

c.     All Rubrics, Feedback Forms and Marked Assignments from your Teacher or Evaluator

9.    Sixth Divider – Presentation Material

a.     Presentations Printouts & Written Notes (if used)

Each section of the portfolio is to be clearly labelled and separated using dividers. The portfolio will contribute towards the student final grade.

Assessment IE200

All students of IE200 will go through IE200 in the same manner and will be assessed in the same way. The assessment is generally formative, as students will be informed of their progress consistently throughout the course. Assessment will also be continuous and will focus mainly on what students are able to produce as opposed to what they know. Therefore the assessment of IE200 is mainly performance based.

Assessment Breakdown