ACTIVATE | ENGINEERING COMMUNICATION

Faculty Support

Deliver customized communication instruction for your students

Why partner with Activate?

Engineering students are expected to collaborate, document their work, and present it orally in their engineering courses, but those skills are not always explicitly taught. Activate helps bridge that gap. We partner with engineering and computing faculty to integrate communication instruction into their courses. Our model is collaborative, flexible, and grounded in evidence-based pedagogy.

  • 36 Undergraduate courses
  • 11 Department Programs
  • 22 Faculty partners
  • 1600+ Engineering students

Faculty who partner with Activate benefit from

  • Structured support for scaffolding communication assignments
  • Higher-quality student writing and presentations
  • Transfer of skills, leading to higher levels of mastery in advanced courses

How the Activate Model Works

Our approach:

  • Embedded instruction
    Activate collaborates with faculty to integrate communication learning objectives, assignments, and feedback mechanisms directly into technical courses.
  • Scaffolded skill development
    Students practice communication iteratively, receiving feedback at multiple stages rather than only on the final deliverable.
  • Targeted coaching and assessment
    Trained peer and professional coaches provide individualized feedback to students on writing, presentations, and team communication—using shared rubrics and expectations aligned with course goals. Upon request, Activate faculty work alongside engineering faculty to assess student performance.
  • Disciplinary alignment
    All instruction and feedback is contextualized within the norms, genres, and expectations of the specific discipline and course.

What Activate Can Support

Activate partnerships are flexible, tailored to course needs, and grounded in evidence-based pedagogy. Common areas of support include:

  • Technical presentations (design reviews, research talks, posters)
  • Written documents (design documentation, research papers for publication, lab reports, proposals)
  • Job materials (resumes/CVs, cover letters, interviews, personal statements, fellowship applications)
  • Audience awareness and adaptation for industry or research contexts
  • Team communication and collaboration

Levels of Partnership

Faculty engagement with Activate can take several forms, depending on course structure and goals.

  1. Embedded Course Partnership

    Activate works with an instructor to support communication-intensive assignments in a course throughout the semester.

    Features

    • Multiple communication guest lectures
    • Alignment on learning objectives, assignments, and assessment criteria (if applicable)
    • Instructional resources related to assignments (eg, annotated examples, handouts, active learning activities) 1:1 coaching for students/teams
    • Assessment of students’ communication deliverables alongside engineering faculty

  2. Targeted Instruction or Workshop

    Activate provides focused instruction for a specific genre or assignment.

    Features

    • One guest lecture
    • Alignment on learning objectives, assignment, and assessment criteria (if applicable)
    • Instructional resources related to assignment (e.g., annotated examples, handouts, active learning activities) 1:1 coaching for students/teams

  3. Coaching and Assessment

    Activate arranges for our communication coaches to meet with students or teams and helps faculty assess communication deliverables (e.g., presentations, reports, posters).

    Features

    • Alignment on expectations, assignment, and assessment criteria (if applicable)
    • 1:1 coaching for students/teams
    • Assessment of students’ communication deliverables alongside engineering faculty

Who We Work With

Activate partners with departments and programs across the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing. Impact of course support in AY 25-26.

  • 30 distinct courses, total of 36 sections
  • 11 departments or programs
  • 1,015 students enrolled in the courses Activate supports
  • 490 students enrolled in the courses Activate teaches or team-teaches

Interested in Partnering?

We welcome conversations with faculty at any stage—from early planning to mid-semester problem solving.

To get started:

  • Reach out to discuss an assignment or course
  • Explore sample partnership models
  • Ask about timing and availability

[Contact Activate to Request a Consultation]

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