The Open Ended Laboratory for Measurement of Communication Skill for Chemical/Biochemical Engineering Students

Nurturing communication skills amongst students without imparting it with a subject is a tricky task. But having a proper assignment and measurement methods, good communication skills can be practised and evaluated. One of the subjects used for this purpose in the Department of Chemical & Process Engineering,Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia is to introduce Open Ended Lab assignment whereby the students has to work in group to complete a task, writing the report and finally presenting it orally. The assignment was used to measure their communication performance based on the matrix evaluation given to the examiner as part of the marks (20%) for the whole assignment. It is found that students’ overall performances of their communication skill were more than 60% in all 8 elements listed in the evaluation form (response to questions, expressing idea clearly orally and written, organisation, good presentation materials, standard language, able to make conclusion and appearances). As for the marks of open ended assignments, all groups achieved 60% marks and above. It is suggested that open ended laboratory can be used to measure achievement of communication and become a platform to polish their skills.