Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)
Department
Industrial and Systems Engineering and Engineering Management
Committee Chair
Bryan L. Mesmer
Committee Member
Kristin Weger
Committee Member
Paul Collopy
Subject(s)
Communication in engineering, Storytelling
Abstract
The goal of this thesis is to improve communication in engineering by understanding how storytelling elements are being used in engineering and how they could be used. Storytelling is an effective communication mean since it is a natural way in which humans think and verbalize their thoughts. For this reason, the author explores the possibility of introducing storytelling elements to engineering communication. Storytelling elements are identified to be used as metrics in the analysis of a case studies collection. The case studies collection was studied for patterns in the content. A human experiment was conducted using the backstory structure element to re-write a NASA case study. The experiment data was analyzed to understand which backstory structure was the most effective in memory retention. Results from the experiment showed no statistical significance between students’ performance and backstory structure type, showing that a more detailed background does not improve memory retention.
Recommended Citation
Palma, Giulia E., "Storytelling elements in NASA case studies" (2018). Theses. 259.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/259