About

Josh Boyd is an Associate Head, Professor, and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue University. His primary research interests include sports communication, sponsorship and naming, corporate discourse, and pedagogy, particularly the assessment of student learning. Boyd teaches courses such as COM 204 (Critical Perspectives on Communication), and he has received recognition for his teaching, including Purdue's 2010 Murphy Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching and the College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award. He holds a Ph.D. from Indiana University, an M.A. from Ohio University, and a B.A. from Lipscomb University. Boyd's work emphasizes helping graduate students achieve their individual goals, whether preparing for a teaching-oriented position, a research-intensive faculty role, or transitioning into the corporate world. He prioritizes providing timely feedback and support to develop students' plans and schedules for success. His research and teaching focus on communication theory, organizational rhetoric, and the pedagogical strategies that enhance student learning and engagement.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Pedagogy
• World Wide Web
• Engineering
• Psychology
• Engineering management
• Electrical engineering
• Multimedia
• Mathematics education
• Engineering ethics

Selected publications

• Development of an Extended Reality Simulator for Small UAS Full Mission Training

  2025-07-16

  article

  Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) have become ubiquitous throughout numerous industries. Due to this, there is a fast-growing demand for pilots to operate these aircraft. Flight simulation of the sUAS is sometimes used to help with training pilots to fly these aircraft, but the current levels of sUAS simulators are woefully inadequate. This paper addresses the development of a robust sUAS flight simulator that employs Extended Reality to provide an immersive training environment for robust full mission training regimens. The initial implementation, which is already in production, provides the ability for pilots to train on both multicopter and fixed wing sUAS. In addition, the flight simulator has the capability for pilots to perform all functions of a flight mission, from flying the aircraft to communication with the mission team. Multiple crew stations allow for multiple aircraft to be flown simultaneously by different pilots. Future work on the simulator will be focused on improving the fidelity and capabilities of the flight simulator.

  PublisherDOI

• Adventures in Paragraph Writing: The Development and Refinement of Scalable and Effective Writing Exercises for Large-enrollment Engineering Courses

  2020 · 10 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Multimedia

  The ability to communicate effectively is a highly desirable attribute for today's graduating engineers. Additionally, the inclusion of communication components in technical courses has been shown to enhance learning of technical content and can be leveraged to satisfy nontechnical learning outcomes. However, the incorporation of such components in undergraduate engineering curricula remains challenging due to obstacles such as resource limitations, credit hour constraints, and low faculty and student motivation. This paper reports preliminary results from our ongoing efforts to create effective, transferrable, and low-overhead approaches to implementing paragraph writing exercises in large engineering courses typically devoid of communication elements.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Writing to Learn Engineering: Identifying Effective Techniques for the Integration of Written Communication into Engineering Classes and Curricula (NSF RIGEE project)

  2020 · 14 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Computer Science
  • Engineering management

  As engineering continues to grow as a global career, effective communication in the form of technical writing becomes more essential. Professional engineering organizations and universities continually list the ability to communicate technical information as a highly sought attribute in recently-graduated engineers. Unfortunately, numerous logistical challenges prevent many programs from implementing extensive technical writing education within the engineering curriculum. These challenges include budgetary constraints, curriculum credit hour reductions, availability of communication expertise, and both student and faculty resistance to the inclusion of communication instruction in engineering programs. This study aims to identify and refine effective, low-overhead exercises that allow instructors to implement technical writing education into technical existing technical courses. These exercises have the benefit of embedding technical communication into the curriculum, with minimal curricular disruption, and in the context of the technical material that will ultimately need to be communicated. The project proposes innovative application of writing interventions that have been proven effective in other contexts, with the goal of transforming core technical courses in engineering to enhance both the technical capabilities and writing skills of participating students. Initial analysis focuses on the implementation of two technical writing interventions developed and applied to Civil Engineering courses. Preliminary study results on a large course paragraph writing exercise point to the importance of the development of a robust assessment and feedback strategy for the implementation of writing in large classes, as well as the different types of writing that can successfully be incorporated into such classes, in spite of their technical nature.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Truth About Ideographs

  2018-05-11 · 5 citations

  other1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• A tool instead of a chore: Measuring student learning gains in order to improve instruction

  Communication Teacher · 2017-10-09 · 4 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Assessment is often treated as an unwelcome and time-consuming university or departmental requirement. This project proposes that assessment is actually an opportunity that communication faculty should embrace. Beginning with the end in mind, this study used stated course learning outcomes to construct a pre-/posttest instrument, administering those assessments in order to find out whether students were really learning what they were supposed to be learning. This article explains how the assessment instruments were constructed and administered, demonstrates clear and significant learning gains across three semesters, and identifies learning outcomes in need of instructional improvement. It also finds that by separating assessment from grading, pretests can identify concepts that need not be retaught, and posttests can reveal that an instructor’s perception of a successful instructional day does not necessarily match the reality of student learning for that day.

  PublisherDOI

• Institutional Rhetoric

  The International Encyclopedia of Organizational Communication · 2017-03-08

  other1st authorCorresponding

  Institutional rhetoric allows organizations to speak with a single voice. Its characteristics include personification of institutions, the corporate “we,” the use of synecdoche, and an emphasis on the maintenance of institutional image and the support of the institution's publics. Scholarship in this area brings together work from organizational communication, public relations, and rhetorical traditions, and scholars have focused on both the problems and prospects created by this rhetorical form. Although institutional rhetoric enables much public dialogue and in many ways simplifies everyday interactions, it also poses challenges to individuals in areas of accountability and representation.

  PublisherDOI

• Writing to Learn Engineering: Identifying Effective Techniques for the Integration of Written Communication into Engineering Classes and Curricula (NSF RIGEE project)

  2016-07-06 · 15 citations

  articleOpen access

  The inclusion of writing-based exercises in technical courses has multiple learning benefits to students. Writing exercises not only serve to improve students' written communication skills (i.e., "learn to write"), but can also be leveraged to develop critical thinking skills and promote deeper understanding of technical concepts (i.e., "write to learn"). Nevertheless, while writingintensive assignments are relatively common in upper-level technical courses, especially in the form of laboratory and project reports, writing is often absent in the larger, required core courses that are taken by large numbers of engineering students. This is a missed opportunity to both enhance student learning of technical content as well as missed chance for students to have more writing practice. This NSF RIGEE project aims to investigate, support, and promote the inclusion of writing in technical courses, particularly introductory and core courses. Analysis of an engineering instructor survey carried out as part of the project revealed concerns about assessment and feedback on students' written work. Additionally, writing instructors were interested in the creation of guides designed to aid instructors in the creation and tailoring of writing prompts

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Something to Write Home(work) About: An Analysis of Writing Exercises in Fluid Mechanics Textbooks

  2015-07-08 · 9 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Something to Write Home(work) About: An Analysis of Writing Exercises in Fluid Mechanics TextbooksAs assessments of learning outcomes are increasingly emphasized through accreditationrequirements (e.g., via ABET) and other quality assurance initiatives, written communication isone area that engineering instructors often find challenging to incorporate and assess. This isparticularly true in large core courses at the sophomore and junior levels. In this project, ananalysis of writing-based problems in fluid mechanics textbooks attempts to locate theavailability of activities that would allow students to practice writing, to learn through writing,and to use writing to relate course content to broader applications and contexts.This study is part of a larger ongoing project to understand and expand the incorporation ofwriting in large-lecture engineering courses, including investigation of faculty perspectives andtextbook assignments and assessments. This snapshot of writing-across-engineering will theninform efforts to create a range of writing activities (and assessment methods), mapped to ABETlearning outcomes, that instructors can incorporate in large engineering classes. Our objective isto examine widely-used textbooks in thermodynamics, materials, circuits, statics, and dynamics.In the preliminary analysis reported in this paper, we study problem sets from five popular fluidmechanics textbooks to find problems requiring more than merely numerical or calculatedanswers. As these writing-based problems are identified, we will categorize them in terms of thetype of prompt they represent, such as asking for explanation of a solution, application of aconcept to real-world examples, or problem-solving that requires description of processes.Once the number and types of writing problems in these textbooks has been analyzed andorganized, we will further explore how well the texts support actually using these exercises inclass. While writing-based prompts might be present, for example, instructors might not havethe resources, expertise, and/or support needed to incorporate them in their classes. Morespecifically, examination of solution sets and instructor’s guides will reveal how much thetextbooks equip instructors to assign and then assess the writing prompts that do exist. Finally,the extant writing assignments will be mapped to ABET learning outcomes to see how promptscan potentially be used to address key learning outcomes, e.g., in relation to the studentoutcomes in ABET Criterion 3.The result of this analysis will be an understanding of how well popular fluid mechanicstextbook assignments guide students in writing, and how well the textbooks equip instructors tomake use of those assignments. We will use this data to identify areas in which more writingassignments and assessment training would be useful for the teaching of engineering. This paperwill likely be of particular interest to faculty and staff interested in using writing to support avariety of technical, professional, and global learning outcomes in core engineering courses.

  PublisherDOI

• Redefinition, Differentiation, and the Farm Animal Welfare Debate

  Journal of Applied Communication Research · 2015-03-16 · 11 citations

  articleSenior authorCorresponding

  Animal welfare advocates have increased publics' scrutiny of the way animals are handled by everyone from pet owners to circuses to farmers. The case of farmer Gary Conklin illustrates a popular recent tactic of activists to secretly film working farms and then release videos that purport to show abuse. This essay uses the concepts of legitimacy and image restoration to examine how Conklin, with a small farming operation in Ohio, responded to allegations spread by social media. Two important principles emerged: first, an effective differentiation strategy for reducing offensiveness is “redefining the act,” a combination of image repair tactics where an undisputed fact is redefined and transformed with support from third-party affirmations. Second, even small organizations like this dairy cattle business face the same challenges and opportunities as larger organizational rhetors. The essay concludes with applications both for agriculture and for crisis communication scholars, asserting that agricultural enterprises will continue to face struggles over meaning that will require sophisticated methods of issue and crisis management.

  PublisherDOI

• Sold! The Elementary Classroom Auction as Learning Tool of Communication and Economics

  Communication Teacher · 2014-07-16 · 2 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Course: An elementary school classroomObjectives: Students will: listen to the auctioneer closely to keep up with bidding;abide by turn-taking norms in order to participate in bidding for items;develop strategic thinking about communication in order to win the items they value most.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Cary D. Troy

  15 shared

• Rebecca Essig

  Purdue University System

  15 shared

• Brent Jesiek

  Stanford University

  15 shared

• Natascha Buswell

  University of California, Irvine

  11 shared

• Natascha Trellinger

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  5 shared

• Melanie Morgan

  Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center

  2 shared

• Melissa Bigam Stahley

  2 shared

• Randy S. Haluck

  Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

  1 shared

Awards & honors

• Purdue's 2010 Murphy Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Tea…
• College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Graduate Faculty Award