ORAL INTENSIVE: INFORMATION ON ASSESSMENT OF “O” COURSES:
WHO IS INVOLVED: All UAF Departments/Faculty responsible for Oral Intensive Courses
WHAT IS HERE: A brief overview of the assessment process as it relates to “O” courses, and basic materials to aid faculty in formulating criteria to be used in assessment of oral performance in Oral Intensive courses.
WHY THIS TASK: Oral Intensive courses are part of the UAF Core Curriculum, and under UAF’s implementation of the Regent’s mandate for Outcome Based Assessment of programs, an assessment of the Core Curriculum will be necessary on a regular two year cycle.
HOW ASSESSMENT OF “O” COURSES WILL BE DONE: The Core Curriculum Review Committee of the Senate has developed the broad outline of the assessment process for “O” (and “W”) courses. Out of the nearly 40 sections of “O” courses offered each semester, the Core Committee will randomly sample about 10% each semester and notify the instructor of the course. In each of the identified courses, instructors will be asked to videotape students’ final oral presentations. A subcommittee of the Core Committee, including a representative from the Department offering the course, will meet to examine a random sample of the presentations videotaped for each of the selected courses. This subcommittee will consider these presentations in view of the criteria for oral presentations developed by the Department offering the course. On the Basis its examination of such samples of oral presentations over a two-year cycle, the Core Committee will produce an assessment of whether or not the Oral Intensive coursework offered at UAF meets the goals established for it in the Core Curriculum documents and guidelines. Note specifically that in examining sampled oral presentations the Core Committee will NOT be examining the assessment procedures of the grading performed by the instructor in the particular course. It will be conducting its own separate study with the broader goal of determining whether of no “O” coursework is working, across campus, as originally intended.
WHAT IS BEING REQUESTED FROM DEPARTMENTS AT THIS POINT: In order to prepare for this process of assessing the Oral Intensive component of the Core, the Core Curriculum Review Committee is asking ALL Departments/Faculty offering “O” courses to formally identify the criteria for effective oral communication in the discipline that students are expected to learn and to demonstrate in the oral presentations that are required in each “O” course. For most Departments, these criteria are probably at present largely implicit in whatever means of evaluating oral presentations are now being employed to generate the 15% of the course grade that depends upon the student’s oral performance. What is being requested is that faculty review current evaluation procedures and state EXPLICITY what constitutes an effective oral presentation in the discipline. The committee suggests that developing between 5 and 12 criteria specifying what constitutes effectiv3 oral presentation would be ideal.
It is these formally identified criteria that the Core Committee will use as the basis of its study of how well the presentations sampled from “O” courses are fulfilling the criteria established, and by inference from the sampled presentations and courses, how will the Oral Intensive component of the Core is performing its function.
Ideally the current task of formalizing criteria for “O” course should:
(1) be a relatively straightforward process of stating the discipline specific principles or standards that underlie the current evaluation practices in particular courses, and
(2) be an opportunity for faculty both to examine whether or not the existing criteria and practices are satisfactory, and to add additional criteria or practices that may prove useful while deleting those that are not functional or easily measurable.
WHEN AND WHERE: Criteria for assessing oral performance in “O” courses were due to the Core Curriculum Review Committee on February 15, 1998, in the form of a memorandum identifying the specific course(s) involved and listing the criteria that have been identified.
HOW THE ATTACHED MATERIALS CAN HELP: Attached to this document are descriptions of eight broad criteria for assessing oral presentations, developed by the Speech Communication Association (a 6,000 member organization of Communication academics and professionals). These eight criteria are intended to encompass as many different forms of formal oral presentation as possible, and have been shown in careful testing to form the basis for valid, reliable assessments or oral performance. The first item attached (“Supplemental Information . . .”) lists the eight criteria and their “translation” into observable behaviors. The second item (“The Eight Public Speaking Competencies”) is the form used in all Comm 141 and 131 courses for actually evaluating oral presentations against the criteria.
These eight criteria could be used as the basis for a set of criteria for many of the “O” courses offered at UAF. But because these criteria are intended to apply to as wide a range of oral presentations as possible, they are NOT likely to be specific enough for assessing the particular, discipline specific requirements for effective oral presentation in a given “O” course (e.g., with regard to content, format, delivery, use of visual materials, etc.). Thus, it is highly likely that most Departments/Faculty will need either to adapt these general criteria to their specific needs, or to substitute others that more directly address what constitutes effective oral performance in the discipline.
Other potentially relevant information for developing criteria is available in the Oral Intensive Handbook, a revised edition of which was distributed in March 1997 to all faculty teaching “O” courses. Copies are available from the Dept. of Communication, x6591. For “O” courses organized around group or teamwork and presentations, a quite different set of criteria will likely be needed¾please contact Bob Arundale, Dept. of Communication, x6799 or FFRBA for specific suggestions and materials. As always, the Dept. of Communication is available to consult with faculty on developing criteria, as well as on other aspects of teaching Oral Intensive courses.
Supplemental Information to the Eight Public Speaking Competencies