Speech 100

Speech 100—Fundamentals of Oral Communication

Student Learning Outcomes (SLO)
After successfully completing this course, students will be able to:

Demonstrate understanding of the impact communication has on our daily lives, appreciating its complexity and coping with how perception affects it;
Identify and demonstrate proficiency in the use of skills necessary for competent interpersonal communication;
Identify and demonstrate the ability to utilize the factors necessary for effective group communication;
Present effective informative and persuasive public presentations; and
Demonstrate a global perspective by identifying examples of communication behaviors that vary between cultures and explain the importance of recognizing and valuing diversity.

Measures
The instrument used to measure student progress with these outcomes was a 50-item objective exam (multiple choice, true and false). After the first year, the test was reduced to 35 items with approximately five (5) questions per outcome. The shorter version provided the same amount of useful information as the longer version. Throughout this assessment period, we used a common rubric for grading speeches. In Fall of 2004 we began collecting and recording the data from the persuasive speech rubric. This process is fairly labor-intensive, so we are now working on an electronic means of collecting the data.

Results
The following tables display the data results from Spring 2002 - 05 with a brief explanation at the end of each table about our evolving process and changes and enhancements to the course based on the data. The tables are arranged in descending order by years (2006, 2005, 2004, 2003).

Results of Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes for Speech 100: Fundamentals of Oral Communication Fall 2005- Spring 2006
Outcomes		Fall 2005 N = pre-421/post-358				Winter 2006 N =		Spring 2006 N =
		Percent Correct
		Traditional N=399/342		Hybrid N = 22/16		Trad N=	Hybrid N = 21
		Pre	Post	Pre	Post	Post		Post
1.	Demonstrate understanding of the impact communication has on our daily lives, appreciating its complexity and coping with how perception affects it	44	74 (+30)	69	89 (+20)		94
2.	Identify and demonstrate proficiency in the use of skills necessary for competent interpersonal communication	62	83 (+21)	75	86 (+11)		95
2.	Identify and demonstrate the ability to utilize the factors necessary for effective group communication	30	63 (+33)	31	66 (+35)		65
4.	Present effective informative and persuasive public presentations	54	79 (+25)	53	86 (+33)		94
5.	Demonstrate a global perspective by identifying examples of communication behaviors that vary between cultures and explain the importance of recognizing and valuing diversity	42	73 (+31)	43	81 (+38)		87
	Persuasive Speech Scores using Common Rubric	%
	Content	83
	Delivery	84
	Information Literacy	80

Results of Assessment of SLOs for Speech 100 Fall 2004- Spring 2005
Outcomes		Fall 2004 N = 315	Winter 2005 N = 206	Spring 2005 N = 267
		Percent Correct
		Post	Post	Post
1.	Demonstrate understanding of the impact communication has on our daily lives, appreciating its complexity and coping with how perception affects it	80	82	83
2.	Identify and demonstrate proficiency in the use of skills necessary for competent interpersonal communication	82	84	84
2.	Identify and demonstrate the ability to utilize the factors necessary for effective group communication	57	65	61
4.	Present effective informative and persuasive public presentations	79	78	82
5.	Demonstrate a global perspective by identifying examples of communication behaviors that vary between cultures and explain the importance of recognizing and valuing diversity	69*	66	70
	Persuasive Speech Scores using Common Rubric
	Content	78	77	78
	Delivery	75	77	78
	Information Literacy	79	75	78 N=(226)
*At the beginning of Spring quarter, faculty were given an information sheet identifying the concepts that most students were having difficulty with based on the assessment results. Textbook chapters focusing on those concepts was also provided. (Example: "reflected appraisal"; "fundamental attribution error" in chapter 2). No other information was given. Faculty could address the need in whatever way they chose. As indicated above there was a marked difference in SLO #5 with an increase from 66% to 70% correct. After Spring of 2004, we decided to strengthen our assessment of cultural communication. We rewrote the five questions to make them application questions, which were substantially more difficult, and more focused on what we teach in the course. We are assuming this accounts for the lower score on outcome five and we will add emphasis to the more difficult application of cultural communication in our classroom exercises/activities. Also, information literacy has been an important campus wide focus, so we included a measurement for that. In processing the rubric scores, it was apparent faculty are widely diverse in their interpretation of information literacy and also speech delivery components. We will use consensus building sessions among speech faculty during the next two quarters to develop more consistency in grading.

Results of Assessment of SLOs for Speech 100 Fall 2003- Spring 2004
Outcomes		Fall 2003 N = 156	Winter 2004 N = 310	Spring 2004 N = 290
		Percent Correct
		Post	Post	Post
1.	Demonstrate understanding of the impact communication has on our daily lives, appreciating its complexity and coping with how perception affects it	77	81	73
2.	Identify and demonstrate proficiency in the use of skills necessary for competent interpersonal communication	80	82	80
3.	Identify and demonstrate the ability to utilize the factors necessary for effective group communication	55	63	58
4.	Present effective informative and persuasive public presentations	77	78	75
5.	Demonstrate a global perspective by identifying examples of communication behaviors that vary between cultures and explain the importance of recognizing and valuing diversity	76	83	71
		Persuasive Speech Scores using Common Rubric
			Content N=220	82
			Delivery N=220	75
In spring of 2004 we began collecting data from the common persuasive speech rubric. Although the rubric contains a variety of categories (introduction, body, conclusion, language, sources, etc.) we collapsed the data into two categories - content and delivery. At some point we will separate all of the dimensions, but currently it is too labor intensive to do that.

Results of Assessment of SLOs for Speech 100 Spring 2002 - Spring 2003
Outcomes		Spring 2002		Fall 2002* N = 350	Winter 2003 N = 245	Spring 2003 N = 182
		Percent Correct
		Pre/test	Post/test	Post	Post	Post
1.	Demonstrate understanding of the impact communication has on our daily lives, appreciating its complexity and coping with how perception affects it	50.14	67.13	73	71	77
2.	Identify and demonstrate proficiency in the use of skills necessary for competent interpersonal communication	54.62	67.62	79	81	79
3.	Identify and demonstrate the ability to utilize the factors necessary for effective group communication	29.56	44.11	42	48	55
4.	Present effective informative and persuasive public presentations	48.22	55.28	72	75	79
5.	Demonstrate a global perspective by identifying examples of communication behaviors that vary between cultures and explain the importance of recognizing and valuing diversity	49.62	65.0	74	77	78
Group communication was the lowest score. To address this problem we created a common rubric for assessing the dimensions of group communication. This would assure we were evaluating the same elements. We used it in three ways: 1) faculty assessment of student discussions; 2) the group's self-assessment after a group activity/exercise; and 3) student self-assessment. Without additional work, simply the rubric, the scores improved. We would like additional growth and will create specific exercises to address this. We discontinued the pre-test after two quarters because we discovered students entered with almost identical scores for the five outcomes on each pre-test. We were mostly interested in what they knew when they finished the course.