Oral Communication Skills in Higher Education: Using a Performance-Based Evaluation Rubric to Assess Communication Skills

Abstract

This study used The Competent Speaker, a rubric developed by the National Communication Association (S. P. Morreale, M. R. Moore, K. P. Taylor, D. Surges-Tatum, & R. Hulbert-Johnson, 1993), to evaluate student performance in general education public speaking courses as a case study of student skills and programmatic assessment. Results indicate that students taking the general education public speaking course are below satisfactory standards on five of the eight competencies defined by the National Communication Association and are above satisfactory standards on two of the eight competencies. Implications for this particular program, other communication departments, and communication across the curriculum in general education are discussed. We also offer suggestions for those in other disciplines or educational settings in the use of performance evaluation rubrics for assessing other student skills/knowledge and for training new teachers.

The Rubric: An Assessment Tool to Guide Students and Markers

“…Rubrics fall into two categories, either 'analytical or multiple trait consisting of multiple, separate scales and therefore provides a set of scores' (Rezaei and Lovorn 2010 p19;Dunbar et al 2006). This loans itself to different types of teaching and assessment strategies enabling use of different tools to assess different aspects of what is required from the student.…”

Implementing a Virtual Presentation Program in ESLClassrooms

“…[2]. This highlights the importance of great communication skills and in addition to that, it also highlights the need for preparing students to be effective employees for the global work environment [1] cited in [2]. The fear of speaking in front of a group weighs as one of the principal reasons why many job seekers are rejected and also why thousands of employees in the US are declined job promotions.…”

“…Every student"s academic and professional success is partially reliant on communicative education as it is an essential competency for students across disciplines in higher Manuscript received April 20, 2012 education [1]. Having impressive grades is simply not adequate as students with excellent academic records are burgeoning everywhere.…”

An Analysis of Rater Severity and Leniency in Open-ended Mathematic Questions Rated Through Standard Rubrics and Rubrics Based on the SOLO Taxonomy

“…Performansa dayalı değerlendirmelerde rubrik kullanımının temel amaçlarından biri, puanlama işleminin kim tarafından yapıldığından bağımsız olarak gerçekleştirilmesini sağlamaktır (Moskal ve Leydens, 2000;Purpura, 2004). Bir başka deyişle, açık uçlu soruların puanlanmasında kullanılan rubriklerin puanlayıcı etkilerini minimum düzeyde tutarak puanlayıcılar arası uyumu arttırması beklenmektedir (Dunbar, Brooks ve Miller, 2006). Ancak araştırmadan elde edilen bulgular standart rubriklerin bu beklentiye yeterince cevap veremediğini yansıtmaktadır.…”