Missouri Course Redesign Initiative
Missouri Southern State University
Course Title: Oral Communication
Contact: Shanna Slavings
At Missouri Southern State University (MSSU), undergraduate students are required to take three credits of oral communication within the core undergraduate general education curriculum in most degree programs. As a result of a continuing increase in the number of freshman and sophomore students, the demand for the course has grown significantly, currently accommodating 1,104 students (24 sections of 23 students each) annually. Due to economic conditions in the state of Missouri, MSSU is not in a position to hire addition full-time faculty. In addition, human resource rules restrict the number of course sections taught by adjunct instructors to two annually. As a result, the communications department has had to depend on varying levels of qualified instructors.
All instructors have been free to design, develop and teach the oral communication course according to their own instructional styles. In spring 2010, 20 percent of the 453 students enrolled received a grade of D or F or withdrew from the course. In fall 2010, 23 percent of the 580 students enrolled received a grade of D or F or withdrew from the course. The team attributes these rates to inconsistency and invalid alignment of objectives, assessment and content.
The MSSU team will use the Replacement Model to create a redesign that fits their need to enhance quality and reduce cost. The redesign will increase the number of students taught by the full-time faculty member and replace more expensive personnel with less expensive undergraduate learning assistants (ULAs). Students will meet once a week for 75 minutes with the full-time faculty member assisted by ULAs and spend an additional 75 minutes in the Communication Assessment and Learning Lab (CALL) working with software supported by ULAs. Students will record their speeches, watch them online, complete other preparation activities and receive feedback on their performances.
The quality of the course will be enhanced in various ways. First, offering only two sections per semester will increase course consistency. Second, faculty will be able to spend more time improving and monitoring the course versus spending time on repetitive tasks such as grading quizzes and recording participation points. Third, collecting and monitoring assessment data will improve the measurement and alignment of learning objectives to course activities. Finally, the use of active-learning materials, including those available through Speech Class and Poll Everywhere, will improve student engagement in learning.
The redesign effort will be monitored and assessed through common assignments, assessments and objectives. Students are expected to 1) prepare a speech outline, assisted by Speech Class; 2) make ethical decisions, observed through student discussions in response to ethical questions and examples; 3) deliver an extemporaneous speech, assessed by the speech assignments using standardized criteria; and, 4) choose appropriate and credible evidence, also assessed within the speeches. Each semester, data will be collected and compared to ensure that time spent on learning materials coincides with the course objectives. Finally, student performance on a common final examination will be compared in both the traditional and redesigned formats.
The redesign of Oral Communication at MSSU will decrease the number of sections offered annually from 44 to four, increasing section size from ~23 to 230 students. Undergraduate students will work with small groups of students both in the lecture and in the Communications Assessment and Learning Lab. The cost-per-student will decrease from $174 in the traditional format to $39 in the redesigned format. The savings will allow faculty to teach other communication courses and reduce the need for adjuncts in tight budget times.
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