Morehead State University
Assessment of Oral Communication: A Review and Explication of Principles and Practices
Institution
Morehead State University
Faculty Advisor/ Mentor
Michael Moore
Abstract
The communication discipline generally and the National Communication Association (NCA) particularly have been at the forefront of the assessment movement within education. The consistent level of activity since the early 1970s has generated a wealth of theoretical and applied scholarship concerning all aspects of communication assessment, from the assessment of individual student outcomes to the assessment of academic programs, including the oral communication component of general education. In an effort to document this scholarship, NCA's editor of Communication Education has commissioned the preparation of a comprehensive review of scholarship on the assessment of oral communication. This study is a component of the comprehensive review and is focused specifically on establishing a database of scholarly papers on communication assessment presented at National Communication Association conferences since 1973. The study requires a review of both online and hard copy convention programs, identifying conference papers that meet specific keyword criteria and entering the relevant information into a bibliographic management system (RefWorks). This will be merged with bibliographic data gathered from national and regional journals and other relevant publications and subjected to a thematic content analysis. The final product will be in the form of a monograph published by NCA that will provide a description of how assessment in the communication discipline has evolved over the years, the current status of assessment within the discipline and comparisons to both the national assessment movement and assessment within other disciplines.
Assessment of Oral Communication: A Review and Explication of Principles and Practices
The communication discipline generally and the National Communication Association (NCA) particularly have been at the forefront of the assessment movement within education. The consistent level of activity since the early 1970s has generated a wealth of theoretical and applied scholarship concerning all aspects of communication assessment, from the assessment of individual student outcomes to the assessment of academic programs, including the oral communication component of general education. In an effort to document this scholarship, NCA's editor of Communication Education has commissioned the preparation of a comprehensive review of scholarship on the assessment of oral communication. This study is a component of the comprehensive review and is focused specifically on establishing a database of scholarly papers on communication assessment presented at National Communication Association conferences since 1973. The study requires a review of both online and hard copy convention programs, identifying conference papers that meet specific keyword criteria and entering the relevant information into a bibliographic management system (RefWorks). This will be merged with bibliographic data gathered from national and regional journals and other relevant publications and subjected to a thematic content analysis. The final product will be in the form of a monograph published by NCA that will provide a description of how assessment in the communication discipline has evolved over the years, the current status of assessment within the discipline and comparisons to both the national assessment movement and assessment within other disciplines.