Practice Makes Not Quite Perfect But Heading Towards Improvement

Submitted by Brigitte Robinson on
Duration
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What is the Purpose of the Assessment?

Pretest data taken week 1 of class revealed that 100% of the students in a section of CIS105 did not score above 30% in meeting criteria on the communication assessment scoring sheet.

Describe the necessity for this assessment

Communication is one of the skills identified in the EMCC General Education Abilities Matrix. Students need to be comfortable and skilled when expressing their thoughts.

Describe how the practice will be implemented

Creating a presentation is a module in the curriculum.  Additional instruction was given focused on the matrix communication indicators throughout the semester and many opportunities provided for students to practice their  skills in nonformal, small group presentations.  Feedback was provided by group members and the instructor after each presentation and students had to reflect upon their growth and challenge areas in terms of the technology and communication skills.

Interpret, compare, and describe the results

I will continue to implement small group presentations in future classes to provide informal times for students to practice their communication skills.  Oral communication is a very important life and business skill that must be recognized and incorporated.  One cannot rely solely on technology to deliver the message as the audience will remember the speaker more often than the slide show.  Individual and group reflection/feedback will continue to be used.

 

After analyzing, and reflecting on the outcome, what are the next steps?

Two major presentations are scheduled for the CIS 105 students; one immediatlely following Spring Break and the other at the end of the course.  The mid-term presentation data revealed that 100% of the students made improvement in both the use of technology and in their oral communication skills.  Audio Visual use scored 100%.  Of the items "assessed" eye contact scored at 65%; Posture 80%; Preparation 70%; Appropriate Pace 80%; Facial Expressions 90%.

Abstract

EMCC has determined that communication is important and thus, included this skill on the EMCC General Education Abilities Matrix.  CIS105 has a module in which PowerPoint is taught, primarily focusing on the technological side of creating a presentation and how to incoporate the different technological aspects of the program.  Time was spent discussing not only the technology of presentations, but the delivery side as well incorporating the EMCC matric indicators.  Based upon the results of the mid-term presentation data, instruction/feedback will continue on the importance of verbal communication and additional opportunities will be provided for students to practice their skills.  Data revealed that improvement was gained by 100% of the students participating, but that there is room for growth.  Student reflections supported the teacher collected data--100% of the students recognized their growth in the same areas identified by the instructor.  Additional data will be taken at the final formal presentation which will occur during the Career Module of CIS 105.  

Division/Department
Completed Full Cycle
Yes
Course Number
16499
Assessment of the Month
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Comments

Teri Graham Mon, 04/15/2019 - 10:38am

Thank you very much for focusing on one of our core institutional level outcomes.  I look forward to seeing how the presentation module effects your students communication skills.

Brigitte Robinson Tue, 04/30/2019 - 11:16am

Final Tally of  Data based on last presention.

Audio Visual use scored 100%.   

Eye Contact showed improvement as 85% of the students maintained eye contact with the audience/class.  The other 15% maintained partial eye contact with audience/class.  No one read from their notes the entire presentation.

Posture and Facial Expressions scored at 100% of participants meeting criteria to earn top score.

Preparation scored at 75% as two students did not prepare on showing their slides from a shared drive (as instructed) and thus struggled at the beginning of their presentation.

Pacing increased to 92% meeting top criteria of the rubric.  

Overall, communication skills greatly improved over the course of the semester.