Grant Summary
$25,000 over 12 months. Building on shared traditions of rigorous assessment, and using common assessment tools that will allow direct comparison of student experiences and outcomes, Case Western Reserve University and John Carroll University will form a ten-member working group to assess students' oral communication skills and their programs'—Case's Seminar Approach to General Education and Scholarship (SAGES) and John Carroll's first year seminars and course on oral communication—success in enhancing student learning and engagement. Two external experts in the field of oral communication instruction will serve as project advisers. The group will inventory what has been done so far on their campuses to assess oral communication. They will compare more general student learning outcomes through a study of data already gathered from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP). With that preparatory work done, the collaborative will then seek to develop a long-range, comprehensive assessment plan for oral communication on their campuses.