The Office of Institutional Effectiveness & Evaluation (OIEE) created the following to aid instructors in selecting and/or designing assignments to assess Oral Communication.
To ensure the achievement of these objectives, each of these communication modes is treated as a separate learning outcome, with each requiring coverage in all core courses. Oral communication refers specifically to the effective delivery and organization of spoken ideas, adapted to purpose and audience.
¹ 19 Tex. Admin. Code §4.28 (2021).
Definition
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board states that the Texas Core Curriculum objective of Communication is “to include effective development, interpretation, and expression of ideas through written, oral, and visual communication.”¹To ensure the achievement of these objectives, each of these communication modes is treated as a separate learning outcome, with each requiring coverage in all core courses. Oral communication refers specifically to the effective delivery and organization of spoken ideas, adapted to purpose and audience.
¹ 19 Tex. Admin. Code §4.28 (2021).
Oral Communication Rubric & Assignment Checklist
The Importance of Oral Communication
- Oral communication has been rated as the most important skill that employers seek in identifying strong job candidates (p. 13).¹
- Oral communication is among the three top skills that employers would like colleges and universities to emphasize since almost half of the employers believed that students are not prepared for this skill through their college education (p. 22).¹
¹ American Association of Colleges & Universities. (2023). The Career-ready graduate: What employers say about the difference college makes.https://dgmg81phhvh63.cloudfront.net/content/user-photos/Research/PDFs/AACU-2023-Employer-Report.pdf
Best Practices for Assessing
- Share the rubric with students and highlight components as necessary to be included in the assignment.
- Clarify expectations using rubric-based guidance, e.g., what strong delivery looks like (engaged eye contact, expressive voice), or what distinguishes an effective central message (clear, focused, supported).
- Break the assignment into stages, such as:
- Determining the purpose (inform, persuade, entertain)
- Selecting an appropriate topic for the audience and context
- Planning content structure: introduction (purpose, preview), body (main points, evidence), conclusion (summary, closing)
- Practicing delivery (voice, pacing, body language, visual aids)
- Provide examples of strong and weak presentations; using class discussion or peer review to illustrate clarity, structure, audience awareness, and delivery quality.
- Encourage rehearsed, audience-ready delivery, not reading from notes.
Recommended Assignment Types
- Individual student presentations, structured talks, audio or video submissions with a clearly delivered central message
- Discipline-specific oral formats (e.g., lab presentations, design critiques, policy briefings)
- Performed skits or dramatic monologues with clear message or topic
- Instructional video to inform the audience of how to solve a problem or complete a process
- Podcast-style recordings with identifiable organization and audience focus
Oral Communication Assignment Prompt Template
The following assignment prompt template provides suggested guidance for students in designing an assignment demonstrating the core objective of Oral Communication. Instructors are encouraged to tailor the following to their discipline.Purpose: Set a purpose for the assignment, such as informing, persuading, entertaining, or inspiring.
Topic/Central Message: Provide a topic or give parameters for students to select a topic.
Audience: Instruct students to communicate to an audience, such as the instructor, classmates, general public, donors, scientific community, government officials, elementary students, theater audiences, project stakeholders, etc.
Supporting Materials: Communicate your expectations about what types of evidence you want students to include to support their central message (e.g., explanations, examples, illustrations, statistics, analogies, reflections, quotations from relevant authorities, and other kinds of information or analysis).
Organization: Make your expectations about the structure very clear. For example, an effective pattern for a presentation typically includes an introduction, one or more identifiable sections in the body of the speech, and a conclusion. Other types of oral deliveries may be enhanced by alternative patterns, such as problem-solution or chronological.
Delivery: Set expectations about vocal elements and filler words (e.g., “um” and “uh”). Encourage students to practice before their final recording and/or incorporating peer review.
Length: Set a time limit for the recording. For assessment purposes, OIEE recommends over 30 seconds and under 10 minutes.
Mode of Submission: Communicate expectations about the format of the recording. For example, voice-over in a slide deck, recording within Canvas (“Record/Upload Media” assignment submission type), YouTube link, or link to a video in Google Drive. With links to external sites, OIEE recommends setting privacy settings to “accessible by anyone with a link” or “anyone in Texas A&M University.”
