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The importance of oral communication At this point, there is widespread agreement
on the importance of oral communication skills
In principle, all UK students should have such training
In fact, in principle, it would be better to have more training – for example, both public speaking and interpersonal communication
So why are we proposing to remove oral communication from USP?
Three major reasons
With current resources, it is not possible to meet course demand
Attempting to meet the demand for oral communication drains resources from the teaching and research missions of the Department of Communication
Oral communication still will be offered for programs that need it and demand will be able to be met
A brief history
Oral communication skills requirement has been a part of USP since its inception in 1988
Five options COM 181, 252, 281, 287 TA 225
Rule change in 1997 permitted alternate paths Approximately 16 identified Nine of these include COM 199
Baselines and assumptions
Originally, planning was based on a first year class of 2,600-2,700 students
Curricula were designed to provide oral communication skills COM 181 – basic public speaking COM 252 – interpersonal communication COM 281 – small group communication COM 287 – persuasive speaking
Class size was set at 22
Changing times
First year class size began increasing in 2000-01 1999-2000, approximately 2,700 2000-01 and 2001-02, approximately 3,000 2002-03 and 2003-04, approximately 3,700
We began scheduling more classes 1995-96 through 1999-00 average sections: 89/year 2000-01: 126/year 2003-04: 138/year
We also increased class size, from 22 to 25, then to 28-30
Impact on resources
New lecturer lines (S.I. #18) Initial request
5.5 lines requested, 3 approved, less than 1 funded Current status
Have received recurring funds for 4.2 lecturers
Devoting TA and other dept. resources Evening/Weekend Growth, Distance Learning
How many students do we serve now? 2003-04, with present resources:
77 sections funded with recurring dollars Lecturers Teaching Assistants
32 funded by EWC and Distance Learning 19 sections funded by Provost with non-recurring 10 sections funded by COM
Total of 138 sections; 3,587 students
How many can we serve next year? 2004-05, with projected resources:
55 sections funded with recurring dollars Lecturers Teaching Assistants
32 funded by EWC and Distance Learning 19 sections funded by Provost with non-recurring 8 sections funded by COM
Total: 114 sections; ~2,964 students
Demand for oral communication
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
S00 F 00 S 01 F 01 S 02 F 02 S 03
Demand for 181, 252, 281 and 287
Projections for backlog
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
S00 S01 S02 S03 S04 S05 S06
Demand for 181, 252, 281 and 287
What would it take to serve 4,000? Assume a need to serve 90% of student body
TA 225 Alternate paths
Would need 144 sections/year
Implications for lecturer lines SACS is opposed to reliance on PTI’s They also take issue with over-reliance on
TA’s We would need 18 lecturers to cover the
courses Recurring dollars for lecturer salary and
benefits would total ~$596,700.00 Also need funds for equipment, materials
What if we had the money?
There is a lack of qualified personnel Local pool is fully tapped Extremely difficult to attract qualified applicants
Low salary Year-to-year contracts
Insufficient classroom space No office space
Can’t we revise the curriculum? What about large lecture?
We tried that It simply did not work
Still required extensive instructional support for “recitation” sections
Classroom climate negatively impacted
What about COM 199 for everybody? We developed COM 199 for a subset of programs Due to demand, sequencing fails Students tell us they do not get enough practice
Can’t each program teach its own? Presentational assignments certainly are
appropriate in classes across programs However, skills are not being taught Further, instructors lack training in teaching
skills, and they understandably wish to focus on their own discipline
SACS assessment issues cannot be ignored
Additional considerations
The four year graduation contract will require students’ home departments to pay tuition for unavailable classes
Of UK’s benchmarks, only 3 of 17 responding to a survey required oral communication
There is a negative impact on the Department of Communication’s teaching and research missions
Competing demands
The Department of Communication has three instructional missions Oral communication Undergraduate majors
(numbers are increasing again)
Graduate students (doubled this year)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
1994 2003
PCOM & COM Majors
The Department of Communication has a strong research mission One of the top funded social science units
$4.5 million in FY 03 More than $35 million over past 20 years
Health behavior research HIV/AIDS prevention Substance abuse prevention Physician-patient communication
Reallocation of resources
Funds we currently are spending to support oral communication could be reallocated Additional courses for majors could be offered Various research initiatives could be sponsored Graduate students could be better supported Wethington awards (new to “Lexington” campus)
must be covered (~$26K this year) TAs could be reassigned to support faculty
So what are we to do?
It is time to remove the oral communication requirement from USP There will be no “leftover” resources; rather, we
will have the resources needed to meet demand for programs that will continue to require oral communication
We will be able to maintain curricular integrity We will be able to better serve our teaching and
research missions
Concluding thoughts
In a perfect world, every student would have easy access to all required classes Those classes would including training in all oral
communication skills – public speaking, interpersonal, small group
Boundless resources – money, space, and personnel – would make this possible
In a perfect world, faculty would have boundless time and energy To teach and advise To write grant proposals, conduct research and
publish To engage in endless service