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CHABOT COLLEGE TITLE III INITIATIVE
Focused Inquiry Group (FIG) to Investigate
Core Issues and Practices in the Assessment of Student Learning
FIG Proposal:
Assessing Speaking (part of Communication) across the College
Name of FIG Leader(s)
Carolyn Arnold
Division or Department
Institutional Research
Phone
723-6965
E-mail
carnold@chabotcollege.edu
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Which of the Title III Comprehensive Development Plan Goals does this FIG
address?

Increase success and persistence in developmental courses.
 Increase success and persistence in courses supported by learning support
services.
 Develop student learning outcomes and appropriate assessments at the
course, program and college level.

Maintain and increase enrollment by increasing persistence.
Narrative describing your proposed inquiry project.
What is the problem at the heart of your investigation?
Communication is one of our College-wide Learning Goals, and Speaking is one of the stated
aspects of this CWLG. While Communication Studies courses explicitly teach public speaking,
many courses require students to give some sort of verbal presentation in that discipline.
However, we have no systematic way to determine how much speaking is really being learned by
Chabot students as a group. Therefore, we are addressing the problem of assessing speaking at
Chabot across disciplines. In the process, we are identifying which aspects of speaking are more
or less likely to be learned at Chabot, so that any adjustments in teaching and/or learning can be
made. This is an example of “faculty collaboratively examining evidence of student learning to
analyze patterns of student strength and weakness and develop responses.”
How have you arrived at these questions?
Student surveys show that about 75% of Chabot students themselves believe that they have
made some or a lot of progress in learning to speak effectively at Chabot. This project is
designed to use faculty assessment of student levels of speaking in a diverse range of courses
to validate the students’ sense of learning in this area. This is a pilot project designed to
develop and test the use of common rubrics and the discussion of assessment data across
disciplines.
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What are your plans for investigating these issues?
Communication Studies instructors have offered to develop both detailed and holistic speaking
rubrics for faculty in other disciplines to discuss and test for use across campus. Then, all
faculty in the FIG will identify an assignment in which to assess speaking with one of the two
rubrics. They will then assess their students by the end of the semester, and enter their data
into eLumen. The data will be aggregated in eLumen and the group will meet at the end of the
semester to discuss both the aggregate and individual results, and what this means for the
teaching and learning of speaking in their courses and at Chabot. This discussion will include
an evaluation of the process of using common rubrics and the usefulness of the rubric content.
During the end of semester meeting, the group will start planning how they will share their
experiences and insights during the next semester to help other faculty use these rubrics to
assess speaking.
Who will be involved?
See attached list of the 9 faculty involved and their discipline. Each of them will develop a
speaking CLO for at least one of their classes and an assignment in which to assess it. The FIG
leader, Carolyn Arnold, is the faculty Coordinator of Institutional Research, and is on the SLOAC
committee. She has been researching various ways of assessing college-wide learning
outcomes, and has been instrumental in training staff to use eLumen, the District assessment
software, so that assessments of course-, program- and college-level student learning outcomes
can be recorded for the college and discussed among faculty.
FIG Leader: Carolyn Arnold, Institutional Research
FIG Participants:
Andrew Wells
Chemistry
Angela Hobbs
ESL
Christine Warda
Communication Studies
Donna Gibson
Chemistry
Harjot Sawhney
Chemistry
Jason Ames
Communication Studies
Patti Keeling
Communication Studies
Ramon Parada
Psychology Counseling
Veronica Martinez Communication Studies
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How do you intend to organize the Inquiry, and what do you think it will cost?
The group will meet three times – once to introduce the project, once to present and discuss the
rubrics and how to use them to assess a presentation, and once to share and discuss their
assessment results. Each faculty member is responsible for developing or using an assignment or
test that demonstrates a speaking CLO in their class, and using one of the rubrics provided to
assess it. This may involve individual meetings with the FIG leader as needed. They will then
assess their students and enter their individual student data into eLumen in time for the end-ofsemester meeting. During this meeting, the group will discuss their individual results and the
aggregated results, what the results mean for estimating the status of the learning of speaking at
Chabot, and what, if any, steps need to be taken to improve that status. They will also start
planning how they will share their experiences and help other faculty use these rubrics to assess
speaking during the following semester Flex day activities.
Budget
FIG Leader Stipend: $563
Faculty Special Assignment Rate of $46.92
Hours billed for participation in pilot based on following work expectations
• Developing assessment package of CLO/Assessment activity/rubric:
• Attending meetings to discuss research design and results
• Conducting assessment of speaking presentations
• Entering assessment results in assessment software
• Planning/participating in Spring Flex Day training activities
Total potential hrs/faculty:
Total potential $$/faculty:
Total Budget:
Fig Leader Stipend:
9 faculty x $563 =
Total Budget:
$ 563
$ 5,067
$ 5,630
Hour limits
2
3
2
2
3
12 hrs
$563