Conducting long-term assessment of the impact of students' participation in introductory communication courses is an important endeavor for enhancing pedagogy and understanding the contribution of communication instruction to the student experience. This 14-year study reports data from a campus-wide assessment program extending from 2004 to 2018.…

Declining enrollments and increased competition for college students have emphasized the need to demonstrate students are learning what we think they are learning. Taking a longitudinal look at speech evaluations from the basic course, this study tracked student learning gains in each rubric area on speeches evaluated between 2009-2019. Using a…

The goal of this study was to understand student experiences in and perceptions of a new communication center. Researchers conducted 22 semi-structured qualitative interviews with students who visited the communication center and conducted a thematic analysis of the interview transcripts. Overall, the findings suggest that students had positive…

Public speaking anxiety inhibits students in the basic course classroom, whether face-to-face, hybrid or online, and beyond. Equipping instructors with the tools necessary to empower students to manage that anxiety and excel in their basic communication course is a goal of scholars and practitioners. In this study, the researchers examine applying…

The current study investigates the use of the reasoned action model (Fishbein & Ajzen, 2010) as an assessment tool for the basic communication course. Specifically, this study examines how attitude towards behaviors, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control influence students' behavioral intentions to use communication behaviors…

In this article, I argue that the public speaking introductory course should follow a pedagogy of preparation. A pedagogy of preparation develops within students a toolkit that has become increasingly necessary for them to become active, compassionate citizens, and to understand what social pressures impact that perception, through the moral and…

Digital communication provides an important opportunity for the basic communication course (BCC) to match student skills to employer desires and enhance our curriculum in ways that match our essential competencies. This essay argues that digital communication can be public speaking and incorporating it into the BCC will enhance our ability to meet…

This study explores basic course directors' (BCDs) perceptions of graduate teaching assistant (GTA) misbehaviors in introductory communication courses. BCDs (N = 30) responded to questions about GTA misbehaviors observed in their roles. BCDs were asked why they perceived communicative acts as misbehaviors, how they managed them, and what they did…

The interactive nature of basic communication courses creates an ideal environment for students to form connections with their peers. Unfortunately, when students on the autism spectrum display atypical communication and behaviors, their classmates often reject and isolate them. Basic course programs can change these social dynamics through…

Our basic communication courses have always been important for our students. COVID-19 presents us with many challenges as well as opportunities for innovation and reflection. We can now heed the call offered by Joyce et al. in 2019 to match the skills most in demand with those we teach and infuse intentionality and value throughout our courses. As…

When Millennials began to enter the workforce in the mid-2000s, employers struggled to engage this indecisive group (i.e., job-hoppers). At the same time, they also battled the threat of a labor shortage due to the impending retirement of an aging baby-boomer workforce (Chaudhuri & Ghosh, 2012). Organizations began to combat both issues by…

This is a response to three essays: (1) "From TED Talks to TikTok: Teaching Digital Communication to Match Student Skills with Employer Desires" by Ashley A. Hanna Edwards (EJ1288050); (2) "Using the Basic Course to Prepare Digital Natives for New Role as Reverse Mentors" by T. Kody Frey, Nicholas T. Tatum, and Troy B. Cooper…

Students' emotional responses often provide valuable indicators of whether they are languishing or flourishing in their first-year classes, including introductory communication courses. Grading often exerts a strong influence on students' emotions. However, though students generally have positive moods after receiving high marks and negative ones…

This study sought to empirically evaluate the extent to which visiting the communication center before delivering the first major speech in an introductory communication course improved students' academic performance and engagement. A total of 262 students were included in this study, half of whom visited the communication center prior to their…

Our current cultural moment requires reflective urgency. COVID-19 has forced a collective pedagogical confrontation with new media's materiality, and how such materiality intersects with, for example, the public speaking traditions within introductory communication courses. While COVID-19 has spotlighted online-only educational conversations, our…