Learning Intranet - Curriculum Design

Generic Communication Skills rubric

The aim of the generic oral and written communication skills rubrics is to ensure the assessment of communication skills in every relevant task, in every course, via a standardised rubric. Generic terms are used in the rubrics to facilitate ease of use by academic staff without specialist literacy knowledge, and to allow contextualisation. Academic staff, as discipline content experts, are expected to determine what “appropriate to discipline/ assessment type” means.

• Generic rubric template (WORD, 27KB)
• Examples of adapted versions - Examples of generic rubric adapted or used in trial (WORD, 678KB)

Threshold Standards of Communication Skills

The Communication Skills Threshold Standards are underpinned by key principles in the Edith Cowan University Curriculum Design and Curriculum Design Policy and Procedures.

Discipline Threshold Learning Outcomes are defined in this policy as the “minimum discipline knowledge, discipline-specific skills and professional capabilities including attitudes and professional values that are expected of a graduate from a specified level of program in a specified discipline area.” This policy also stipulates that Curriculum Design will “contextualise and embed generic skills, including communication.” Communication Skills include “written, oral, literacy and numeracy skills. In an academic and professional context these are reflected in a combination of literacies used by a student to communicate in day to day situations, academic contexts and in the workplace.”

The purpose of the Communication Skills Threshold Standards is to provide a framework for academic staff to help identify the minimum communication skills required at each level of a course: Introduced, Consolidated and Demonstrated.

Threshold Standards

• Communication Skills Threshold Standards (PDF, 440KB)

CL03 Exemplars

• CLO3 Written Consolidated Exemplar HOS2325 Reflective Writing (WORD, 13.6KB)
• CLO3 Written Consolidated HOS2325 Reflective Journal Marking Rubric (PDF, 147KB)
• CLO3 Written Consolidated HOS2325 Reflective Journal guidelines (PDF, 146KB)
• CLO3 Written Demonstrated exemplar HOS3100 (PDF, 1.8MB)
• CLO3 Written Demonstrated HOS3100 Report Guidelines (PDF, 182KB)
• CLO3 Written Demonstrated HOS3100 Report Marking Rubric (PDF, 156KB)
• CLO3 Written Introduced Level ECF1110 Individual Business Essay Rubric (WORD, 19KB)
• CLO3 Written Introduced Level Essay Instructions (WORD, 18KB)

Developing and assessing communication skills framework

The Distributed Expertise model (Arkoudis & Harris, 2018), which has informed ECU’s Curriculum Design Policy and Procedure, suggests that the development and assessment of students’ communication skills requires an integrated approach and that this should distributed according to the professional responsibilities of key people involved in teaching and learning. These various approaches contribute to ensuring students have attained threshold levels of English language communication upon graduation.

• Developing and assessing communication skills framework (PDF, 136KB)
• Roles and responsibilities in communication skills development (WORD, 26KB)
• Recommendations for enhancing communication skills feedback (PDF, 260KB)
• Comment bank - Communication skills development (WORD, 139KB)

Graduate Certificate of Academic Practice (GCAP) Developing Communication Skills Module

This module provides a foundational digest of essential information for developing communication skills, along with scaffolded tasks to prompt you to document and reflect upon your development and experience of developing or embedding communications skills in the context of your discipline. It also introduces you to well-established frameworks and current policies and procedures that frame embedding communication skills in an institutional and national context. https://intranet.ecu.edu.au/learning/academic-development/graduate-certificate-in-academic-practice

School Senior Learning Adviser contact details

The role of Senior Learning Advisers (SLA) is to work directly with academic staff to embed communication skills into the curriculum. SLAs can assist with the development of assessments, creation of resources, and delivery of activities that promote student academic literacies and communication skills.

SLA contact details: https://intranet.ecu.edu.au/learning/centre-for-learning-and-teaching/learning-support/learning-support-staff

Scholarly articles for Academic Staff

Case studies and papers detailing how communication skills have been integrated into curriculum are presented here.  Articles on Communication skills development (PDF, 487KB)