Oral Communication in an Integrated STEM and Humanities First-Year Experience

This study looks at Purdue University's Integrated First-Year Experience of Design Thinking in Technology, Fundamentals of Speech Communication, and First-Year Composition and its effects on oral communication. We examined whether this three-course integration inspired by writing-across-the-curriculum and communication-across-the-curriculum would lead students to develop more effective oral communication skills than a nonintegrated course. Frameworks for 21st century skills and the National Association of Colleges and Employers (2017) have pinpointed the importance of oral and written communication skills and initiatives. Still, research has produced mixed results on how well universities are preparing students for the workplace. Our study investigated whether the integrated program had better end-of-semester group oral presentations than student groups enrolled only in our Design Thinking in Technology course. A quasi-experimental design and post-only analysis revealed that integrated sections had more effective oral presentations than the nonintegrated sections