Making Teaching Matter: The Art and Science of Teaching Business Communication

The importance of students knowing how to communicate in the business world is widely recognized by the academicians and the practitioners. Most business schools require students to take a course in business communication. How effective are these classes? Who should measure the skill mastery of the students? Can practitioners and teachers work together to ensure students’ competence in business communication? These are critical questions particularly in a year when ABSEL is working on “assessing the impact of experiential learning and simulations.” This paper describes a model used by us in which students’ written and oral presentation skills in our business communication class are assessed by an objective/external standard. The paper describes our three year journey and offers a framework for others who want their students’ competence to be in line with the business world standards