The Communication Audit as a Class Project.

Off-campus experiences enhance students' eductional experience and learning process. One such class involves students in conducting a "communication audit" or assessment of an off-campus organization. Classes employing the communication audit provide students with opportunities to explore, examine, monitor, and evaluate communication in a practical way. Students actually spend time on-site in an organization diagnosing the communication. On-site diagnosis allows students to learn business communication, organizational communication, or managerial communication in innovative ways. The communication audit was developed in the 1970's as a research tool to assess organizational communication. Through interviews, surveys, network analyses, communication diaries, and accounts of "communication experiences,"auditors were able to determine the quality and information flow of an organization's communication. The audit yielded a comprehensive portrait of communication flow, employees' communication needs, sources of information, and communication satisfaction within the organization. Today, these same research tools can be used by students in communication classes. Through this class project, students gain applied knowledge and skills of communication processes in an organizational environment. When conducting interviews and administering surveys, students actually measure or diagnose an organization's communication. BENEFITS The communication audit benefits students in several ways. For inexperienced students, the audit provides access into the "real" world. These students learn how communication operates in the workplace, where practice sometimes contrasts with theory. For experienced students, an in-depth practical study of an organization's written and oral communications improves their knowledge and skill. All students benefit from the in-depth group project involving collaborative writing, teamwork, and development of group skills. Positive university and community relationships also develop from the audit project. When an organization benefits from an audit and its communication improves, the university supplies a professional service, not just to the organization, but to the community itself. Developing positive community relations emerges as a prominent theme in the use of the audit as a pedagogical tool. Departments make invaluable contacts with outside agencies and develop relationships with the community. Thus, the communication audit, skillfully implemented, becomes a valid teaching tool in the classroom. USING THE AUDIT IN THE CLASSROOM Grading: The group project comprises forty percent of the course grade. The remaining sixty percent of the grade involves exams and other class assignments. For the audit project, I grade students on their quality of work and hours logged in the following areas: 1. Conducting interviews on-site with organizational members. 2. General preparation and typing of questionnaires, interview schedules, and network analysis forms. 3. Data analysis, including coding of data from the audit instruments into a spreadsheet or statistical programs, audit data entry, statistical analysis of audit data, and constructing report tables from analysis. 4. Writing of drafts and the final report to the organization (most of the class will participate in writing the report). 5. Involvement and participation in a business and professional presentation to the company at the end of the semester. 6. Constructive and active participation in class sessions. 7. Cooperation and flexibility with other students, teacher, and the organization. Working together to audit a single organization, students work in small teams specializing in one or more of the above areas. All students, however, have input into other areas. For example, a student working on the interview team may also be involved in report writing. …