Oral Communication

Completing the Oral Communication Requirement

The policy

Students must complete a General Studies Oral Communication (OC) course as a requirement for graduation for MSU Denver, and for many majors this course and the skills developed are necessary prerequisites for major coursework. Consequently, students must complete General Studies Oral Communication within the first 30 hours completed.

Students who get to 30 hours and haven't completed the first course of the OC requirement receive a hold, and this tutorial is how that hold is removed.

Students who get beyond this point and haven't finished the requirement--that is, if the hold hasn't convinced you to complete the requirement--we may implement a range of consequences, such as requiring an in-person meeting with your advisor, pre-registering you for a course that completes or moves you toward completing the requirement, or even allowing you to register ONLY for a course that fulfills this requirement.

(Quiz alert: the material above is covered on the quiz.)

The Scoop

Without this policy in place, we were seeing students not completing this requirement until well after the first year, which is when we intended for students to take the course. While not as many students put off finishing this requirement as put off finishing Quantitative Literacy, for example, delaying this was having several significant negative effects, including students not being as prepared for other courses this requrement was designed to help prepare them and having their graduation delayed because they put off completing the requirement into the senior year.

Think of the hold and this tutorial as a not-so-suble way of getting your attention.We know you have a lot of other things competing for your attention, and sometimes even important things can get lost. The other consequence may sound harsh--and they are--but our experience is that students who get to the end of their degree and this still hasn't been completed are in a MUCH worse situation, so we would rather employ some tough love now. And we do realize that allowing you to register ONLY for an Oral Communication class, should you get to that point, could have serious implications for you. That could really mess up your financial aid, veteran's or military benefits, students visa status, or anything that requires you to be enrolled in more than one class. This is a big deal, and we want you to know it's a big deal.

How can I become eligible to take a course that fulfills the Oral Communication requirement?

For these courses that fulfill the Oral Communication requirements, the prerequisites for registering are listed below:

SPE 1010, SPE 1710, PHI 1110.

• Enter MSU Denver with an ACT English score of 18 or higher and ACT Reading score of 17 or higher, taken within the last 5 years
• Enter MSU Denver with an SAT English score of 440 or higher and SAT Reading score of 430 or higher, taken within the last 5 years
• Take the Accuplacer test, which can be taken twice without charge at the MSU Denver Assessment and Testing Center , and achieve a score of 95 or higher on the Sentence Skills exam and 80 or higher on the Reading exam
• For HON 2950, in addition to appropriate scores in Reading and English, permission of the Honors Program Director is also required. The table below summarizes these prerequisites.

For language courses that complete this requirement, these are the prerequisites:

1. If you receive a lower score on either or both the Accuplacer exams (depending on which course you intend to take), then you must take remedial courses (Basic Skills courses) at a community college.
2. MSU Denver students can register through ConnectU for CCD Basic Skills courses

Why not just put off taking my Oral Communication course?

• Students must complete the Oral Communication requirement in their first 30 credit hours at MSU Denver. Eventually you will be face restrictions on what courses you can take at MSU Denver if you do not complete the Oral Communication requirement
• The Oral Communication course will help you in other college courses by strengthening your skills in this foundational area, so completing the courses early in your college career just makes sense.
• The Oral Communication requirement must be completed in order to take courses in many majors
  • For example, Business Core courses require the completion of the Oral Communication requirement

Which Oral Communication course should I take?

The right Oral Communication course for you will depend on which courses are allowed, recommended, or required for your major or majors. To determine which is the best course for your particular situation, you should talk to an advisor.

What do I do next?

• Click Quiz - Oral Communication link on the left-hand menu
• The quiz covers the material you have just been reading
• You can refer back to this material as you take the quiz
• You have to get all questions right in order to pass the quiz
• If necessary, you can take the quiz up to 4 times
• After passing the quiz
  • You will take a brief survey
  • Then you will fill out a form with your Student ID (your entire 900 number, with no spaces or dashes) and MSU Denver (ConnectU) user name
  • The hold comes off when this last step is complete, the form is submitted, and you see the image below!