The Development and Test of the Public Speaking Competency Rubric+

In this work, the authors document an expansion of the Public Speaking Competency Rubric (PSCR). First developed in 2012 by Schreiber, et al., the original rubric has only one item related to non-verbal communication. The authors of this work expanded the rubric to include 10 items related to the non-verbal aspects of public speaking and had it critiqued by 10 outside experts. The rubric was tested on recorded speeches given by college students. The expanded rubric, dubbed the PSCR+, has been found to be both valid and reliable. Minimal training is needed to apply the rubric in a classroom setting, and it has the benefit of being useful for both formative and summative assessment. Finally, this rubric is complete enough that it can be used to provide students with detailed feedback regarding their speaking skills without the addition of further notes or comments.