Architecture Prof. Tom Sofranko on Choosing Spoken & Visual

For Professor Tom Sofranko and many architecture faculty, the visual and technological aspects of their courses are obvious and easily fold into communication-intensive pedagogies. Tom shared with CxC that he had an ah-ha moment several years back when an architect visited the campus to present on their work and blew everyone away with their public speaking skills. He was struck by the disconnect between his students’ speaking abilities and those of the guest lecturer. This drove home for Tom that students deserve the opportunity to cultivate their oral skills in a classroom setting if they are to succeed in their work to the same extent as the guest speaker. This course includes technological, visual, and written assignments and could have been certified in any of these modes. Tom made the choice to certify in spoken and visual communication so that he could emphasize to the students the value of delivering a presentation to different stakeholders, fielding Q&A, and articulating thoughtful and productive critiques. Further, he wanted to build oral communication into his course goals so that he could keep himself accountable to teaching students the skill.