Abstract: At the University of St Thomas, one of the courses I teach is STAT 336: Data Communication & Visualization. The course uses the Nolan and Stoudt Communicating with Data book as a major resource, and covers topics of data visualization, writing about data, and speaking about data. I've taught the course six times so far, and will be teaching it again in the spring semester. In this talk I will describe the course content, as well as some of my struggles with assessing student work. Thus far, the course has followed a traditional grading scheme, but I am considering a switch to competency-based grading. I envision several challenges with this transition, and will welcome any ideas or feedback.