Adam Borth Cowley College

Background research and ideas What we did at Cowley Course information/details Challenges of online public speaking Benefits of online public speaking Continuing the process

 Online classes were/are growing exponentially every semester  Started looking for ways to offer Public Speaking courses online  Began to research what others were doing in 2008

A course of action was determined for teaching the course online One of the major things we were going to avoid was pushing the students to campus to give speeches Instead, speeches could be given in the students residence (or other location of choice)

Not only did we not want to force the students on to campus, we wanted to do away with fossilized methods – Tapes – DVD’s – Recordings in general With all computers having basic editing systems, the integrity could be easily compromised

 We started researching multiple, live camera based systems  We needed a program that would work seamlessly with our LMS (ANGEL)  All of the programs have positives and negatives

Our technology people did endless research and came up with what they thought was the best program for us in Elluminate We tried out using Elluminate, and decided it was going to work for us – Elluminate recently became Blackboard Collaborate

Now we had a program in place to work with the course I developed how I wanted the course to flow from an academic perspective – Four units per semester – Each unit includes a speech and an exam – Many other assignments are given within each unit relating to the coursework

 The academic and technological side of things was set to pilot, now just the logistical side of speeches was left ◦ What times were speeches ◦ Audience members needed ◦ Other things that may be needed ◦ Grading/Feedback

 Starting with what is required from the students: ◦ Must have a minimum of five people in the audience over the age of 18 ◦ Must have HIGH SPEED internet access  Usually the 3/4G modems sold by cell stores are not fast enough (not always the case though) ◦ Must have quiet atmosphere for speeches ◦ Must have a web cam (or access to one)

 The student has a small fee for the course to offset the cost of using a program like Collaborate  Several things are continuously being improved for the course, including scheduling and grading

 The first year the course was taught (in 2009), students were asked to sign up for a time block that worked for them  Time blocks were in 10 minute intervals  Usually there was between one or two hours of available times for the students to sign up  Generally, three days during the “speech week” were available for students to sign up

 The time blocks have been modified in how the current class is being taught  Students are given several one hour time blocks during a given “speech week” to choose from  They participate in speeches during the time they choose in that week

 Grading speeches has evolved to incorporate more of the LMS technology  Started with using a word document as the rubric and ing as an attachment to the students

 That was obviously not the most practical way to grade the speeches  Started using the rubric within ANGEL, and have had good success doing that

 Several areas have shown to be very challenging ◦ Students struggle finding an audience ◦ Even with the requirement of high speed internet, some students struggle with it ◦ Some students struggle with using the technology ◦ High percentages of students drop the course

 Reaching a very wide demographic of student  Gives students the ability to take the course in a less than ideal situation  Public speaking skill is being integrated within technology from a presentation perspective  Same benefits as other online courses

 Course offers many students the opportunity to take a communications course they may not have been able to in the past  Course is very popular and fills almost immediately  Always room to keep improving the course and student learning