Educational Technology & Public Speaking Robinson, James, Turner, Jeanine, & Watters, Kathleen

Measurement Issues: PRCA  The identification of appropriate measures for the assessment.  PRCA – Personal Report of Communication Apprehension  6 item measure of public speaking anxiety  PRCA used in 1,000 published studies.  Reliabilities reported in the.80 range

PRCA Items  “My thoughts become confused when I give a speech.”  “I face the prospect of giving a speech with confidence.”  “Certain parts of my body feel tense or rigid while giving a speech.”  “I get so nervous I forget facts I know.”

Measurement Issues: SPCC  SPCC – The self perceived communicative competence measure.  3 item measure of public speaking competence  SPCC widely used in research & assessment of public speaking courses.  Reliabilities reported in the.75 range

SPCC Items  On a scale of 0% to 100% how competent are you at the following:  “Present a talk to a group of strangers.”  “Present a talk with a group of acquaintances.”  “Present a talk to a group of friends.”

Pilot Study o Measures were tested in class (n = 109 Ss). o Internal consistency PRCA =.86 * for public speaking items. o Internal consistency for SPCC =.79 * for public speaking items. * Cronbach’s alpha

Assessment Website  An assessment website was constructed.  An introduction & explanation on the assessment process was included.  The measures were then turned into forms using Microsoft FrontPage

The Assessment Website  Reduces time spent generating & distributing assessment materials.  Reduces the money spent reproducing the materials  Reduces the time spent analyzing assessment data.  No scanning & importing ASCII files.  No reproducing variable labels.

Additional Technology  Ss typically make two speeches in this course.  Both are made in class – utilizing 45% of all class time.  Ss typically give a variation of the same speech.

Additional Technology  To alleviate this problem, Ss are required to tape their speech outside of class and bring it to the instructor  Ss may practice and record the speech as many times as they like.  This forces Ss to practice the speech before they present it in class.

Additional Technology  Ss receive more instruction & less time listening to speeches that are not well prepared or are redundant.  Instructors can pour over the speech and look back and rewind speech.  Instructors can point out specific problems and shoe the Ss.

Discussion  Putting Ss in charge of solving the technology problem, empowers Ss.  Taped speeches reduce Ss complaints about differences in perceptions of the speech.  Vocal segregates, eye contact, note of finality, transitions.

Discussion  Instructors perceive speeches to be much improved.  Ss report feeling more clear about what the instructor “wants.”  Ss watch their speech and realize there are many things they could do to enhance their performance.

Future Projects  Stream the speech on assessment website instead of using transcript.  Provide Ss with firewire webcams for public speaking courses.  Submit the speeches to their instructors as video attachments on the new media server system.

Future Projects  Create a video speech library for Ss.  Identify the most common Ss errors to improve future speech education.  Provide instructors software to embed comments in a second audio track.

New Instructional Website  Fractionate speech into components.  Attention  Purpose  Preview  Main Points  Evidence

New Instructional Website  Conclusion  Closing summary  Note of finality  Efforts at credibility  Message adaptation  Ss provide each component online to instructor.