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Childers
Teaches Public Speaking in Online Classrooms
By
Barbara Bullington
A
terrified student slowly makes his way to the front of the
classroom, knowing the experience can’t be put off any
longer. He can almost hear his heart beating over the ominous
silence in the room. The others in the class sit in solemn
terror, knowing they’ll soon be next.
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Public
speaking comes naturally for Dave Childers (Communication),
whose career includes service as a policeman, a police
trainer and a SWAT team member, as well as professional
sales in the pharmaceutical industry. Teaching public
speaking online, however, required a different approach.
(Photo by Joy Holster)
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Taking a public speaking course might not be quite so dramatic.
But many do fear the experience, a truth to which many instructors
can attest.
This
summer, ECU’s School of Communication offered one of
its public speaking courses online for the first time. While
some courses may lend themselves easily to online instruction,
teaching students to communicate clearly and confidently via
the Internet is a challenge that can cause even the instructor
some anxiety.
Visiting
instructor Dave Childers took up that challenge, teaching
an online version of Business and Professional Speaking in
the second summer session. The course required students to
give three individual presentations, two informative and one
persuasive or persuasive sales speech. A fourth presentation
was a group discussion that taught group roles, assessment
of problems, and finding solutions.
Knowing he would have to find alternatives to the traditional
classroom – which comes complete with an audience of
approximately 20 to 30 students – Childers began preparing
weeks in advance. In addition to learning Blackboard, he searched
the Web for advice on designing the class and studied a copy
of the book How to Teach Online.
As a substitute for the group presentation, Childers assigned
a research paper requiring students to interview a professional
in the workplace or research the importance of communication
skills in the workplace.
Evaluating and grading the students’ speeches, however,
still presented a challenge.
“As a speech teacher, I am used to watching students
give speeches, and then giving them instant feedback,”
said Childers. His solution was to have students videotape
their speeches and mail him the recordings. Childers watched
the tapes and provided comments on evaluation sheets sent
back to the students.
For immediate interaction, Chil-ders activated an instant
messaging site.
“I set up a time each morning and each evening when I
was online,” related Childers. “Several of my students
made frequent contact with me through the IM. I was able to
give those students more instant feedback than the others.”
The instant messaging worked so well that Childers plans to
make it mandatory the next time around. “I believe the
students that I was able to ‘talk with’ improved
more than the students who just read the evaluation sheets
but did not dialogue with me over the IM.”
Another area that will likely evolve in the future is how
to locate an audience. Each of the 14 students were required
to have at least seven people present when they videotaped
and gave their speeches. As proof of audience size, students
were asked to pan the audience with the camera. Childers advised
those in the course to find their audiences through clubs
or other organizations in their area.
“In the future, I will suggest that students who live
near each other meet with classmates and give speeches in
front of each other,” he said. As an alternative, he
will suggest that they find a local Toastmasters International
Club and see if they can do their speeches at one of the group
meetings.
Childers said he would teach the class online again. He believes
his students got the same benefit that they would have received
in a traditional classroom, primarily because the onus for
learning the material was on their shoulders. Each student
had to take ownership for his or her own performance, he said.
Christine Russell, coordinator of the School of Communication’s
Distance Education Programs, noted that access to the class
was limited to distance education students. These students,
she says, are often returning to complete degrees and are
already in successful careers. “The work they do in this
class is adapted perfectly to meet their unique needs,”
Russell said. “Much of today’s business communication
is done remotely,” she said, citing examples of video
conferences that can connect colleagues worldwide. “Learning
to present to a remote audience is especially valuable to
working students who are confronted with the need for this
skill sometimes daily or weekly,” she said.
Russell is considering offering the course online to traditional
students. “Technology is here to stay and we need to
not only meet the use of that technology, but as educators
we should anticipate it and prepare our students to step into
the work world seamlessly,” she said.
“That should be one of the ways that will differentiate
ECU students from other recent college grads.”
Article
appeared in Pieces of Eight, October 1, 2004 edition.
Complete
issue is archived at http://www.news.ecu.edu/poe/1004/arch1004.htm
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