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Course Details Course:
Communication 110 - Fundamentals of Public Speaking, Enrollment: 18 |
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Course Objectives The goal of this course is
to help students become better public speakers as well as better
communicators in general. To accomplish this goal, students study and
practice various topics including audience analysis, communication apprehension,
verbal and nonverbal communication, speech writing and formatting, research
methods, delivery techniques, and listening and critiquing skills. |
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Why is student engagement
in your course important? One
of the toughest inhibitors to good public speaking is fear. By increasing
levels of engagement, students are more apt to overcome excessive fear of
public speaking. Increasingly engaging students in real world scenarios also
helps them to retain and hopefully enjoy the material that we are learning in
class. |
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What did you do to engage
students in your course? Writing
and delivering public addresses already has high student engagement. To
foster greater engagement I introduced students to thinking outside of the
classroom through problem-based learning and audience analysis research.
Working in small groups, students chose real world problems that they could
focus their speeches around. The goal for each student was to learn about a
social issue, teach their knowledge of their chosen social issue to the rest
of the class through their speeches, and ultimately discover and teach
possible solutions to these problems. Along with problem-based learning,
students were required to analyze and relate one of their speeches to a real
world audience. This required students to research a particular group or
community that had nothing to do with the classroom, and discover ways to
relate their topic to that specific audience. |
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What are some challenges
in engaging students in your courses?
Utilizing
class time for activities and hands-on work is very important if you are
trying to engage students. It is important that students read and understand
the textbook material before they come to class so their knowledge can be
applied to practical exercises. Impressing upon students the importance of
reading is difficult yet crucial because they will not get many lecture notes
in an activity and discussion based class. |