AT&T Fellows Final Report: Anthony Naaeke, Mardic Bergen, Jerome Mahaffey

AT&T Fellows Final Reports

March 2006

Name	Anthony Naaeke, Mardic Bergen, Jerome Mahaffey
Title
Department	Communication Studies
Campus	East
Project Title	Technology Enhanced Instruction: Teaching Public Speaking at Indiana University East
Project Goal	To develop a tenable and affordable method of teaching Public Speaking Online
Type of Technology Used in the Project	Web-cam & Internet class format

Executive Summary of Results

Students are successfully using the technology for the most part. We arranged training sessions and provided a lag technician for individual training in the use of the web-cams. Most students did not require help. Several students attended the sessions and a few required extensive help. These perhaps should not have enrolled since their computer skills in general were inadequate for online coursework. Students have had problems with selecting the proper export settings to create a file that will email with no problems.

This is a preliminary report. A survey has been prepared assessing the learning levels that will be administered at the end of the semester (May 4)

Need for the Project

IU East has begun offering Degree completion program online to augment its enrollment and compete with nearby institutions. Our next step is to offer the entire Communication BA online. Clearly, the most problematic course will be the Public Speaking due to its interactive nature. We are concluding that the set of skills students develop in the class is somewhat different than in the traditional classroom. The audience is not live and provides no interactive feedback. Yet, the students are sharpening their professional presentation skills, albeit for the camera instead of the live audience. We believe that the skill set is different, but comparable and certainly is useful in either venue, live or mediated.

Use of Technology

As far as we know, using web-cams to deliver speeches in Distance Education is novel. Classes have been offered where videotapes were mailed back and forth between student and teacher. But VHS cameras are no longer available and the mini-DV format is expensive (400 for a camera and $7 for each tape) by contrast, the web-cam is inexpensive ($30) and readily available. The web-cams require a higher level of technical expertise though, including basic computer skills, email fluency, basic videography, introductory level video editing, and video exporting into various computer formats.

Instructional Design Plan

We expect that students learned the topic of Public speaking as well as their classroom counterparts. We also expect they mastered webcam technology.

Public speaking is “active” in the sense that the real learning is accomplished in the “doing.” Straight bookwork (ideal for most online class situations) will ultimately help PS skills, but nothing replaces practice. Feedback is provided by the instructor (Mardic Bergen) viewing, evaluating, commenting, and emailing feedback intended to enhance improvement to the students. Public speaking tends to force students into a “kinetic or tactile” learning style since improvement is mostly accomplished through active participation. Auditory and visual learning is achieved as students view one another’s speeches on the internet.

We made extensive use of the Teaching & Learning Center who reported working with 15 individual students as well as our Instructor. We also hired a part-time instructional technologist (a student from the Telcom department) to work with individual students that need extensive and ongoing help. She has kept office hours and made her phone number available.

Faculty must overcome any fear of technology they might have and dedicate the extra time needed to help less tech savvy students master the use of the web-cam.

Potential to Impact Student Learning

To be completely candid, I feel that Public speaking is a subject best taught in person with live student audiences. Hence, online students who take less responsibility for learning upon themselves may not have the same level of improvement in their actual speaking skills as traditional students. Nevertheless, the theoretical portions of the class should be equivalent between online and traditional venues. The Online method will not foster increased numbers of students in a classroom. The instructor must still dedicate the same amount of time to evaluation and commenting for adequate student improvement. The upside of the project is that it should open college for adult learners whose schedule does not support traditional class schedules. Moreover, we serve a rural area where students that live far from campus are burdened by extra driving time and the expense of travel. The online courses level the playing field for both the Adult learners and rural students. We expect the Online Public speaking to facilitate the online BA degree and make a college degree possible for people that otherwise would not go to school.

Assessment Plan

A full assessment report will be composed upon completion of the class and the administration of the survey instrument.

Yet we have already encountered problems with students that lack basic computer skills finding their way into the high tech class environment. To protect student interests (as well as the instructor’s time) our advising department must work with us to identify unsuitable students for the online class and see they take the requisite computer courses before attempting an online Public
Speaking class.

Preliminary indications are that a majority of students have successfully learned the new technology and that id did not hinder their learning.

Plan for Colleague Development

Dr Naaeke and Mardic Bergen conducted an informative session for colleagues and students at our annual Technology Fair. Dr. Mahaffey is scheduled to present findings at a national convention (NCA) in November of 2006. Colleagues can learn from our mistakes in not having prerequisite computer courses for the online PS class. This is not normally a requirement for Public Speaking and was not foreseen in the planning stages. Formally, an entry level computer use class should be a pre-requisite. Informally, we suggest coordinating with the advising staff in your institution, suggesting to ensure that students tech skills are adequate.

Final Comments on Project Results

We feel that the goals of the project are being met. We are learning to change the syllabus and incorporate exercises and instructions in the web-cam use before any actual speaking assignments are due. One positive and unexpected outcome is that the retention rate for this class sections seems to be higher than normal. Public speaking is a class that traditionally suffers from attrition. We do recommend this approach to colleagues with eh understanding that teaching an online section is more time-consuming and demanding of current technical knowledge. This is not for every Public Speaking teacher, nor should it be.

The researchers are please to invite questions or comments from colleagues.

Again, this is a preliminary report and our findings may change after we have the results of the student survey in May. More is forthcoming.

This preliminary report was collected and composed by Jerome Mahaffey.

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