BYU online public speaking course

Hi all,
Has anyone taken public speaking at BYU (Brigham Young University)? If so, is there an audience requirement? How do you submit speeches? Would you recommend this class? I could take it at Clovis for way less, but I emailed the instructor and he told me that there is an audience requirement of at least 6 people per speech. Unfortunately, I don't think that will work for me, so I am looking into BYU, but I wanted some input before I start. Thank you in advance!!

 

Do you mean the independent study course? My son and I have both taken it. No audience required, speeches are submitted by audio tape or computer sound file. It's a good course. If you do a search, you can probably find other discussions about it here.

 

I am a firm believer in the quality of online learning and uses it can give in the employment world but I cannot imagine how taking a public speaking course via distance learning with no audience requirements can possibly prepare you for public speaking. This is one type of program that should not be online.

Best of luck to you though.

 

I think that public speaking entails many tips/tricks/skills/preparations that may be learned without having to be in front of an audience. Speech preparation is a key and that may be learned without having to be in front of an audience. Getting in front of an audience is scary for many. If one can be as prepared as they can be then that preparation may take some of the "chill" off. At some point, a person will need to be in front of an audience. Joining Toastmasters would be an excellent follow-on activity to this course.

 

You can see my review here:

http://www.degreeinfo.com/distance-learning-discussions/34347-byu-independent-study-public-speaking.html

Shawn

 

That's interesting that it only requires audio. Most people with a communication background will tell you that the vocal part of a speech is only part of the speech. There's a ton of non-verbal communication involved, and without a video, those non-verbals can't be observed. Having minored in Comm as an undergrad, I wouldn't recommend an audio only public speaking course to anyone. When I took public speaking, which was the first course in the Comm sequence, not only did we have to speak before our classes, we had to videotape ourselves and analyze the tape. That was extremely helpful because we noticed we were doing things we never realized before seeing it on video.

-Matt

 

There are many online public speaking courses. Some require audio files, some require video files and others a combination of both. If I recall correctly, both BYU and Capella won awards for their online public speaking courses.