Round-robin presentations: Increasing opportunities for public speaking in large lectures and beyond

Courses: Large-lecture; public speaking, business, professional, and technical communication; sales and marketing courses; courses with team-based projects

Objectives: To provide opportunities to develop public speaking skills, especially in large-lecture courses; to improve public speaking endurance; to improve students’ abilities to give concise and focused presentations; to reduce public speaking anxiety.     

Getting to Know You: Breaking the Ice in the Public Speaking Course

Objective: To allow students an opportunity to speak publicly on the first day of class while becoming familiar with fellow students. The activity encourages students to examine the perceptions and stereotypes they have about one another by blindly guessing certain characteristics about their partner. By participating in the exercise, students will begin to think about how they will deal with anxiety in a speaking situation, and they will be introduced to the concept of audience analysis. The exercise also allows the instructor an opportunity to assess beginning speaking ability and level of speaking comfort while getting to know students quickly.

Course use: The exercise is intended for the basic Public Speaking course but can be adapted to many other communications courses. The icebreaker is ideal for public speaking because it gives students a chance to speak publicly, often for the first time, without the pressure of getting a grade. Being paired with a partner also seems to help students reduce their speaking anxiety. The activity would also work well in a basic communication course as it allows for the exploration of key concepts such as perception and stereotypes. Regardless of the course, the key to the successful execution of the ice breaker is to conduct it on the first day when most students are unfamiliar with each other.     

新亚里士多德学派对传播学形成和学派分流的影响

本文追溯了新亚里士多德学派修辞学家的历史沿革及其对传播学形成和学派分流的影响。新亚里士多德学派的创立基于经典修辞学理论的信息分析方法并讲授传播实用艺术的公共演讲和辩论等课程。由于新亚里士多德学派的局限性,以演讲为主要研究对象的传播学学者发现了其他学科所倡导的有价值的新修辞学和传播学理论。他们在吸纳这些新理论和研究方法的同时,丰富了修辞学,推动了传播学学派的形成和分流。     

Public speaking procrastination as a correlate of public speaking communication apprehension and self‐perceived public speaking competence

In the present study, the relationship between public speaking procrastination and communication apprehension, and the relationship between public speaking procrastination and self‐perceived public speaking competence were investigated. A significant, positive correlation was found between public speaking procrastination and communication apprehension. A significant, negative correlation was found between public speaking procrastination and self‐perceived public speaking competence. The implications of public speaking procrastination for students and their instructors are discussed along with “anti‐procrastination “ pedagogical strategies.     

Serving our Communities with Public Speaking Skills

Course: Public Speaking

Objectives: (1) To develop communication skills through practical experience that provides a service to the community; and (2) to inspire and equip students to use their public speaking skills for positive societal influence.     

网络视频课程用户需求调查分析——以大学生为视角

以高校大学生为对象,通过问卷调查,分析了高校大学生对网络视频课程的认知情况、使用习惯以及现实需求。通过用户需求与网络视频课程平台建设现状的比较分析,得出目前网络视频课程存在的问题:缺乏有效推广、已有服务难以满足用户需求和知识产权问题,并据此提出了有关建议以促进网络视频课程资源的建设与共享。     

The Relationships Between Teacher Nonverbal Immediacy and Student Course Workload and Teacher Availability Expectations

The purpose of this study is to identify student expectations for course workload and teacher availability and to assess whether teacher nonverbal immediacy influences these student expectations. Based on a sample of 198 students at a large public university enrolled in a required general education hybrid communication course, students were willing to complete more work than the current course requires, which is comparable to other general education hybrid communication courses in the USA. Additionally, students have moderate to high expectations for teacher availability. Student perceptions of teacher nonverbal immediacy were positively correlated with students’ willingness to engage in their learning (reading, writing, speaking), teacher availability expectations, and tolerance for teacher unavailability.     

Spicing Up Information Literacy Tutorials: Interactive Class Activities That Worked

The Future Voices in Public Services column is a forum for students in graduate library and information science programs to discuss key issues they see in academic library public services, to envision what they feel librarians in public service have to offer to academia, to tell us of their visions for the profession, or to tell us of research that is going on in library schools. We hope to provide fresh perspectives from those entering our field, both in the United States and other countries. Interested faculty of graduate library and information science programs, who would like their students' ideas represented in these pages, are invited to contact Nancy H. Dewald at nxd7@psu.edu.

Neda Zdravkovic is studying at The School of Information Management at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Here she describes the student-centered and activity-based teaching approach used in some information literacy courses, including analysis of the student feedback received.

The School of Information Management at Victoria University of Wellington teaches the only postgraduate library studies program in New Zealand. Students take courses on campus and by distance learning, using CD-ROM and Web-based materials, as well as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) conferencing. The School is a member of the WISE (Web-based Information Science Education) consortium, sharing online courses with similar programs worldwide. From 2010, the current MLIS qualification will be replaced by postgraduate Certificate, Diploma and Master's degrees in Information Studies. The broad-based program allows students to specialize in Library Studies or in Archives and Records. Students come to the school from Asia, the United States, and New Zealand.     

Research Guide to Women's Studies for Law Students

The study of law is no longer limited to statutes, cases and administrative regulations. Indeed, it is no longer limited to law. Many law school courses examine the interplay of law and psychology, economics, poverty and other fields. One of the areas of frequent study has been the impact of women on the law, and of law on women's lives. Understanding courses such as feminist jurisprudence requires information from other areas, broadly called women's studies. Many students have never researched a multidisciplinary topic. This guide is intended to alert students and librarians to major guides and bibliographies published in the mid-1980s, and to provide a selected update to those sources.     

Public speaking students’ perceptions of cheating

While cheating has been studied in a variety of academic fields little to no research has been done in the field of communication studies and more specifically in the basic public speaking classroom. This may be due in part to a false sense of security public speaking instructors feel when they observe and evaluate a student as he or she stands and delivers a speech. Instructors may assume that since the student delivers the speech the student also researched and wrote the speech. However, the results of this study indicate that students self‐report cheating on speeches and do not seem to have a clear‐cut idea about what constitutes cheating in a public speaking class.     

关于解决民营图书馆发展法律障碍问题等建议案

文章提出了两个建议案:一是建议通过修改现行法律、在图书馆法中对民营图书馆进行专章规定等途径来解决民营图书馆发展中的法律障碍问题;二是建议将《信息检索》作为公共必修课在高校各专业开设,以扩大接受信息教育的学生范围和人数,提高《信息检索》授课质量和效果。     

学科馆员参与资源建设的探索与创新

论述北京大学图书馆学科馆员如何在梳理、评估、展示馆藏学科资源的基础上,通过资源评估和调研为采购提供信息,借助专业课程为师生整合资源,发掘免费资源补充馆藏,由点及面,逐步满足读者的资源需求。同时,介绍学科馆员跟踪学科发展趋势,为高校学科资源规划提供前瞻性建议,促进学科资源建设发展的情况。     

Embedded Librarian Within an Online Health Informatics Graduate Research Course: A Case Study

The Health Sciences Library and the Department of Health Informatics & Information Management at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis piloted an embedded librarian project in summer 2012. The value and effectiveness of the pilot project was evaluated by analyzing the content of e-mail questions received from the students and the students’ answers to the pre- and post-class surveys. The project received positive feedback from the students and course faculty. Librarians collaborating with teaching faculty and interacting one-on-one with students in health information-intensive courses proved to be helpful for student learning.     

档案学虚拟仿真实验教学平台的建设与应用—基于武汉大学《专门档案管理》课程的案例研究

档案学虚拟仿真实验教学平台通过虚拟现实技术对档案管理场景开展真实模拟,通过沉浸式、高交互的实验过程,提升学生对档案管理实务的理解和应用能力,满足社会各行业对应用型档案管理人才的需要。本文以武汉大学《专门档案管理》课程为案例,对档案虚拟仿真实验教学平台的系统架构、运行方式和实施效果开展了全面分析。在案例研究的基础上,总结并提出了档案学专业在虚拟仿真实验平台的建设和应用中的三点经验启示,即平台开发阶段要做到明确需求、共同参与,平台教学阶段要做到转换角色、参与教学,平台拓展阶段要做到以模块化设计促进课程互通。     

An Initial Exploration of Students’ Mindsets,Attitudes, and Beliefs About Public Speaking

This study investigated how students’ implicit theory that public speaking abilities can be developed and improved (i.e., growth mindset) was related to their apprehension, perceived competence, and beliefs regarding public speaking. Growth mindset was associated with lower apprehension and higher self-perceived competence. Growth mindset was also associated with the belief that public speaking involves reflection, revision, and adapting to one’s audience rather than merely transmitting information. Correlations were consistent with hypotheses.     

Beyond Buzzword Bingo: A critical examination of genre,culture, and communication

Courses: This single-class teaching activity was designed for courses on public speaking, rhetorical criticism, and critical thinking. In addition, instructors can adapt this activity for online or face-to-face courses on intercultural communication, organizational communication, listening, and political communication.

Objectives: By completing this activity, students should be able to (a) describe the principles of generic rhetorical criticism; (b) identify buzzwords associated with specific communicative contexts and genres (e.g. political debates, commencement speeches, award acceptance speeches); (c) critically examine the rhetorical significance and underlying assumptions of these buzzwords; and (d) discuss the benefits and limitations of using buzzwords in public communication contexts.     

A traditional lecture approach versus a collaborative approach: A comparison of student performance outcomes

Many instructors rely primarily on the traditional lecture approach when teaching the basic public speaking course. However, this research suggests that a collaborative instructional approach may be a more effective alternative to the traditional lecture format. Data comparing student performance outcomes when using a traditional lecture approach and a collaborative instructional approach indicate that students’ public speaking performances improve significantly when they engage in collaborative instruction.