Eastern Communication Association

Most presentations given in the communication classroom have in common three areas of assessment: content, delivery, and visual aids. Unless otherwise taught, students may view these facets as three isolated currents flowing parallel to one another. In this interactive short course, participants will learn how to merge these currents to help students quickly gain agility as presenters. We will engage with both new and familiar ideas related to content, delivery, and visual aids in the communication classroom.

This short course will happen in three organized phases. In phase one, we will take stock of the most common content, delivery, and visual aid skills that students need to practice and master over the course of a semester. These skills include quality and not quantity of gestures and body movement; concise content knowledge to increase flow and continuity of thought and in oral delivery; animated and passionate delivery; and agility when utilizing visual aids. In phase two of the course, we will put these skills into motion in the form of interactive "stations". Participants will take on the role of students and rotate around the room one station at a time to practice these specific and concrete skills. To end the course in phase three, we will debrief the activity, share other in-class exercises for content, delivery, and visual aids that can be added/expanded on, and talk about how to make communication skills more strategic, effective, and memorable for students.