Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Public Speaking In A Pandemic: A Situational, Compensatory, And Resilient Undertaking, Joshua F. Hoops

Basic Communication Course Annual

The introductory public speaking class includes topics such as audience analysis, credibility, organization, visual aids, and delivery. While the pedagogy I employ in this class tends to be very interactive and require a lot of group work, 2020 will forever be known as the year of the COVID-19 global pandemic, which produced social distancing, stay-at-home-orders, and mask wearing. This study examines the impacts of pandemic precautions on public speaking practice, specifically situational communication apprehension. In addition to recording my own observations throughout my face-to-face public speaking class, I also periodically interviewed students about their experience taking the course during a …