Improving the Oral Communication Center

Murphy, Cameron

Publication

Improving the Oral Communication Center

Murphy, Cameron

Description

The Oral Communication Center (OCC) at the University of Wyoming (UW) serves to help students inside and outside of the public speaking course in a way that produces well versed public speakers. While instructors in the OCC can help make improvements on students’ work, how far their help goes has yet to be measured in a way that is easily identifiable. Students in public speaking courses are required to visit the OCC in order to complete a specific assignment, so analyzing its effectiveness is important. To identify how much the OCC helps students, a survey was created and distributed to students in public speaking courses at UW. The survey was filled out anonymously by students, and asked questions pertaining to how much they believe the OCC was beneficial to them, as well as how it could be improved. The results of the survey have indicated to us how instructors can help students better, as well as what specific areas they struggle with in their speeches and assignments. The data from this study will be summarized and presented to the instructors in the OCC so that future students in public speaking will have a better experience when they visit.