Professor Melanie Morgan meets with student Aaron Flora in her office to discuss a recent speech.

Allison Carney
English, senior

The Department of Communication is now offering its basic public speaking course and its beginning Interpersonal Communication course online.

The two courses are part of a collection of Purdue courses that will transfer to any university statewide for credit. Some Purdue students had been taking public speaking courses online offered by other universities.

"Some of our COM 114 traffic was going elsewhere," said Dr. Melanie Morgan, the director of Purdue's basic presentational speaking course who is teaching COM114Y this semester. "Instead, we want to attract students from all over the state."

A major advantage to taking an online course is flexibility, said Morgan. She said those with families, jobs and hectic schedules seem to find online courses the most beneficial. For instance, one of her COM114Y students had harvest season at the beginning of the semester, and because the course was available online, he was able to get not only his credits, but also his crops in.

Morgan's course relies on students to complete quizzes, discussion questions and other assignments online via Purdue's course facilitator, WebCT. Students must give their speeches, however, in front of a live audience they arrange for. They then send Morgan the tape of the speech for evaluation.

Some students come in perceiving that an online course is less difficult, but Morgan said that is not true. Everything done in the classroom setting is required for the online course.

Morgan said an online course has its advantages and disadvantages. She thinks the class gives students a more real-world feel for presentational speaking, since they must present speeches to an actual audience instead of classmates. "When it's a real audience, students take it more seriously and are more prepared," she said.

But she says they miss out on interaction with each other. "My students know me but they don't know each other," she said.

Assistant Professor James Tyler, who is teaching COM212Y, the online version of the department's interpersonal course, said online courses are also advantageous to the instructors. Tyler's course is presented via WebCT in separate modules, giving students more flexibility to complete assignments.

"You are not tied to a specific time constraint for a class meeting, so I think it allows for more time to provide feedback and to actually look at students' assessments," he said.

Another advantage, Tyler said, is offering an experience outside of the classroom lecture environment.

"My expectations are different for students in an online course; I don't have to entertain them to get them to think and pay attention -- it's my job to present them with ideas and to challenge them to reach for the fruit that's higher up on the tree," he said.

Currently all the students enrolled in both sections of the course are registered at Purdue. Morgan said it is hoped that once the courses are established, students from all over Indiana will register.

The courses will be offered again in the spring 2008 semester.