Audience Support

Advice for students in fully online COM 104 Classes

Students enrolled in my fully online course are required to perform two speeches in front of an audience of at least eight people (16 plus years of age or older). The audience must all be in the same room. Therefore no Facetime, skyping, or other video calling technologies are allowed.

Many students often find support to build an audience from family, friends, church groups, or work colleagues. For many other students, finding a group of people to get together for your audience may be challenging.

For those students, I would recommend the following:

Blackboard Discussions

Please feel free to utilize the Blackboard Discussion folder labeled Course Questions. You are welcome to create a thread to invite other students in your class to get together to form an audience. In this scenario, you may take turns presenting and then being an audience member for a fellow student in the next turn.

The Learning Commons

The Learning Commons provides academic support to students. If you provide the Learning Commons with enough advance notice, then they may be able to help you piece together an audience. This support could include being a conduit to work with other students needing audience support in COM 104 Classes or in some cases they may be able to find faculty and staff to be part of your audience. For more information, please go to their website.

TRIO Student Support Services

Another resource that may be able to help is the TRIO program. TRiO Student Support Services provides extra support to qualifying students. We are funded by a federal grant and serve students who will be the first in their family to graduate from college, students with low-income, and students with documented disabilities. For more information, please go to their website.