Karen Sichler

In October of 2023, the University System of Georgia (USG) announced a complete overhaul of the General Education curriculum at the 30 institutions under its purview. Throwing out the old Areas A – F, the USG has crafted an entirely new brand known as IMPACTS. According to the USG, the “Core IMPACTS is not a random collection of courses to ‘get out of the way.’ Each one provides a key part of your intellectual, academic, personal, and professional growth.”

Although the first hurdle for most institutions was to realign their general education courses within the new framework, the longer-term ramifications for undergraduate education are still developing as the new requirements must now be tied to “career-ready competencies” in direct and tangible ways. Classical liberal arts education already provides a tremendous skill set for students pursuing a university degree; however, it appears the lines need to be drawn much more boldly between the two.

Therefore, I have been redesigning one of the classes I teach: public speaking. My emphasis has first been on the fully asynchronous and online version of the course for it has too long lingered as a pale imitation of the face-to-face class. Rather than using the modality as a springboard for new ways to engage students, the course has relied primarily on attempting to recreate the face-to-face assignments through technology like Microsoft Teams while still adhering to the same traditional, one-to-many design of public rhetoric as once happened in the Greek agora.  

In this first design iteration, my approach has been to attempt to re-interpret the speech stand-bys of an introduction, persuasive, and informative genres within the vein of the skill-forward design of the new IMPACTS curriculum. My first assignment redesign deals with the introduction speech. Rather than requiring my students to tell their stories through an inanimate object, I decided to require them to write and design their LinkedIn Profiles.

As this is part of my continuing design development, I will get this example published by the end of the semester. I am teaching this class again in the summer and I would love to have both the traditional PowerPoint and Captivate versions of my lectures available to students to see how students respond. 

What I can design and publish, however, is a questionnaire to my current class about the first assignment in particular and taking public speaking generally.

1. I decided to enroll in Public Speaking online because (select all that apply)
   1. The face-to-face times didn’t work with my schedule
   2. I prefer online classes
   3. I had some concerns about speaking in front of my classmates
   4. I am terrified of public speaking and this seemed less scary
2. Why did you decide to take Public Speaking? (select all that apply)
   1. It is required for my major
   2. It is required for a graduate program I wish to apply to
   3. I am interested in public speaking
   4. It was recommended to me
3. Did you have a LinkedIn profile prior to Speech Assignment #1?
   1. Yes
   2. No
4. If you did not have a LinkedIn profile, using a scale of 1-5, how difficult did you think creating your LinkedIn profile would be?
   1. Very Difficult
   2. Difficult
   3. Neither Difficult nor Easy
   4. Easy
   5. Very Easy
5. Why hadn’t you created a LinkedIn profile before the assignment? (select all that apply)
   1. It didn’t occur to me
   2. I didn’t think I needed one
   3. I wasn’t sure what to include
   4. It felt intimidating
   5. Other
6. If you already had a LinkedIn profile, did the mini-assignments help you expand or add to your profile?
   1. Yes
   2. No
   3. N/A
7. Did any of the mini-assignments give you new information about your chosen profession or help you design your profile? (select all that apply)
   1. Researching entry-level positions in your field
   2. Headshot, cover photo, headline, and skills
   3. Write your summary
   4. None
8. Did the first speech assignment (posting your LinkedIn profile and overview presentation) meet your expectations (i.e. was it what you expected) for your first big speech?
   1. Yes
   2. No
9. Did you like creating a LinkedIn profile for your first speech assignment?
   1. Yes
   2. No
10. Should the professor use this assignment again for this course? (open response)
11. What changes would you make to the main assignment and the mini-assignments? (open response)