To understand and work through the processes of UX, my project has been to do a deep analysis of my version of online public speaking to work towards a student-centric course. The goals of the course, in this new iteration, are to introduce students to basic digital skills, help make connections between their coursework and their long-term professional goals, and introduce the conventions of public rhetoric and persuasion. When education went online during the pre-vaccine days of COVID-19, making a digital forward; continuing with a public speaking course online should have been an easy choice. However, this has not been the case. In the findings from her 2020 dissertation, Weismann found the following:

1. Face-to-face is still preferred as educators favor the in-person setting “to develop the interpersonal and rich communication skills to be an effective public speaker”
2. There are concerns from faculty about support, communication, technology, accessibility, and professional development
3. Due to the “mixed feelings” many faculty have, forward-thinking administrators and faculty could create a new course to instruct students “how to effectively communicate using digital modalities”

Since I don’t have the luxury of establishing a new class at this point in my career, I can think about ways to teach public speaking online by embracing the assigned modality (asynchronous and online) while concurrently highlighting skills students need and employers require. 

At the beginning of my UX journey, I wrote about the connections between instructional design and user experience. While I still see the connections, ADDIE is not the only model to import into UX to square the learning circle. SAM, often considered a simplified version of ADDIE, is a better option for smaller teams/projects when learners engage with “softer” skills and when the designer is already familiar with the project/content. 

For the evaluation step, Allen (2012) gives the reader a set of questions to give the designer a solid starting point to analyze the situation:

1. Who are the learners and what needs to change about their performance? Much like the personas step in UX, we have to know for whom we are designing and what is the desired outcome once the learners go through this new intervention. As a college professor, I have no direct control over who enrolls in my classes. To determine the population, I do have the ability to look at the enrollment profile for my university:Therefore, the majority of my students are traditionally-aged undergraduates. We have a diverse student body. In addition, there are no prerequisites on our public speaking class so any student may take the course; however, unlike many other campuses in the University System of Georgia, it is not part of our general education curriculum. It is required for the School of Communication and Media majors and recommended for other programs. 
2. What can they do now? Are we sure they can’t already do what we want? Due to the fact students often take this class because they are required to do so by their major or professional goals, this question may not necessarily work for this case study. Students may have had a class in technical communication, digital communication, or public speaking in high school; however, it is not a requirement for admission to our university. In addition, it is a 1000-level class. According to our institution’s curriculum development guidelines, a class at this level “should be an introduction to the concepts of a field or discipline. These courses should be open to all majors and suitable for college freshmen. Course content should be broad and present basic concepts and terminology in a field or discipline.”
3. What is unsatisfactory about current instructional programs, if any exist? The prior online iterations of public speaking have not generally embraced the digital modality. While a few scholars interested in pushing the online format forward such as Ward (2016) and Morreale, Thropre, & Ward (2019), the translation of the face-to-face class to the online has primarily been one-to-one. Students record themselves giving a speech, potentially in front of a group of friends and family and share the recording with their professor. This model does not get at the objectives of either a face-to-face public speaking course or an online one. 
4. Where do learners go for help? Students often seek out help from each other. This can be difficult in an online class. A way to improve this is to foster collaboration in the online space setting with the types of assignments employed. 
5. How will we know whether the new program is successful? In the traditional format, students take the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) at the beginning and end of the semester. I will need to build a new indexing deliverable for students to take at the beginning and end of the course. 
6. What is the budget and schedule for project completion? As with many classes, there is a deadline dictated by the university. The budget is, at this point, non-existent. However, that may change in future semesters and iterations of the course.
7. What resources are available, human and otherwise? In addition to myself as the designer, I also have other faculty who consistently teach this class in both face-to-face and online. Once there is a more solid framework, this model could be piloted by other faculty and get feedback from both the faculty and their students. 
8. Who is the key decision maker and who will approve deliverables? As the General Education Coordinator for the School of Communication and Media, I am currently the decision maker. This may change as our school is undergoing tremendous leadership change. 

Reading Brown & Green’s third edition of The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental principles with process and practice has been an interesting experience. I’m currently in the final semester of my MS in Instructional Design and Technology at Georgia State University; this has served as both a review and a confirmation of all that I have learned across the breadth and depth of my degree. 

Without a doubt, this book provides any reader curious about the concerns and duties of an instructional designer with an excellent overview. However, if this is your first (and potentially only) foray into the field of instructional design, I fear it may take on the tone of a tsunami of names and models. Be that as it may, The essentials of instructional design is much more than that. It is an exhaustive but not exhausting introduction and provides a beginner with excellent points of departure. 

The beginning point of departure is the four-faceted definition of instructional design:

Instructional Design as a Process:

Instructional design is the systematic development of instructional specifications using learning and instructional theory to ensure the quality of instruction. It is the entire process of analysis of learning needs and goals and the development of a delivery system to meet those needs. It includes development of instructional materials and activities; and tryout and evaluation of all instruction and learner activities.

Instructional Design as a Discipline:

Instructional Design is that branch of knowledge concerned with research and theory about instructional strategies and the process for developing and implementing those strategies.

Instructional Design as a Science:

Instructional design is the science of creating detailed specifications for the development, implementation, evaluation, and maintenance of situations that facilitate the learning of both large and small units of subject matter at all levels of complexity.

Instructional Design as Reality:

Instructional design can start at any point in the design process. Often a glimmer of an idea is developed to give the core of an instruction situation. By the time the entire process is done the designer looks back and she or he checks to see that all parts of the “science” have been taken into account. Then the entire process is written up as if it occurred in a systematic fashion.

Brown and Green then conduct the experienced or novice reader through topics including evaluation, creating innovative instruction, evaluation, and media production. Since the authors don’t definitively come down on the side of any particular model or theory, it allows the reader to discern what may work best in their specific situations. As an informed reader, it was wonderful to be reintroduced to concepts I have been living with over the past three years. I now have a list of original works I want to read to expand my current knowledge. It has also allowed me to reassess and think more positively about some classes that I did not enjoy or see the point of at the time I was enrolled.