From Face-To-Face Teaching, to Online and Beyond: Redeveloping a Public Speaking Subject for Flexible Delivery

Abstract

ABSTRACT As voice practitioners at the Victorian College of Arts (VCA) within The University of Melbourne (UOM), we teach undergraduate actors and theater-makers in conservatoire-style training. We also deliver a popular “Breadth” subject called Clear Speech and Communication, which is offered to UOM students from other faculties, primarily international students, and focuses on students’ building confidence in spoken English. In 2020, we embarked on the process of redesigning the subject for online delivery. Although this could be interpreted as a reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, our work toward moving the subject online pre-dated lockdowns and border closures—it was a response to increasing enrollments, growing space limitations on campus, and a quest to make delivery as sustainable as possible. Through the redesign, we undertook a considered curriculum review, building in decolonial practices, reexamining learning outcomes, and rewriting assessments and assessment criteria to reflect what can be taught online in a student-led learning model. This article reflects on the opportunities and challenges of moving online, including where teaching and learning has exceeded expectations, and where engagement has lacked. In critiquing the successes and limitations of the transition, we contemplate what the future of the subject might look like behind being wholly online.