This is such a neat study! It’s great that you were able to induce speaking anxiety in a virtual platform. Doing so was really creative:) I’m curious about the selection of this specific speaking anxiety task. Because of its age, many of the phrases and sentence structures are antiquated. Was there a reason you did not use a more neutral excerpt? I’m wondering if the anxiety induced by this task was truly related to public speaking. Using a modern, more neutral script might strengthen the validity of your study.

A very relevant topic to the lives of college students! I think it’s quite interesting that you found a relationship between self-efficacy and speaking anxiety (1) when participants gave a speech online and (2) while they gave a speech that they did not prepare themselves. How might you predict the relationship would be affected by in-person speech presentation and speech content preparation? Are-there other task or assignment-related factors that might affect the relationship? (As an instructor, I’m thinking of ways to structure an assignment that might reduce anxiety and/or build self-efficacy during the process of the assignment.)

Great topic, well studied! I think I would be anxious about giving that speech, despite being comfortable talking to groups. You suggest that building self-efficacy might be an effective way to combat speaking anxiety. This is an interesting approach. What are some ways to raise self-efficacy? Like Dr. Mailloux, I wonder how I, as a professor, can help students feel more self-efficacious. Maybe more practice sessions would be a good idea, since you found evidence that familiarity with the material lessens anxiety.

Hi everyone, great job on your project! This is such a fascinating topic and it is great you found significant data that allows real life application to benefit those who do have public speaking anxiety. I know almost everyone will experience at least once in their career so it is fascinating to learn that certain Self-Efficacy skills could actually work to lower the anxiety. I wonder, do you believe this result would be different in a more diverse subject pool? Say if there was an equal part male or female participant split? Also because it was online do you think that in person speech making would be any different than online?

HI! As someone who throughout their college career has been forced into public speaking situations (class presentations or leadership role) this research is one that struck me! It was interesting to see that having self-efficacy skills can actually help to lower that anxiety. It is important information to know and university students should be made more aware of this! Great job!

Good job guys! I think this is a really interesting topic to study, especially on a college campus. The connection between self-efficacy and speaking anxiety makes a lot of sense. I would also be interested to see how this study would play out with an in person design because that is how most public speaking takes place. Good job again!

Really interesting! I’ve always thought it was interesting how some people are terrified to public speak, some feel okay about it and some don’t care at all. I always assumed it had to do with how shy a person is. I wonder how shyness would fit into all of this, considering you can be shy and have high self-efficacy or be outgoing with low self-efficacy. Great research poster!

Hi! Your project was really interesting as I had never really thought through the individual pieces that may make up the fear of public speaking. I wonder you would have found similar results if the students were to prepare their own speeches on topics that they are familiar with. Overall a really interesting topic and important to know for future public speaking assignments!

The study was very interesting and the presentation was well done! I think it would be interesting if the participants were to write and recite their own speech rather than reading an excerpt. It is possible reading some else’s literature can take away a lot of the anxiety.

Hello, I really enjoyed reading your study and findings. Do you think that the study results would have turned out differently if this study was conducted in a non-campus area?