Date Available

12-9-2025

Year of Publication

2025

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

Communication and Information

Department/School/Program

Communication

Faculty

Luke LeFebvre

Faculty

Renee Kaufmann

Abstract

While universities have explored online course offerings for decades, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this trend. The foundational communication course—a course that continues to traditionally emphasize public speaking—has felt the pandemic influence to increase opportunities for students to learn public speaking via online instruction. While scholars have learned much about the student experience of public speaking anxiety (PSA) in face-to-face settings, less is known about their experience of PSA in online courses. This dissertation explored the fears students experience when presenting online and how they view the online presentation environment.

Using Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory as a guide, this dissertation employed a mixed-methods approach and surveyed students enrolled in online foundational communication courses at two universities. Open-ended responses were thematically analyzed to identify the types of fears students experience, while the Perceived Social Affordances of Communication Channels (PSACC) scale was used to assess students’ perceptions of the online presentation environment.

The study found that fears manifested similarly for both online and face-to-face presentations, but online public speaking also elicited different student fears. Additionally, student perceptions of the affordances of presenting online differed from past research. The dissertation closes with a discussion of the conclusions, theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and directions for future research. Understanding the unique fears of presenting online is essential for developing effective instructional and assessment strategies and supporting student management of public speaking fears.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2025.564

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