Taking Group Presentations into the Future

Advanced Public Speaking, COM 301, has taken group presentations to a new level. Instead of the typical face-to-face presentation in which groups present a symposium type speech (each person in the group presents his/her part), groups collaborated to create mock webinars.

Webinars are online seminars and their purpose is to enhance the listeners’ understanding of a topic associated with the organization. They can be strictly informative or they can have a persuasive push.

Topics presented by the groups included: the cost of being healthy, nutritional guidelines, professionalism as a collegiate leader, and the life of an AU student. 

Following the format of traditional webinars, one person in the group acted as the moderator and the other group members acted as “expert” panelists. The moderator ran the presentation by providing a thorough background on the topic and then transitioning to the panelists by asking questions. The panelists presented their part, imparting their expertise on the topic.

Moderator, Madison Graver, introduces her “expert” panelists:
Tiffany Price, Ashley Helenthal, and Bailey Winand.
The group created a webinar discussing the MyPlate nutritional guidelines.

Groups also had to create a cohesive slideshow. Using Google slides allowed the students to create their own slides within one file. One member of the group was in charge of choosing the slideshow template as well as running the slideshow during the presentation.

The webinars were recorded using Zoom Video Conferencing. According to Keith Harris from AU’s Academic Technology Department, this class was the first to use the Zoom platform for recording organized student group presentations.

Learning how to create a webinar is an excellent opportunity for our students because webinars are gaining popularity as a form of internal and external organizational communication. Webinars are a cost-effective tool used for employee training sessions or departmental presentations as well as a channel to connect with customers, clients, or the general public.

PRSSA Final Meeting & Guest Speaker

PRSSA invites all communication studies students to the last meeting of the year, on April 15th from 7:00-8:00 p.m. in CFA 301. This final meeting will feature a remote guest speaker, PR professional Jennifer Thomas, Founder and CEO of Beauty Results PR, a division of FSR Ventures.

Jennifer connects media and beauty industries with 30 years of passion, process and purpose. Jennifer translates wellness and beauty brands into media messages that resonate and result in placements and brand recognition from Vogue to Allure and O, the Oprah Magazine to Glamour, to Vanity Fair and People Style Watch, to US Weekly and People, to Elle and Real Simple, to The Doctors and The Today Show.

In addition to managing PR and Social Media campaigns for clients, Jennifer is a featured travel writer for magazines including Grandeur, Parent & Child, ASTA Network Magazine and more. She has presented at conferences including the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), PRSA’s Counselor’s Academy, National Association of Convenience Stores, and more.

We look forward to seeing you next Monday, April 15th!

Communication Students to Present at 2019 URCA

The Communication Studies Department wishes the following department majors the best of luck as they present their scholarly works at the 2019 CAS Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (URCA) Symposium.

Erin Staley, Public Relations & Strategic Communication and Health & Risk Communication major
Topic: Bateman Case Study 2018 Competition: Ashland Has a Heart of Gold 

The Bateman Case Study Competition is the Public Relations Student Society of America’s national case study competition that provides college students with the opportunity to create and implement a public relations campaign. For this competition our team created The Heart of Gold Campaign which utilized the four steps of the public relations process including conducting research, planning and implementing the campaign, and evaluating the results. We exceeded both objectives by reaching 364 students, faculty, and staff members through face-to-face communication and collected 302 target signatures on our petition.

Topic: Breaking the Barriers of Mental Health through Graphic Medicine: An Analysis of Ellen Forney’s Marbles

During this presentation, I will discuss how graphic medicine, a movement that combines images and narratives to tell the stories of patients, offers a new means of expression for patients that can open different channels of communication between a patient and physician. I will analyze excerpts from Marbles to show how drawings and words can help a patient reclaim their own medical narrative.

Kaitlyn Dailey, Health & Risk Communication, Public Rela­tions & Strategic Communication, and Religion major

Topic: Connecting with the Saints: A Protestant’s Pilgrimage into the World of Relics 

My research project seeks to understand the Roman Catholic practice of the veneration of relics. While Protestants consider the veneration of relics as being blasphemous, this is a central spiritual practice for Roman Catholics. Through my research, I hope to reconcile the two beliefs and determine if there is an appropriate place for this practice in Protestant piety.

More information about URCA, including full abstracts for each presentation, can be found on their blog.