Pamela Martin-Lynch

Public speaking anxiety, as an aspect of social anxiety, while not necessarily constituting a social anxiety disorder (S.A.D.) is widespread in society. This paper considers the largely unspoken equity issue of public speaking anxiety, its prevalence, symptomology and potential implications for students in higher education and the future. A small pilot research project was undertaken as a preliminary step to understand local conditions and open up a space for ongoing and extensive research in the Australian context. The preliminary findings suggest the social anxiety and public speaking anxiety may impact negatively on student engagement with oral communication assessments and that further research is needed to develop better support and training. We suggest that to assist students to transition, achieve, succeed and persist we need to adhere to the notion of constructive alignment which takes account of personal competencies and mitigates psychological distress.

Oral presentation skills are highly valued in the job market and are stated graduate learning outcomes for many Australian universities. In a number of degree programs, the ability to voice opinions in class and participate in collaborative learning situations are assessable, and crucial to student success and ultimately employability. The ability to present to an audience is likewise a vital skill in higher education and in later employment, particularly in the areas of business, law and education. Yet up to 75% of the population is so afraid of public speaking that they may not physically or mentally be able to perform such tasks without some form of intervention. Nonetheless, in Australian universities, we tend not to scaffold oral presentation skills, and assessments of the skills are primarily summative. This paper will review the literature surrounding social anxiety and fear of public speaking as it relates to the capacities of students to demonstrate such skills and engage in these forms of assessment. It will then make recommendations from examples of good practice, for example in the United States, to suggest that if we are indeed to uncap student potential, then we need to reconsider ways of scaffolding and assessing oral presentation skills.

Oral communication is seen to be highly valued as a graduate attribute and an employability skill. However, 75% of the population has been identified to have a fear of public speaking. This workshop introduces participants to an innovative approach for incorporating oral presentation skills into PASS sessions. This workshop will illustrate the potential to incorporate public speaking training into PASS sessions and leader training. The participants will be actively involved in the workshop presenting to their fellow participants. Using the non-threatening and supportive environment of PASS, students can gain confidence and exposure to public speaking.

In a tiered model of academic support, well designed tertiary level academic recovery programs are an integral part of overall student persistence strategies. Yet despite the validity of the design, the success achieved by former students, and marketing efforts, take up and retention rates for this safety net program remain low. This session will outline the structure, outcomes and recruitment efforts used in the Study Skills Plus. It will then ask participants to share their own experiences of academic recovery programs and attempt to identify recruitment and retention strategies into voluntary programs such as this, which have worked in their own institutions.

The Bradley Review is changing the face of higher education. How well universities fare in terms of getting students from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds from Aspiration and Access through to Achievement may rely on transforming institutional and teaching practice. Reliance upon the elitist ‘Myth of the Golden Pedigree’ can no longer be sustained, either in the interests of social justice or in fiscal terms. This paper suggests that a marketing orientation model, which is about meeting customers’/clients’ needs, is one way to proceed. Using a case study from an awarded transition/retention unit, the paper will suggest that supporting students and assisting them to become their best, rather than recruiting the best students will become increasingly crucial to institutional success as student demographics become more diverse.

To plan for the future, we need to take account of emerging trends and find innovative ways to utilise them to engage students beyond the curriculum. In the rapidly changing world of technological enablements, online communities offer an opportunity to engage with students via a medium that many are already comfortable using. Research in socio-linguistically based cultural studies (Thompson, 1984) suggests that establishing a communicative context, which enables the participants to feel on a level playing field, that is, away from the institutional constraints, can elicit a more open exchange of information. This paper suggests that this leads to a greater engagement with students and offers the potential to intervene in ‘at risk’ cases. In 2008, Murdoch University trialled using Facebook™ as a means of engaging with new students, with some interesting and surprising outcomes. This paper will discuss some of the outcomes, the potential and analyse some of the theoretical underpinnings, which prompted our decision to experiment with online communities outside of the university structure.

In 21st century technoculture it is no longer possible to consider space in terms of the strictly dichotomized here/there, near/far or even, nowhere/everywhere, which dominated our understanding at the beginning of the twentieth century. Technological developments ranging from the telephone through to television, cinema, videos, videogames and the internet have created a credible impression of presence, where we may feel immersed in environments beyond our physical bodies within which we may interact (Richardson and Harper). These technologies may be broadly referred to as telepresencing technologies. Tele-technologies create unAustralia, which is a 'no place in which ... two [or more] people ... meet: ' a virtual environment for potential agency (Morse 17).