Online Alternative to Public Speaking

For a variety of reasons, including the current COVID-19 quarantine, students need to have a way of completing their Rowan Core requirements online. Public Speaking, which is one component of the Rowan Core Communicative Literacy requirement, is not offered online, and so we need an online alternative to this course. On April 24, the Rowan Senate passed a policy resolution addressing this issue. The policy offers both a short-term and permanent solution to the problem. In the short-term, students will temporarily be permitted to satisfy the Public Speaking requirement by taking CMS 04220 – Interpersonal Communication. The permanent solution will involve the development of a new course, Digital Presentations, which will serve as an online alternative to Public Speaking. The approved policy, which includes a full timeline for these changes, is available here. Below are answers to some frequently asked questions.

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FAQ

What if a student is currently enrolled in a summer section of Public Speaking?

Rowan has already created parallel online sections of Interpersonal Communication, moving every student currently enrolled in Public Speaking into one of these new sections. In most cases, students have the same instructor who was originally assigned to their Public Speaking section and the start date of the section will be similar.

What if a student needs Public Speaking to fulfill a program requirement—other than Rowan Core?

The above policy only addresses the Rowan Core Public Speaking requirement. You should consult with the program coordinator or department chair/head to establish a waiver or course alternative for this program requirement.

Is the substitution of Interpersonal Communication to fulfill the Public Speaking requirement permanent and/or retroactive?

No, only sections of Interpersonal Communication taken from Summer 2020 through Spring 2021 will fulfill the Public Speaking requirement.

How will students/advisors keep track of whether this Rowan Core requirement has been satisfied?

Students with questions about this should speak with their academic advisor. We are setting up DegreeWorks / GRAD so that any section of Interpersonal Communication taken in the approved time period (see question #3 above) will automatically check-off the Rowan Core Public Speaking requirement.

What if a student is unable to take Interpersonal Communication, but still needs to satisfy the Public Speaking requirement in order to graduate?

There are various reasons why a student might be unable to take Interpersonal Communication to satisfy the Rowan Core Public Speaking requirement. The most common scenario is likely to involve a student who had taken Interpersonal Communication in a previous semester, before it satisfied this requirement. If a student is in danger of delaying their graduation due to this situation, they should speak with their academic advisor. The Rowan Core Committee and the Department of Communication Studies support having the Rowan Core Public Speaking requirement waived for this student. These waiver requests must be approved, on a case-by-case basis, by the chair/head of the department for each of the student’s program majors.

If the Rowan Core Public Speaking requirement is waived for a student, how does this affect the student’s credit totals?

The waiver applies only to the check-box for the Rowan Core Public Speaking requirement. It would not affect a student’s credit totals, so they might still need to take a different course to complete program credit-total requirements.

What if a student takes Interpersonal Communication at another school during the approved time period (Summer 2020 through Spring 2021)?

In this situation, the transferred course will satisfy the Public Speaking requirement.

If a student takes (or has taken) both Public Speaking and Interpersonal Communication (either here at Rowan or elsewhere), will this show up in the Duplicate Credit Report?

No. Although these courses are both fulfilling the Rowan Core Public Speaking requirement (during the approved time period), they remain, in all other respects, distinct, non-equivalent courses.

Since Interpersonal Communication and (eventually) Digital Presentations are serving as alternatives to Public Speaking, would a student’s grade in either of these courses replace, say, an earlier F in Public Speaking in the GPA calculation?

Although these courses play the same role within Rowan Core, they remain distinct courses—sometimes satisfying distinct program requirements outside Rowan Core. For this reason, the grade in one of the new courses would not replace the earlier grade in Public Speaking. In other words, only the same course can be used to replace the grade of an earlier course.

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