Presentation Trainer: what experts and computers can tell about your nonverbal communication
Abstract
The ability to present effectively is essential for professionals; therefore, oral communication courses have become part of the curricula for higher education studies. However, speaking in public is still a challenge for many graduates. To tackle this problem, driven by the recent advances in computer vision techniques and prosody analysis, multimodal tools have been designed to support the development of public speaking skills. One of these tools is the Presentation Trainer, a research prototype able to provide learners with real‐time feedback on a set of nonverbal communication aspects. Despite initial positive evaluations, the application still lacks grounding in a valid assessment model for nonverbal communication aspects in the context of presentations. To come up with such a model, we conducted semi‐structured interviews with experts in the public speaking domain. Furthermore, the objective of these interviews was also to have a formative evaluation of the Presentation Trainer, analysing how it suits with common practices for teaching and learning public speaking skills. The results of this study identify 131 nonverbal communication practices that affect the quality of a presentation and summarize experts' points of view regarding multimodal public speaker instructors.
Lay Description
What is already known about the topic?
- In recent years, several research prototypes designed to support the development of public speaking skills have been created.
- These types of tool are able to track, assess and give feedback about the nonverbal communication of the learner.
- The rules of assessment used by these types of tool have not been obtained in a systematic way, assuring the correct practice of public speaking skills.
What does this paper add?
- A systematically obtained set of nonverbal behaviour that can affect the quality of a presentation.
- An analysis on how the set of identified behaviours can be recognized by computerized systems.
- The identification of how sensor‐based public speaking tools can be used to enhance current practices in teaching and learning public speaking skills.
Implications for practice and/or policy
- Sensor‐based tools designed to teach public speaking skills can be used to raise nonverbal communication awareness in learners.
- These types of tool can enhance current educational practices in public speaking by presenting learners the opportunity to receive feedback while practicing when human feedback is not available.
Number of times cited: 2
- Bibeg Hang Limbu, Halszka Jarodzka, Roland Klemke and Marcus Specht, Using sensors and augmented reality to train apprentices using recorded expert performance: A systematic literature review, Educational Research Review, 10.1016/j.edurev.2018.07.001, 25, (1-22), (2018).
- Jan Schneider, Dirk Börner, Peter van Rosmalen and Marcus Specht, Do You Know What Your Nonverbal Behavior Communicates? – Studying a Self-reflection Module for the Presentation Trainer, Immersive Learning Research Network, 10.1007/978-3-319-60633-0_8, (93-106), (2017).
