Sophia Public Speaking

[jch]

  Thanks for that, I needed the laugh! A big problem is that I dislike speaking at all. Let alone for 5 minutes. I really don't have all that much to say!! What are the rest of the assignments like? Hopefully less cringe-y.

There are no other assignments.  All you have to do is sit down and write a 500 word document about your position on a subject, then read it in front of a camera.  

For the second video, change a handful of words to stuffier, more collegiate-sounding ones, print out an 8.5x11 visual aid (monochrome is fine) that is at least tangentially related to your subject, and hold it up once or twice.  Oh, and brush any Cheetos dust off your shirt before you start.

I put Public Speaking off for the essentially the same reasons you described and when it was over I realized that, in comparison to pretty much any other college course I've ever taken, it was a stroll down a tree-lined promenade with a fine lady and a white poodle.

I successfully finished public speaking a month ago. I had more than enough points to pass even without the final touchstone and there wasn't any obvious visual aid for my topic, so I just skipped that requirement. Compared to my first video, I also dressed in a nicer shirt, tweaked a few words, and smiled more. I was awarded all the points on the second video rubric, except for the visual aid section of course. 

Once I got over my panic and procrastination related to public speaking, this was an enjoyable and worthwhile course. The first two written worksheets really help a lot to lay out your speech. I used my responses from those assignments as the scaffolding for my actual speech, with additional details and transitions added in.