I found the course "Introduction to Public Speaking" given by Dr Matt McGarrity an excellent course as to content, structure and presentation. I enjoyed it very much. It is a very informative, user-friendly, logically sequenced course that made quite an impact on my perception of public speaking.

Throughout the course, and in his various video presentations explaining the methodology, mechanism and the manner in which to conduct public speaking, I found Dr McGarity to be genuine in his pursuit of spreading the good practice of public speaking. With a radiant personality that isn't diminished being through video presentation, Dr McGarrity came across as a genuine Prof who is pro-students, working for their betterment in this respect.

A highly recommended course.

Nami Darghouth

I loved the course. The content was high quality. The videos and materials were concise, clear, and effective. The assignments were similarly great with creative and analytical questions. The discussion forums available are good, but they can be improved. The only aspects that I didn't like were: There were no enough short quizzes to test yourself in the videos like other courses, some quizzes were too short, people did not give much valuable feedback in peer reviews, and the speech assignments were not very focused on the implementation of the knowledge (practicality) as I would have liked. Anyways, it was awesome; strongly recommended for developing communication skills.

A really big thank you to Dr. Matt McGarrity! This was a very interesting, very informative and very enjoyable course. I wasn't sure what to expect so it was a pleasant surprise to find it so useful and at the same time fun. I have already recommended it to several people (likely many more). It is well worth the time and probably not just for public speaking; I think it is valuable on even a basic communication level. For me, I sought out this course to try to help myself tackle speaking apprehension and I think I struck gold in finding a course that did that and so much more. Do not hesitate to do this!!

I loved this course! It helped me to overcome one of my biggest fears, to stand in front of an audience and start talking.

This course provides a variety of tools to help you write a speech and to present it. The content is quite interesting. It includes short videos that help you finish the topic of a week in shorter time. If the videos were longer, I would probably quit earlier, but I realized I finished the week assignments in no time! The professor was funny yet knowledgeable.

The activities were dinamic, we got to interact with people from around the globe. Overall, I highly recommend this course.

I am fortunate to get trained by excellent trainer Dr. Matt McGarrity. Earlier I was not able to follow his too fast speech but later on ai started enjoying his pace and intonation. His sense of humour made all the session so interesting that I watched many videos twice or thrice. I would love to join another cours under his mentorship. This is one of best courses I ever attended on public speaking. The quality of content and references are unparalleled. I will recommend everyone mu students, my colleagues and to my friends to join this course. Thank you excellent training session and course material.

I really liked this course - this is one of the best that I have taken. The content and lectures were brilliant. The quizzes and assignments were also really well thought out too. Having to write, prepare and deliver speeches really pushed you to improve.

The only slightly disappointment was that some of the peer reviews are abit weak. I felt that in the first few weeks of the course I received good constructive feedback. Near the end of the course I would only get feedback like "good" or "adequate", which isn't very helpful.

Nonetheless, this is a fantastic course and one that I thoroughly recommend.

This course was very well organized and led by Professor McGarrity. I feel like I gained a lot by taking this course, and as a returning adult student (quite a few years removed from my last college courses) it was refreshing to step back in to a guided and focused learning experience. My only disappointment was with the grading structure: my grades were reviewed by students who clearly were not engaged with the material, evidenced by the fact that they were all cut and paste responses repeated for all the criteria. Wish that there was a way to filter out the student bots.

Professor McGarrity demonstrated great energy and I really enjoyed his use of humor throughout the course. The course materials are some of the best I have seen...easy to follow, comprehensive, smaller video segments to keep the viewer engaged. Summaries were helpful in preparing for the quizzes. Lots of optional pieces and definitely worth completing for the full experience. I look forward to putting into practice the skills I learned from this course. Definitely recommend this course if you are aspiring to be a better public speaker or just interested in public speaking.

Dr. McGarrity is great! He provides great structure for delivering speeches and keeps my attention by being entertaining and funny. Most of the content is interesting.

My main complaint about this course is that other people taking it do not put in the work. Most assignments have little-to-no answers and many "speeches" I saw in our final assignment had nothing added. While this is out of control for Coursera or Dr. McGarrity, is can be a bit frustrating to put in the work when others are not.

I look forward to the other courses in Dynamic Public Speaking!

Quite a valuable and practical introductory course to Public Speaking. Prof. Matt is engaging and knowledge and builds well upon past lecture skills. I am looking forward to taking the other courses in this specialization. The only downer are the Peer Reviews - no valuable feedback is given by most persons and thus makes the whole process quite shallow. The great thing though is that this is the only Coursera course I've taken where I got feedback from the instructor - shows an uncommon level of dedication to his work. Thank you Matt!

Throughout all of high school, I attacked public speaking class as an unnecessary class, but I did so because I actually feared it a bit. However, this course, after being a bit hesitant to take it at first, was incredible. Although it was only an introduction to public speaking, it gave me valuable insight into what it really is and practical skills that I put to use immediately (I noticed results instantly in the way people listened to me). I plan on taking the rest of the courses that come after this one!

The course is very helpful for all of us that have no idea of how to speak in front of the public. Very useful technics and well taught by the professor in order to strategically speak and organize not only the speech itself but also other activities. My deep thankfulness to Professor Matt McGarrity, to the University of Washington and of course to Coursera for this MOOC and for allowing us to learn by this way. Now I'm engaged with the topic and I'm sure I'm going to take the other courses related to.

I enjoyed this course and learned a lot of information on how to be a better speaker. Professor McGarrity provides many different tools to be more effective in front of an audience or group of peers. He explains the steps to take to best prepare for a speech on the front end and also provides guidance on how to improve your skill set when performing the actual speech. I found the class very helpful for my professional development and look forward to learning more in his other courses.

This course is fabulous. The instructor breaks it down into manageable pieces, and before you know it you are learning to organize thought, articulate concepts, and calm nerves. I took the class because I struggle to have confidence even in everyday conversation with friends and family. The course has helped so much that I am now envisioning myself going on to speak in public arenas with passion and confidence. I will be enrolling in his other classes. My journey has just begun.

A long hand salute to the Professor.Dr. Matt Mcgarrity for just training me in Public speaking and its essential canons like Invention, Arrangement, Style and Delivery .This course made me evaluate where i am doing wrong since years in most of my speeches and debates. Peer graded assignments were really helpful and hard to evaluate and mark some of the really good fellow orators around the world. Thank you University of Washington. Eternal Sagacious Learner - Bhanu Siva Krishna

To be very honest, my experience in this course was highly enriching. Professor Matt McGarrity is simply great to listen to. Looking forward to do few more courses in future for Public Speaking under him. The only thing I think I should reveal is that the feedback from the peers mayn't be that great; so, whoever joins this course need not feel disheartened on receiving an unanticipated feedback. Therefore,tiding over peer group reviews are exciting as well as challenging.

This is a very informative and leadership role preparation Course. I am advantaged as a Trainer in my Profession to have had a chance to be in this class. Special thanks to Dr. Matt McGarrity for taking us through the Course. You are passionate and talented in your role and I have learned most of my Public Speaking Skills from your presentation and delivery style. I highly recommend this Course for personalities, who want to deliver their content with professionalism.

Very nice course in order to get the basic knowledge of public speaking. There is the right amount of materials, presented by a quite knowlegeable lecturer, which make the course vibrant, possible to accomplish while working or studying at the same time. Besides that, you not only get theoretic knowledge on the topic but you can also see the example videos and grade them along with getting ready to present your own key point speech. Thank you!

The first course of the specialisation is great.

Thanks to this course I've improved my speaking skills in terms of speech preparation and delivery.

The course is structured in a modular way so that I often watch some relevant lessons before preparing my speeches.

Prof. McGarrity transmits his huge passion for the topic so that it is a pleasure to listen to him.

Thank-you for offering such a beneficial course, I've really appreciated it!

Hi,

I am Faraz from Pakistan. I was looking for this type of course for a few months and I finally found it on coursera. I had done presentations in my college. I always faced the issue of forgetting my speech. I was struggling with this. I really found this course very helpful for me because I learned many new things and techniques. For example, prepare your speech for the ear not for eyes, decoding process, key points and many more...

Very good course. In my case, I never took a course in PS before, neither in high school nor in university, so this was a great chance to learn about it. I learned very good things about the KeyPoint speech, that I consider very helpful when preparing a speech. The professor also provides us with tips on how to deliver the speech, how to use gestures, breath control, and so on. The peer-reviewed assignments are also helpful!

A great great start for public speaking! I never thought public speaking has so many elements. Learning about each element really made me self-aware of how to avoid certain mistakes. Analyzing others speech also really gave great insights. And the professor Matt Sir, he is amazing! So lively and also sometimes funny. Overall a course you should definitely take if you want to do public speaking. Here, you learn by doing :)

I would totally recommend this course to anyone who even slightly feel like he or she wants to public speak. I am glad I took this course and Professor Matt is just amazing , he has become my idol now in many ways and I would take more of his MOOCs which are offered on Coursera.Also the structure of this course is pretty nice and easy to follow along.I am anyone would enjoy this course and its assignments and quizzes.

The course provides basic tips on improving public speaking abilities. I think the best part of the course design was that it had the right amount of concepts and weekly syllable build up to actually make sure you remember and can apply the material practically (assuming you participate in the lessons and assignments). Instructor is great. Would recommend to anyone looking to improve their public speaking abilities.

Very well structured course . it is my first attempt to get formal training in speech and I really loved it . It has already impacted on the way i preparation and conduction of any presentation at work . As a medical practitioner it is really vital as i need that a lot during my daily interaction and regular seminar . I am intended to go further with the next course ( probably about persuasive speech ).