Professor shares tactics at Harvard

By Cathy Murray, News Writing Student

On a recent visit to Harvard University, professor Julie Corff had the chance to share some of her teaching tactics with a fellow speech professor. Corff has her students write a critique after viewing a video recording of their speeches.

Corff had the opportunity to experience Harvard professor Marjorie North assign Corff’s idea of a one- to two-page critique to her students after they watched their recorded speeches.

“There is no bigger compliment then seeing a Harvard professor implement my ideas and what I do,” Corff said. North said she wants to add it to her curriculum.

Corff was invited to visit Harvard by North, after Corff began contacting her when she did research on how to improve her students’ learning of public speaking at OCCC.

“We have been e-mailing each other back and forth as well as talking on the phone about advanced public speaking for the last two years,” Corff said.

She said that North is the one who gave her the idea of videotaping student speeches and then uploading them onto WebCT so students could see their performance and learn how to become better public speakers.

Corff gave a speech to North’s advanced public speaking class about herself and OCCC. Corff also graded their speeches through oral and written evaluation.

While there, North and Corff discussed how they teach their own public speaking classes. North has her students tape their speeches and then watch themselves, like Corff does. Corff gave North the idea of having students write a critique sheet on their own performances.

Corff said that Harvard students were different from OCCC students because each have different perceptions of student interaction. Harvard students seemed competitive and distant from one another, she said.

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