Evaluating public speaking courses

Evaluating the quality of public speaking courses is difficult. Here are questions that should be answered before investing your money:-

1. How experienced is the person running the public speaking courses? What experience do they have of public speaking? How may years have they been training?

2. What have previous customers said about the course? You can read the testimonials but also search online for reviews. Do you know anyone who has used the course?

3. Can you have a preview of the course? Is there a money back guarantee?

4. Is there any ongoing support?

5. Do you like the people running the course?

6. And obviously, How much is it?

This is not an exhaustive list but will help you choose from the many public speaking course the one that is best for you.

Moving On From Public Speaking Courses

This question on public speaking courses is really 2 questions

Do I want ongoing support? How do I want it delivered - in person, or over the internet?

The solutions to these questions are more than public speaking courses normally deliver and are more coaching or mentoring.

The most effective offline version is where you are coached one on one or in small groups and are tailored to your personal circumstances. If practical the coach or mentor will observe you when you are public speaking or presenting to groups. The idea is to emphasize your strengths and improve any areas of weakness.

One good on-line version is the membership sites where you receive ongoing training through updates to the site, special offers on training materials. There will normally be a forum where you can ask questions at any time of the night or day.

Public speaking courses are great for improving your presenting and speaking. Ongoing support can be designed specifically and get you to your goal quicker.

Public Speaking Courses Question 3

Question 3 to be answered in this series of public speaking courses :-

Do I want to learn with others?

Public speaking courses that are run for a group of attendees over a number of weeks are common. Public speaking workshops are similar in nature except they are typically only for a day or for a few consecutive days.

Many colleges and other organization offer these courses, for example the Dale Carnegie Institute. It should be possible to find one near you. Also, many larger companies offer these courses to their employees either in-house or pay for their employees to attend a course.

The best public speaking courses of this type will teach you the techniques and demonstrate if required. But more importantly will give you the opportunity to try out in front of the class and trainer in a supportive environment.

These public speaking courses are great way to overcome public speaking anxiety caused by the fear of the unknown.

Taking Public Speaking Courses Over The Internet

The next question to ask about public speaking courses is:

Do I want to learn on my own and at my own pace?

There are many public speaking courses that can be delivered online that can cater for this type of learning. Distance learning courses have been widely available for a number of years. These can be very useful for speech writing, and developing and understanding delivery techniques.

The public speaking courses delivered over the internet can be in the form of e-books, video and membership site.

For these public speaking courses to be effective you must be disciplined to ensure that the skills and techniques learnt are put in to practice, or even that the materials are looked at. Without the practice these public speaking courses will not deliver any improvement in skill.



The big advantage with these public speaking courses is that you can get started right away and use them in your next speech.

Choosing Public Speaking Courses

With all the variety of public speaking courses available online and offline, it is important to chose the course that suits your circumstances and meets your expectations.


There are 5 general questions to ask yourself about the public speaking courses offered. The first question to ask is;-


Does the public speaking course cater for my level of experience?


Public speaking courses are avaible that will help an inexperienced speaker deal with their public speaking anxiety through to professional public speakers looking for ideas to improve their presentations or market themselves better and everything in between - including those who want improve their job promotion prospects.


It is important in this step of evaluating public speaking courses that you have evaluated your own level of experience.

Many Public Speaking Courses Available

On the net there are many different public speaking courses available. They range from courses that are delivered electronically to those that are delivered in person.

All skill ranges are catered for in the various public speaking courses. There are training courses for people who are just getting started and want to overcome public speaking anxiety, to the person who is skilled in public speaking who wants to be a professional public speaker and everything in between. Training courses are also available for specific reasons, for example, for people in leadership roles to be better communicators and presenters, for sales people to make better sales presentations etc.

The variety and choice of public speaking courses could be considered to be too great. But I think the variety of public speaking courses available is great because a training course can be found to assist you to become the public speaker or the presenter you want to be.