• Request Info
  • Visit
  • Apply
  • Give
  • Request Info
  • Visit
  • Apply
  • Give

Search

  • A-Z Index
  • Map

College of Communication & Information

  • Future Students
    • Undergraduate
    • Online Master’s
    • Residential Master’s
    • Doctoral
  • Current Students
    • Undergraduate
    • Graduate
  • Student Experience
    • Student Organizations
    • Hands-On Opportunities
    • Programs Abroad
  • Alumni & Friends
    • Giving Opportunities
    • Alumni Awards
    • Scholarships
  • Research & Innovation
  • About CCI
    • Overview
    • Directory
    • DEI
    • Board of Visitors
    • Join Our Team
  1. Home
  2. Featured Story
  3. Comm Studies’ John Haas Creates Public Speaking App

Comm Studies’ John Haas Creates Public Speaking App

September 7, 2022 by Hillary Tune

The first university-developed public speaking app, created by University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Associate Professor John Haas, aims to boost students’ confidence in their oratory skills outside of the classroom.

Each semester, around 1,700 students take a public speaking course at UT, learning oratory skills and techniques that prepare them for presentations, speeches, or confidence in casual and business conversations. However, no course seems to calm the fear of speaking in front of an audience.

UT TOPS—short for Tennessee Online Public Speaking—engages users through its searchable topics feature, offering bit-sized insights into situations such as dressing for success, public speaking for video calls, and how to present research posters.

The new app became available on iOS and Android devices earlier this month.

On-Campus and On-the-Go Options

In 2016, Haas established an on-campus public speaking center in the Communications Building as a way to provide students private feedback. Two years later, with funding from the John Haas Student Experiential Learning Endowment established by Peyton Manning (’97), he began thinking about how to expand the center’s assistance.

“One of the things that is really different about public speaking from every kind of activity you have in class is how public assignments are. When a student writes a paper for a professor, and the professor marks it and returns it to the student, only the student sees my marks unless they choose to divulge it,” said Haas. “In our classes, there are very few situations where assignments are private, and that creates a different environment, different relationship.”

However, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the way faculty and students interacted, and foot traffic ceased Haas’s progress with the center. That’s when he decided to pivot his attention to the resource that students use most to find information—cell phones—and began developing the app.

This semester, students in applied oral communication courses will learn about the app as a resource, but Haas hopes that people outside of the UT community will find the app helpful in their everyday lives.

Down the road, Haas plans to expand the app to be able to provide real-time feedback to students on their presentations. With this iteration to the app, instructors will be able to quickly identify a speeches’ main components, pick up on vocalized pauses, and quickly return that information to the student.

Filed Under: Featured Story, News

College of Communication & Information

413 Student Services Building
1331 Circle Park Drive
Knoxville, TN 37996-0332

Email: cci@utk.edu

Undergraduate Advising Phone: 865-974-3603
Graduate Studies Phone: 865-974-6651
Administration Office Phone: 865-974-3031

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
865-974-1000

The flagship campus of the University of Tennessee System and partner in the Tennessee Transfer Pathway.

ADA Privacy Safety Title IX