Melissa Lucas
Associate Clinical Professor & Co-Director of the Oral Communication Program, Communication
2130 Skinner Building
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Education
Ph.D., , University of Maryland
Research Expertise
Gender
Rhetoric
Dr. Melissa A. Lucas is an Associate Clinical Professor and Co-Director of the Oral Communication Program (OCP) in the Department of Communication. As the OCP Co-Director, she oversees instructor training, assessment, and curriculum for Oral Communication: Principles & Practices (COMM107). This course is annually taught by over 50 instructors and taken by approximately 4,000 undergraduate students. Dr. Lucas also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses focused on business communication, instructional communication, and data visualization.
Her research explores questions related to learning outcomes assessment, feedback processes, and organizational rhetoric. This work has been published in multiple outlets including Communication Teacher and Journal of Communication in Healthcare. Dr. Lucas also serves as the ARHU Programs, Courses, and Curricula (PCC) Committee Chair and the ARHU Representative for the Provost’s Commission on Learning Outcomes Assessment.
Publications
Communication apprehension in the online presentational speaking course: Considerations for synchronous course meetings and asynchronous presentations
Study analyzes qualitative responses (N = 178) to an open-ended survey distributed to undergraduates in presentational speaking courses.
Author/Lead: Victoria LedfordContributor(s): Lindsey Anderson, John Leach, Melissa Lucas, Raphael Mazzone
Non-ARHU Contributor(s): Xiaojing Wang
As institutions of higher education continue to offer online instruction, educators and administrators of presentational speaking courses must adapt their classes for various modes of online delivery. One primary consideration for adapting a presentational speaking course to online delivery is how students will experience communication apprehension and/or public speaking anxiety in online communication contexts. The instructional communication field is rife with research about students’ experiences with speech anxiety and communication apprehension. However, little work has explored how students’ experiences may differ when the primary mode of course communication and course presentations is mediated through either synchronous or asynchronous modes of online communication. If these anxieties in face-to-face settings can deter students’ academic and professional goals (Richmond et al., Communication apprehension, avoidance, and effectiveness [6th ed., Pearson, 2013]), researchers should investigate students’ experiences in online courses. The current study begins to fill this gap. We analyze qualitative responses (N = 178) to an open-ended survey distributed to undergraduates in presentational speaking courses. Thematic analysis revealed the uniqueness of online communication apprehension and its similarities to face-to-face communication apprehension. Implications for administrators and instructors of presentational speaking courses are offered.