Instructor public speaking
METALOGUE was a three year project in which Jan Schneider, Dirk Börner, Peter van Rosmalen and Marcus Specht of the Welten Institute participated. An important and succesfull contribution to the project is the Presentation trainer. This is a prototype that functions as an instructor public speaking. It registers and analyses posture, movements, speaking rithm and volume and gives feedback and instructions about the non-verbal communication skills (sensor-based learning).
Excellent results
Jan Schneider: 'We organised series of experiments with the presentation trainer and the results were unbelievably good. After five sessions with the trainer the mean number of basic mistakes in public speaking decreased by 75%. Furthermore the users reported a significant increase in the confidence in their own skills. These results are very encouraging: we developed an instrument that is capable to communicatie in real-time with human beings and this communication leads to an improvement in skills. As a next step we will improve the presentation trainer based on the results of an expert study and then we will again test the trainer with students who want to follow a course in public speaking. '
Scheider himself won twice in a row, in 2014 and 2015 the bests demo award for his presentation of the presentation trainer at the ECTEL conference. This price is awarded by the participants of the ECTEL conference. On the ICMI 2015 the Presentation trainer was awarded the price for the best Multimodal Grand Challenge.
New study
Although the METALOGUE project has ended, development of the Presentation Trainer will continue. In March 2017 a new study starts in collaboration with the Grotius college in Heerlen. Secondary students of this college will practice their presentation skills using the Presentation Trainer.
Watch the video about the presentation trainer:
More information
Follow the links for background information about the project: