From Nervous to Noteworthy: Evaluating SPEAKS, an Educational Software for Speech Content

Mouhammad, Nina; Schneider, Jan; Klemke, Roland; Di Mitri, Daniele

From Nervous to Noteworthy: Evaluating SPEAKS, an Educational Software for Speech Content

Nina Mouhammad^1,2, Jan Schneider^1,2, Roland Klemke³ Daniele Di Mitri⁴

¹ DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Frankfurt, Germany
² Institute for Computer Science, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
³ Cologne Game Lab, TH Köln, Germany
⁴ German University of Digital Science, Potsdam, Germany 24th European Conference on E-Learning | ECEL 2025

Paper Demo Code

At a glance

Problem: Public speaking is essential, yet many graduates lack proper training.
Gap: Existing tools focus on slides and non-verbal cues, but not speech content preparation.
Solution: SPEAKS is an educational tool where a cockatoo character guides users through speech preparation stages.
Design: Based on public speaking pedagogy and insights from expert interviews with 13 instructors.
Method: user study with 17-participants, measuring perceived usability, perceived usefulness, perceived learning, and effects on public speaking confidence.
Results: SPEAKS is easy to use, its guidance-based approach is useful, and users confidence increased significantly. Additionally, participants reported to have learnt more about creating engaging introducotions and conclusions.

SPEAKS is an early exploratory research prototype. It is meant to be used from a computer. You can test it out at https://nmouhammad.github.io/SPEAKS/
SPEAKS has become part of Presentable, which is far more stable and also more mobile-friendly. You can create an account and try out Presentable at https://presentable.hytea.de/api/auth/sign-up

How SPEAKS looks like

User study

What was our experimental procedure? 1) Welcome & Introduction 2) Pre-test questionnaire: Age, Gender, Confidence 3) Using SPEAKS 4) Post-test questionnaire: Confidence, TAM, open-ended questions

RQ1a: What is the perceived usability of SPEAKS? Participants found it easy to learn and intuitive to use, but some said it missed flexibility and enabeling them to do what they want. Additionally, some disagreed with the statement that it was clear and understandable, even though the majority agreed with this statement at least slightly.

RQ1b: What is the perceived usefulness of SPEAKS? Participants found SPEAKS useful.

RQ1c: What is the perceived learning when using SPEAKS? Participants reported to have learnt more about creating engaging introductions and conclusions and to create them before the middle part.

RQ2: RQ2: How does using SPEAKS affect users' confidence in delivering an elevator pitch? Participants' confidence in delivering a good speech increased significantly after using SPEAKS.

BibTeX

@article{Mouhammad25N,
  title      = {From Nervous to Noteworthy: Evaluating SPEAKS, an Educational Software for Speech Content},
  author     = {Mouhammad, Nina and Schneider, Jan and Klemke, Roland and Di Mitri, Daniele},
  year       = 2025,
  month      = oct,
  journal    = {European Conference on e-Learning},
  volume     = {24},
  number     = {1},
  pages      = {271--280},
  issn       = {2048-8645, 2048-8637},
  doi        = {10.34190/ecel.24.1.4104},
  urldate    = {2025-10-19},
}