How a Top Hat eText Improved DFWI Rates By 3% in Public Speaking
2,600+
Students taught each academic year
93
Sections of public speaking offered each academic year
46
Fewer students with DFWI rates in fall 2024 vs. fall 2022
The Challenge
Improving instructor and student preparedness levels and reducing DFWI rates among 2,600+ learners
Increasing active learning, student engagement and preparedness
Active participation is a vital component of the postsecondary experience—and that holds even more true in a course like Public Speaking. Dr. Jo Anna Grant and Amy Wassing (Full-Time Lecturer), both in the Department of Communication and Media at California State University at San Bernardino, oversee more than 2,600 Public Speaking students every academic year. Increasingly, they were encountering a lack of student preparedness. “Students were coming to class with blank stares on their faces,” says Wassing. The educators attributed some of the lack of readiness to the print textbook they had been using for 15 years, which did not entice students to read outside of the classroom. “Many chose to not even purchase the printed text and said, ‘I’ll wing it and get through it,’” Wassing continues.
Boosting instructor and GTA preparedness
For Grant, who also serves as the Coordinator overseeing the training and development of the course’s Graduate Teaching Associates (GTAs), it was imperative to ensure her team had applicable and interactive instructional resources at their fingertips. “Our GTAs don’t have years of experience since they are recent graduates. They don’t have a historical database of activities or discussions to pull from—so it’s important they have access to this material in our textbook,” Grant says.
Reduce DFWI rates
A third and final challenge involved tackling the 14 percent drop, fail, withdrawal and incomplete (DFWI) rate in their course post-COVID. Wassing and Grant both felt confident that seeking out an evidence-based, application-heavy textbook would help students feel more confident in and out of class. It was this mission that led them to Top Hat’s interactive content solutions.
School background
California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), established in 1965, serves over 20,000 students annually and graduates approximately 4,000 each year. Recognized for its high “value added” education, placing it in the top 4 percent nationally, CSUSB boasts the most diverse student body in the Inland Empire, with 70 percent of graduates being first-generation college attendees. Offering more than 70 degree programs, credentials, and certificates, including a doctoral program, CSUSB is also ranked as the second-safest public university in California.
About the professors
Dr. Jo Anna Grant (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma) is a Professor of Communication and Media at California State University, San Bernardino, where she teaches courses in Training and Development, Instructional Communication, and Persuasion. Currently, she serves as her department’s Graduate Teaching Associate (GTA) Coordinator, mentoring graduate instructors in effective, student-centered teaching. Her recent case study on leading institutional change for the general education curriculum appears in A Practitioner’s Guide to Faculty Affairs (2024).
Amy Wassing is a Full-Time Lecturer at California State University, San Bernardino. She served as Forensics Director for three years (2016-19) leading the largest speech and debate team the college ever had. The team won multiple awards in debate and individual speaking events. She developed and facilitated CAST (Coyote Annual Speech Tournament) giving students the opportunity to showcase their oral communication skills. She has provided guidance and training to several GTAs by serving as a shadow instructor and facilitating the GTA summer training camp since 2022 which prepares new instructors for teaching their own courses.
Jo Anna Grant Professor of Communication and Media at California State University, San Bernardino
Amy Wassing Full-Time Lecturer at California State University, San Bernardino
The Solution
Inspiring students and GTAs with a Top Hat Interactive eText packed with low-stakes questions
The Public Speaking team came across Top Hat’s Inclusive Public Speaking Interactive eText and immediately saw its potential in helping students and GTAs feel more confident in the classroom. This textbook encourages students to consider their intersectional identities and social positions as they develop their public speaking skills through diverse examples and reflective activities.
Wassing and Grant value Top Hat’s customization capabilities that let them tailor chapter imagery and questions to reflect the diversity of CSU San Bernardino students. “We’ve moved questions around to other spots, or added case studies surrounding the Inland Empire that every student immediately recognizes. They can quickly see the real-world relevance of what’s inside the text,” says Wassing. Inspiring confidence among students also involves making assessments more palatable. With in-chapter formative assessments dispersed throughout the eText, Wassing and Grant have noticed fewer nerves among students. “Top Hat helped reduce the exam anxiety. Because each chapter has built-in questions that check for understanding, we have been able to eliminate formal testing which allows faculty to focus more on speaking performance,” says Wassing.
Inclusive Public Speaking also offers the foundational concepts and plenty of assessments for GTAs to refer back to when developing flipped classrooms. “We wanted to give our GTAs a foundation for what knowledge and skills students should take with them. The Top Hat text really offers good examples and ideas for GTAs, many of whom have just graduated with bachelor’s degrees themselves,” shares Grant. Case in point: The GTAs value the book’s emphasis on intersectionality—a principle that was often missing from other Public Speaking textbooks they’ve used in the past. Even more impressive, all faculty and GTAs have noticed that more students come to lectures having read their assigned chapters in advance. Instead of expecting to be “spoon fed” material, learners are now ready to engage in lively discussions around persuasion, conflict management and intersectionality. Students have become more engaged and active participants by drawing from speech examples and recalling concepts from the eText, as opposed to passively listening to lectures. Top Hat’s AI-powered assistant, Ace, is also to thank for more fulfilling class discussions. “The new AI study tools in Top Hat are useful for GTAs to develop activities to enhance engagement in the classroom,” says Grant.
“Top Hat helped reduce the exam anxiety. Because each chapter has built-in questions that check for understanding, we have been able to eliminate formal testing which allows faculty to focus more on speaking performance.”
The Results
Reducing DFWI rates and increasing student success in the course
Grant compared CSUSB data from fall 2022 (when the print textbook was still used) to fall 2024 (when the Top Hat eText was used). In fall 2022, course DFWI rates hovered around 14 percent. After using the Top Hat eText in combination with in-class support programs such as supplemental instruction, DFWI rates dropped by three percentage points. In other words, 46 fewer dropped, failed, or withdrew in fall 2024 than in fall 2022. The Public Speaking team touts Top Hat’s in-house instructional design team and Customer Success team in ensuring a smooth transition away from their legacy course textbook. On top of that, every faculty member and GTA delivering the course had access to complimentary Top Hat training to feel confident and comfortable using a new platform. “Top Hat’s ability to work with our bookstore, coordinate with the university for ADA compliance, and reassure our faculty has been tremendously helpful,” shares Grant.
For Grant and Wassing, perhaps the biggest satisfaction comes from knowing that faculty are making a difference in the lives of all students. Both faculty members are thrilled to play a role in shaping future leaders in their local communities and across the nation. They praise Inclusive Public Speaking for its real-world emphasis on communication issues and placing students in an active versus passive role. “Whether you’re a nurse delivering news to a patient, a future politician giving a speech, a teacher managing a classroom, an engineer leading a project, or a business professional negotiating a deal, many students come back after graduating and share how they applied what they learned from the textbook and class into their lives. There’s nothing cooler than that,” says Wassing.
“Top Hat’s ability to work with our bookstore, coordinate with the university for ADA compliance, and reassure our faculty has been tremendously helpful.”
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