Covid-19 pandemic has affected the learning process in the university. The students and all lecturers are doing distance learning by using video conference apps. They are no longer meeting each other face-to-face in the class. The lecturer should cope with this situation by giving a topic that focused on online public speaking or presentation. The skill of online public speaking or presentation should be delivered to the students from all faculties, not only for communication students. One of the students’ organisations, Mahkamah Mahasiswa, conducted an online event to give its member a piece of knowledge about online public speaking. They invited me as a lecturer of communication science in the Faculty of Communication, Universitas Tarumanagara. Discussion and survey are held just after presentation. The results were that the students realize the importance of public speaking skills in the class and their organisation activities. Then, they also identify that this skill is beneficial for their carrier in the future. Unfortunately, based on their answer, they have not obtained this knowledge in the class, except for communication students. Therefore, the result of this community service event should be considered by all of the faculty in the university. In the reality, students expect to obtain a topic about how to be a good public speaker in the class or an online class. This material can be inserted in one of the subjects, or it can be one of the community service activities along with a member of the communication faculty.Kondisi pandemi Covid-19 membuat proses pembelajaran di perguruan tinggi dilakukan jarak jauh. Komunikasi yang biasanya dilakukan secara tatap muka, beralih menggunakan sarana konferensi video. Situasi ini perlu disikapi dengan pemberian materi public speaking atau presentasi online. Kegiatan pengabdian masyarakat yang dilakukan oleh dosen Program Studi Ilmu Komunikasi Universitas Tarumanagara adalah memberikan materi tentang public speaking atau presentasi online kepada mahasiswa. Dalam kegiatan kali ini, mahasiswa yang memperoleh materi ini berasal dari seluruh fakultas, tergabung dalam organisasi Mahkamah Mahasiswa. Paska kegiatan, pengabdi melakukan diskusi dan memberikan sejumlah pertanyaan terkait kemampuan public speaking atau presentasi dalam ruang kelas online. Hasilnya mahasiswa menyadari pentingnya kemampuan public speaking dalam perkuliahan dan berorganisasi di kampus, bahkan kemampuan ini juga kelak berguna ketika memasuki dunia kerja. Namun, materi ini belum diberikan oleh seluruh fakultas. Hasil kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarakat ini perlu menjadi evaluasi bagi fakultas agar memberikan perhatian terhadap materi public speaking atau presentasi di kelas dalam pembelajaran jarak jauh. Fakultas bisa menggandeng dosen program studi Ilmu Komunikasi atau praktisi untuk memberikan materi seputar public speaking atau presentasi. Materi bisa disisipkan dalam salah satu mata kuliah, atau sebagai salah satu kegiatan pengabdian kepada masyarakat.
Teaching Public Speaking Online–Not a Problem but an Opportunity!
