5 of the Best Public Speaking Courses for Professionals (2024)

Have you ever wanted to know what the best public speaking courses are? Knowing how to speak confidently in front of a group is an undoubtedly valuable skill that can help you in almost any career.

With this in mind, we’ve put together a guide to five of the best online public speaking courses. To help you find the one that fits your needs, we’ll take a look at:

1. Coursera: Dynamic Public Speaking
2. Udemy: The Complete Presentation and Public Speaking/Speech Course
3. Skillshare: How to Open & Close Presentations Like a Boss
4. LinkedIn Learning: Public Speaking for Non-Native English Speakers
5. Knowadays: Becoming a Public Speaker

What Is Public Speaking?

Public speaking, or oratory, is the process of communicating information orally to a live audience. The intent is usually to make a good impression on them and educate, persuade, or entertain them (generally, some combination of these three). Public speaking can take place in a variety of settings (e.g. academia, business, government, sales, special events, etc.).

Why Is Public Speaking a Valuable Skill?

Public speaking is valuable to anyone who wants to speak confidently and eloquently when delivering speeches or presentations in front of other people. While it is useful to almost anyone in any career, there a few of occupations that require good oratory skills. For instance:

• Teachers
• Lawyers
• Storytellers
• Politicians
• Salespeople
• Broadcasters
• Business executives
• Healthcare professionals

For a lot of people, just the thought of speaking in front of a group is enough to cause anxiety and fear. That is why it is important to overcome the dread of public speaking by learning skills that will make you an articulate orator.

5 Best Public Speaking Courses

We’ll be looking at five public speaking courses and seeing what they offer in terms of their curriculum, key features, support, price, and certification.

1. Coursera: Dynamic Public Speaking

Coursera’s Dynamic Public Speaking specialization is offered by the University of Washington and taught by Dr. Matt McGarrity. This is regarded as one of Coursera’s best public speaking programs. It is a four-course specialization designed for speakers of all levels.

It offers theoretical knowledge as well as lots of speech practice for communication, linguistics, rhetoric, and argumentation. The four courses are:

1. Introduction to Public Speaking – 17 hours
2. Speaking to inform: Discussing complex ideas with clear explanations and dynamic slides – 13 hours
3. Speaking to persuade: Motivating audiences with solid arguments and moving language – 15 hours
4. Speaking to Inspire: Ceremonial and Motivational Speeches – 15 hours

The specialization includes over 60 hours of content and can be finished in 22 weeks, with an average of 3 hours per week.

After a 7-day free trial, the Dynamic Public Speaking specialization costs $49 per month for unlimited access to all the material. Upon completion, learners will receive a certificate they can then share on their resume, LinkedIn profile, etc.

2. Udemy: The Complete Presentation and Public Speaking/Speech Course

This is Udemy’s #1 best-selling public speaking course created by Chris Haroun, an accomplished professor, author, and CEO. It is a 12-module course for beginners that is full of exercises, articles, templates, and videos. It includes the following modules:

• Audience
• Purpose
• Content
• Slides
• Confidence
• Delivery
• Questions
• Practice
• Appearance
• Post-presentation to-dos
• Presentation guides/templates
• Additional resources

In total, this comprehensive course includes 16 hours of on-demand video.

Buying the course on its own costs $119.99. It is also included in Udemy’s personal plan, which comes with a free 7-day trial.

3. Skillshare: How to Open & Close Presentations Like a Boss

This is one of Skillshare’s best public speaking courses. It is designed for people who already have some experience but want to learn how to open and close presentations effectively. The teacher is Alex Lyon, a professor, consultant, author, and speaker. The course is broken into 13 lessons that include a combination of videos and projects, i.e.:

• Overview & Welcome
• Primacy & Recency Echo
• Qualities of Strong Openings & Closings
• How to Open with a Story
• How to Close with a Story
• Open & Close with Quotations
• Open & Close with Questions
• Open & Close with Statistics
• Open & Close with Illustrations
• Open & Close with Humor
• Stacking: Pro Tips
• Fine Tuning: Pro Tips
• Next Steps: Put it into Action

Each lesson involves about 3 – 10 minutes of work. The whole course can therefore be completed in about one hour.

You can try out Skillshare premium free for one month. After that, it costs $32 per month or $168 per year.

4. LinkedIn Learning: Public Speaking for Non-Native English Speakers

This is a beginner-level course offered by LinkedIn Learning specifically for people whose first language is not English. The instructor is Peter Novak, a professor, stage director, and classically trained actor. Concepts are taught through a combination of videos, practice exercises, and quizzes. There are three modules in this course:

1. Accent, identify, and listener-friendly speech
2. Step-by-step guide for confident speaking
3. Resources and strategies

Each module involves about 30 – 45 minutes of work, so the course can be finished in approximately two hours.

There are various LinkedIn premium plans available that will give you access to this course and many more. You can start straightaway with a one-month free trial. After that, a monthly subscription costs $39.99. However, you can also pay $239.88 for an annual subscription, which works out to $19.99 per month.

5. Knowadays: Becoming a Public Speaker

Last up is our own course, Becoming a Public Speaker, which was crafted by Cliff Kennedy, a public speaking professional with 30 plus years’ experience working with household names like TEDx, Canon, Walmart, Microsoft, and Zoom.

The course is made up of 12 video-based lessons, including 62 pages of worksheets and exercises. It’s broken into four modules:

1. Foundations
2. Creation
3. Preparation
4. Execution

The course is designed to take you from a nervous public-speaking novice to a confident communicator. Using Kennedy’s 12-part toolkit, you’ll develop a repeatable process you can use for every communications opportunity. The course culminates with the creation of a five-minute talk on a topic of your choice.

The course is self-directed, so you can learn at your own pace with no pressure to perform. The cost of the course is $299, and it also comes with a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Side by Side Comparison

Which Public Speaking Course Is Best for You?

In short, the best course for you is the one that fits your needs and learning goals.

Before making your decision, think about:

• Your budget
• Your initial skill level
• How much time you can dedicate to further education

Considering our Becoming a Public Speaker course? If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our friendly customer support team will be happy to help!