Best Online Public Speaking Classes

The Dynamic Public Speaking course by the University of Washington is actually a set of four public speaking courses: Introduction to Public Speaking, Speaking to Inform, Speaking to Persuade, and Speaking to Inspire, which can be completed together or separately to earn a certificate. This set of courses is our top choice because it is comprehensive, gives personalized feedback, and is designed for those who are serious about improving their public speaking skills.

Led by award-winning lecturer and communications scholar Dr. Matt McGarrity, the course content is designed to help you become a more confident and dynamic speaker, perfect your delivery techniques, master speechwriting, and build a speech portfolio. Students are required to design, practice, and record their speeches, and will receive expert one-on-one feedback on their progress. ​The courses can be completed at your own pace, with a suggested commitment of three hours per week, for a total length of five months. No prerequisites or prior knowledge is required, although you must complete the Introduction to Public Speaking before moving on to the other three courses.

If you’re only interested in watching the lectures and reading the course material, you can do so at no cost. However, to complete the assignments and earn the course certificate, you will need to pay the $59/month Coursera subscription fee.

The Rochester Institute of Technology’s online Public Speaking course on edX is another fantastic option, and it asks for a much shorter time commitment than the University of Washington’s course. In just three weeks, with four to six hours per week of studying, you can learn how to control your public speaking anxiety, build confidence, and give a compelling speech. This course is our runner-up because the content, while solid, is less comprehensive and interactive, and the instructor is less engaging.

The course is taught by Keith B. Jenkins, the vice president and associate provost for diversity and inclusion at RIT, and a published academic scholar of communications and rhetoric. While three weeks is the estimated completion time, you’re welcome to complete the course at your desired pace. No prior experience is necessary, making it great for beginners.

The course is free to audit, but in order to participate in graded quizzes, complete the final speech assignment, and earn a professional certificate, a one-time payment of $199 is required. This course is one out of six courses that make up RIT’s Soft Skills Certification program. You will earn an additional certificate by completing the other five courses.

Although the University of Washington and Rochester Institute of Technology courses offer professional certificates, neither course offers college credit. If you’re looking to take an online public speaking class and earn college credit, the University of North Dakota offers its Fundamentals of Public Speaking class through its Self-Paced Enroll Anytime option. Anyone can enroll and no prior public speaking experience or courses are required.

The course focuses on the theory and practice of public speaking, as well as perfecting speech content, organization, and delivery. There are a total of 10 online lessons and two open-book exams, for which students are required to record speeches and upload them to the school’s online portal. Once enrolled, students have up to nine months to finish the course.

Upon completion of the course, you’ll earn three college credits that can be transferred to other Higher Learning Commission accredited institutions or put toward a bachelor’s degree in communications at UND. At $384.88 per credit, the total cost for the course is $1,154.64, which is relatively affordable thanks to North Dakota’s low in-state tuition rates.

If you’re looking to master public speaking in any situation, The Complete Public Speaking Masterclass for Any Occasion is your best bet. Course instructor TJ Walker is known as a speaker, entrepreneur, and author. His course is one of the most popular on Udemy and currently boasts a 4.4/5 rating, with most reviews praising its comprehensiveness and extensive use of real-world examples.

We chose this course because of its great reputation and the fact that for a relatively low price, it gives you lifetime access to trainings on over 20 different public speaking scenarios, including investor pitches, job interviews, presenting during virtual conference calls, and more. The course can be completed at your own pace and comes with 31 hours of video, six articles, and seven downloadable resources. No prior experience is necessary.

TJ Walker's course retails for $149.99, although it is sometimes on sale. It includes lifetime access and a free, downloadable certificate upon completion.

At just over an hour and 15 minutes, the Communicating With Confidence Course from LinkedIn Learning is short but mighty. Led by Jeff Ansell, a highly experienced presentation coach and communications leader, this course’s 23 brief lectures will leave you with actionable tips on how to better express your ideas and calm your nerves.

We chose this as the best short class because Ansell is a very engaging instructor who will teach you how to connect with your audience, choose the right words, and appear confident in an incredibly short amount of time. This course has had over a million students.

This course can be completed at your own pace and at no additional cost if you have a LinkedIn Learning subscription ($39.99 per month with a monthly plan, $19.99 per month with an annual plan). LinkedIn Learning also offers a one-month free trial, which you can use to take this course for free. You will have lifetime access to the course lectures and quizzes through your subscription.

Founded in 2016, VirtualSpeech is an online course platform that combines traditional tutorial videos with virtual reality. We chose the class because it uses technology to give its students the opportunity to practice in realistic settings, which is where most online courses fall short.

Using a VR headset and the Virtual Speech app, students get the unique opportunity to immerse themselves in lifelike settings. Students record their speeches and movements in the app and receive instant feedback based on their use of filler words, pitch, pace, and eye contact. Many have cited the VR scenarios as being incredibly helpful and realistic in the course reviews.

VirtualSpeech’s Public Speaking class is led by expert speaker Dom Barnard and contains video lessons, quizzes, slideshows, and case studies designed to help you become a more confident speaker. The course has five hours of material that you can view at your own pace.

This course retails for $200 for the standard course-only option or $45 for a monthly subscription. Purchasing the course gives you unlimited access to the course’s lectures, quizzes, and case studies for 12 months.

If you’re looking to perfect your presentation and public speaking skills together, you’ll want to enroll in The Complete Presentation and Public Speaking/Speech Course, the top-selling presentation course on Udemy.

It's taught by Chris Haroun, an award-winning MBA professor, venture capitalist, and author. We chose this course because Haroun not only breaks down how to structure, practice, and prepare for an engaging presentation, but he also provides an incredible amount of detail on how to write your presentation slides.

No prior public speaking or design skills are required. The course contains a total of 16 hours of on-demand video, 30 articles, and a whopping 307 downloadable materials (presentation guides, speech planning guides, and more). With a 4.6/5 rating, students praise this course for Haroun’s breadth of knowledge, passion, and sense of humor as well as its huge amount of downloadable resources.

The course currently retails for $99.99 (with steep discounts often available) and comes with lifetime access. Once you’ve finished, you also have the option to download a certificate of completion.