For many students, the requirement to stand in front of a room and deliver a presentation is more than just a nerve-wracking assignment, it is a significant barrier to academic and professional success.
In a recent webinar, "Bridging the Confidence Gap with Genio Present," the team at Genio explored the science of public speaking anxiety and Genio Present is helping students move from panic to confidence.
How does glossophobia affect college students?
Public speaking anxiety, or glossophobia, is a pervasive challenge in higher education. Research indicates that between 61% and 80% of students experience a fear of public speaking.
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Dropout risk: Anxious students are four times more likely to drop out of their studies.
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Grade impact: Anxiety is closely linked to performance. Students with higher anxiety levels frequently see their grades slip from A's and B's into the C, D, and F range.
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The "fluency trap": When nervous, students experience speech disfluency where words get jumbled. The more complex the task (such as citing sources) the more pronounced this disfluency becomes.
Perhaps most importantly, fear of judgment is the number one concern for students. This fear often leads to a negative student experience, which correlates with lower attendance across all classes.
Why traditional presentation practice falls short
While 94% of students admit to panicking if they cannot rehearse, even those who do practice often remain unsupported. Current accommodations, such as presenting only to a tutor or in small groups, can sometimes remove the learning opportunity entirely rather than building the necessary skill.
"We know that 84% of students still lack confidence even after they've had time to rehearse," explains Sammy Lambert, Learning Lead at Genio. "We’re not setting them up for success because we’re not giving them a safe space to work on that anxiety and get those figures down".
How does Genio Present build student confidence?
Genio Present was designed to act as a confidence engine by grounding the rehearsal process in learning science. The platform uses four key principles to bridge the gap.
Principle 1: The Production effect (Active recall)
Reading notes silently is a passive activity that often leads to a fluency trap, where students think they know the material better than they actually do. Genio Present leverages the production effect: the phenomenon where speaking words aloud creates a stronger memory trace than reading them.
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Building schemas: Speaking aloud connects information into "schemas" using both audio and visual tracks.
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Spaced repetition: By allowing a "spaced gap" between learning and rehearsing, students double their chances of building long-term memories.
Principle 2: Reducing cognitive load and anxiety
Anxiety has a negative effect on learning that can overwhelm a student's executive function.
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Managing load: The tool is designed to remove unnecessary friction, the burdensome load of figuring out how to use the technology, so students can focus entirely on their delivery.
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Scaffolding: Tasks are broken down into smaller, manageable chunks, such as setting a single goal like "reducing filler words".
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Removing the "Fear of Judgment": Since the number one fear for students is being judged by an audience, providing a digital, non-judgmental space reduces the strenuous load of social anxiety.
Principle 3: Video calibration
There is often a massive discrepancy between how a student feels they are performing and how the audience actually perceives them.
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Objective evidence: By recording themselves, students can review the evidence of their own performance to align their internal feelings with external reality.
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Metacognition: The process of thinking about how they learned allows students to identify gaps and design their own path forward.
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Authenticity: Students have the opportunity to capture their true, authentic speaking selves and self-correct behaviors like avoiding eye contact or low voice projection.
Principle 4: Feedback loops and co-regulation
Reflection and feedback are the pinnacle of learning, but they are also incredibly difficult to navigate emotionally.
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Standardized feedback: AI-generated insights provide feedback that is always specific, positive, and actionable.
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Safe sharing: Students can generate a link to share their rehearsal with a trusted peer or professor, allowing for co-regulation where they receive support without the fear of immediate rejection.
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Closing the loop: This structured feedback loop ensures that students aren't just practicing, they are improving with every repetition, which eventually leads to the upward spiral of confidence
Real world impact: Moreno Valley College
The theory behind Genio Present is already delivering results in the field. Joe Gonzales, Accessible Technology Media Coordinator at Moreno Valley College, integrated the tool into his business curriculum with profound results.
Students used the platform for high-pressure scenarios like 30-second commercials and Shark Tank-style pitches. Gonzales observed a behavioral shift in his classroom, which he describes as "the glow".
“I really feel like [anxiety] is at the core of what might hold people back from doing amazing things…from giving that next ‘it’ that solves things for the betterment of the community”
Joe Gonzales, ATMC at Moreno Valley College
By allowing students to weed out wordy content and practice transitions in a low-stakes environment, the tool moved them from survival mode to professional presence.
Oral communication and presentation skills remain the number one skill requested by employers. By providing a safe, standardized environment for rehearsal and feedback, Genio Present ensures that a student's grade reflects their true knowledge, not their level of anxiety. It isn't just a recording tool; it is a bridge to personal and professional growth.
