Some incoming Eastern students may become part of a departmental experiment if the Council for Academic Affairs passes a request Thursday from the department of speech communications.

The department is requesting that half of the sections of SPC 1310, an introduction to speech communications course that is required as a general education requirement, be taught in a laboratory format instead of a lecture format.

Mark Borzi, speech communications department chair, said that this may not be a permanent change, but instead, it is just a way “to test a different format to see what is best for students.”

Sections that are part of laboratory format would go to one 50-minute lecture, which would be available online, a week that would teach speech outline and speech delivery, Borzi said. The students of those sections would also attend two laboratory meetings a week in which they would be able to apply the skills learned during the lecture.

Borzi said that the labs would be small and therefore easier for students to get help from instructors and other students.

“We want to adopt more of a mentoring or coaching format,” he said.

CAA Chair Andrew Methven, biological sciences chair, said that many people are still skeptical of the department’s proposal.

“There are still a number of questions people have about it,” Methven said. “How will it be administered, and how will it be taught? People aren’t clear how this will affect the students.”

At last week’s meeting, Methven was one of four CAA members who voted against making this proposal a CAA agenda item. However, the proposal passed by a 6-4 vote.

Julie Dietz, associate professor of health studies, also voted against making the proposal an agenda item.

The problem Dietz saw was that allowing students to acquire lecture information online would allow them to skip class at will.

“It’s the same person doing this that says, ‘hey I got a buddy in this class that can take notes for me so I can ditch,'” Dietz said.

The course has not yet been officially changed, and the CAA will discuss the proposal at its meeting at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Arcola-Tuscola Room of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Union.