Minority students' experiences in online public speaking courses suggest to readers how they might feel excluded in face-to-face public speaking classroom environments and even non-academic environments. This study examines the positive effects of online public speaking instruction on minority students and explores ways instructors can further improve these courses to develop students' interpersonal skills for face-to-face and online public speaking instruction. Minority students who have taken the online public speaking course have shared several advantages: flexibility, confidence, security, control, and accessibility. These benefits, along with minority students' preference for smaller and more familiar audiences during online presentations, help reduce these students' anxiety levels. This study examines minority students' experiences in online public speaking courses at a community college and the potential benefits and opportunities to be explored in online public speaking courses at institutions. Minority student participants noted that the online public speaking course environment helped them improve their interpersonal communication skills and created an inclusive and safe space for them. Future research should compare minority students' experiences with public speaking course modalities to non-minority students' experiences with public speaking course modalities. Future research should also investigate how minority students' levels of socioeconomic status, their culture, and how current academic policies can impact minority students' academic performance in public speaking courses. More research is needed to understand additional factors that might influence minority students' decision to take public speaking online. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]