Student participation in the management and operation of university open lectures offers apromising approach to revitalize such lecture programs through intergenerational learning as well asproviding students with valuable learning opportunities in terms of communication skills and other relevantacademic competencies. As part of the Freshmen Seminar course on "Basic Skills for Oral Communication"in the liberal arts program at Hokkaido University, the author trialed a practical training module in which theparticipating freshmen prepared and delivered short presentations to introduce each of the eight lecturerscomprising the University-wide Open Lectures 2016 in front of a general audience. The presentationsreceived favorable feedback from the open lecture participants, and the observations by the author himselfand the students' course evaluation questionnaires indicated that students showed significant improvement intheir academic oral communication and collaborative learning skills. Further refinement of the course designis necessary in order to improve the students' presentations in the open lectures and encourage them to makethe most of this practical training to enhance their competencies.