Online Course Development: Oral Communication Skills Workshop

This workshop helps students assess and improve their communication in formal and informal small group and one-on-one settings. I base some of the material on First Impressions by Ann Demarais. This is a fantastic book on how to analyze and change how we appear to others. There are wonderful "assessments" you can use with the material for reflection. Dr. Demarais graciously granted permission for me to use some of this with my students.

Why is this important for students? Here is a typical student/Sam interaction in the halls.... Sam-"So, how was your spring break?" Student-"Great". Sam - "What did you do special?" Student-"Went to Cancun." Sam-"Wow, that sounds really fun!" Student-"Yep" and so on...

Now, granted, I could have worked harder on my open-ended questions, but students typically respond to "adults" in this brief, fact-based approach. They wait to get questions and they supply the required response. They rarely expand, draw the other person out or ask questions in response that could deepen the conversation. This is probably okay in the above casual encounter (although it would have been nice to have been asked about my break as well) but I point out to students that they will soon be in situations where they will be expected to put the other person at ease, guide the conversation and seek to deepen the connection. That may happen in just a month or two when they take a potential client to lunch. "Yikes", I can see in their expression! This workshop helps teach them skills to excel in these situations.

I also spend some time here on nonverbal communications as well. After they watch a brief video on nonverbals, they complete an exercise coaching a "team member" on improving their nonverbals (try searching for "arms crossed" clip art for some good examples).

The student assignment is designed to help them assess their current conversational style and create a plan for improvement.