Online Course: Final Presentations

It's hard to believe we are finishing up the online class with the final assignment! 18 students are still enrolled with all assignments complete. They met with me and a few faculty today to finish up with their presentations. What fun!

They were all a little nervous and a bit tired already! They spent yesterday in interview skills preparation for the internship interviews that start next week. They have also been in meetings all morning with various professors and program administrators. I was so proud that each of them showed up on time and ready to go!

The format and feedback process is simple. Each student comes into the Center, introduces themselves to the two other faculty and me and talks about themselves for 3-5 minutes. I was looking for in-depth knowledge of themselves and concrete evidence to support their strengths. I also hoped to see good content organization, good use of time, believability and engagement, and a polished rehearsed delivery.

After each student finished, faculty provided a few comments in turn as feedback. I provided a simple rubric to help them with this process. I then followed-up with any additional suggestions. I also used their presentation planning worksheet assignment to make sure they covered all of their material.

Generally, the students were engaging, polished and professional. Of course, I hope they will use all of the feedback provided to them to continue to hone their skills.

Whew, it was a long day!

Online Course Development: Presentation Skills

I save Presentation Skills for the last module for several reasons. First, they have to do a presentation in front of a small group of faculty. That necessarily requires that they are back on campus to complete this. Learning presentation skills closely followed by an actual presentation works best. Second, they need a topic for their presentation. I use the presentation as another way to pull together all they have learned in the course about themselves. So the presentation is a capstone assignment incorporating all of the strengths exploration, branding and professional development.

The Presentation Skills Workshop includes mini-sessions on determining your purpose, analyzing your audience, knowing yourself as a speaker and getting information for a presentation. Students then learn how to organize their information and prepare visuals for a presentation. Finally, they explore ways to polish, practice and powerfully present.

I have developed a Presentation Planning Worksheet they submit in advance. This requires them to think about themselves as speakers, select information and organize their presentation.

I created a Doodle sign-up calendar for students and accounting faculty to select time slots. Remarkably, everyone slotted themselves into an appropriate slot!

Watching student presentations is one of my favorite parts of this process. I love to see the students in action and hear what they have chosen to share about themselves. And for this online class, it will be the first time I actually get to put names with faces!

Online Course Development: Listening Skills

This workshop is definitely not one students eagerly anticipate. After all, they already know how to listen, right? Of course we all know how little we all actually listen. Excellent listening skills is always one of the first skills employers tell us students need - and don't have! Convincing students of this isn't easy however.

A recent campus panel of marketing professionals was asked what the most important thing a new hire needed in a marketing position. I think students were shocked when the response was "great listening skills." They went on to explain that if you could not LISTEN to your clients and deeply understand their needs, you would not succeed. I remind students how true this is in every profession - sales, marketing, consulting and so on. You cannot satisfy someone else's expectations if you can't listen and understand them.

The Listening Skills workshop discusses active listening techniques. I then ask students to consider their own listening preferences. I go on to discuss how they can assess others' listening preferences so they can adapt their communication appropriately. The related assignment asks for ways students can recognize listening preferences and techniques they can use to adapt their communication to their conversational partner's preferences.

Online Course Development: Business Communications Part 2

The major assignment for the Business Writing and Business Communication modules is a professional memo on an accounting topic. Students first submit a Planning Worksheet and Draft Memo after the Business Writing Workshop (see Business Writing Skills post). Students will then complete the Business Communications module with individual workshops on appropriate patterns of development for a business document as well as workshops on emails, business letters, memos, proposals and reports.

I realize that much of this information isn't going to "stick" with students until they really use it. I create an extensive handout for them to download and take with them as a "cheat sheet."

After this workshop, students revise their draft memos using effective business writing techniques and format. They should also include any additional content suggested in my feedback on the draft memo. And when they submit it... my work begins!

I open each memo in Word and use the review window to make extensive comments. I then save it and post it back into Sakai for the students to use as they revise one more time into a Final Memo. Their eyes probably pop when they first open my returned memo because it practically glows red with my comments.

In reality, each memo does take 20-30 minutes for me to assess. It is a tedious, labor-intensive process. I definitely admire any English teacher who does this for students day in and day out. I have streamlined the process somewhat by using macros I create in Word. For example, one might say "Use the power format of subject-verb-modifier in the majority of your business writing for effective sentences", "Use turn signals such as "and", "or", "but", "so" and "because" to help your reader better understand." or "Watch excessive modifiers. Rely on strong nouns and verbs when possible." I used to offer a more specific suggested revision, but I decided students were probably just making the changes without really learning "why".

It is always a long, hard week when it is Revised Memo assessment time...