• Length:
    5 Weeks
  • Effort:
    4–6 hours per week
  • Price:

    FREE
    Add a Verified Certificate for $49 USD

  • Institution
    PurdueX
  • Subject:
    Communication
  • Level:
    Introductory
  • Language:
    English
  • Video Transcript:
    English
  • Course Type:
    Instructor-led on a course schedule

Prerequisites

None

About this course

Skip About this course

Far too frequently, the people who have the most to say have the hardest time saying it. Many of the best minds in our society, our most talented employees and our most promising students, fail to have the impact they could because of ineffective strategies for communicating their ideas and insights to others.

This five-week refresher is geared toward experts (scientists, engineers, and other technical professionals) and will help them effectively communicate with non-scientists, usually management, to inform organizational decision-making.

Join us as we examine and learn the essential components of communication strategy.

What you'll learn

Skip What you'll learn
  • Review communications skills
    • Though many students learn communications skills early in their academic career, they may have not practiced, or may have forgotten, many useful communications tactics. Additionally, by the time these students begin to develop expertise in specific disciplines and begin working in certain industries, the communication needs become specialized and more challenging.
  • Help experts assess the value of communication and gain confidence in their abilities
    • Some people don't want to communicate. They don't feel it is their job. They want to focus on their own technical areas of expertise. Perhaps they fear it a little because it is not their "area" or they simply dismiss it as unimportant. Either way, such beliefs ultimately become constraints on their own success and run counter to the expectations of others who oversee their work.
  • Help professionals bridge the communication gap
    • Many people often underestimate how hard it is to effectively communicate and think they do a better job than they actually do. After all, their content makes sense to them, and if someone else doesn't understand, it must be their fault.

Meet your instructors

Purdue University
Melanie Morgan
Associate Professor
Brian Lamb School of Communication, Purdue University
Bart Collins
Director of the Online Master of Science Program in Strategic Communication
Brian Lamb School of Communication, Purdue University

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