Teaching presentation skills to undergraduates: students’ evaluations of a workshop course

Abstract

A 10-hour workshop-based course designed to teach communication skills to undergraduates is described and evaluated. In five two-hour sessions, the course covered technical aspects of written communication, oral presentations to small and medium-sized groups, interview skills, non-verbal communication, and skills associated with assessing the presentations of others and providing constructive feedback. Evidence from a course evaluation questionnaire and from observations of the students’ performance suggests that the course was reasonably successful in achieving its aims.