Oral communication skills workshop for students in engineering and applied science

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of a two-week non-credit workshop that focuses on the skills needed for effective formal oral and poster technical presentations. It is required for all graduate students in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the National University of Singapore. Special considerations are a relatively large number of students (45-75) from diverse cultural backgrounds, many of whom do not have English as their first language. The Workshop involves a four-hour overview focusing on the organization and style components of both formal oral and poster technical presentations. Examples of both a PowerPoint® and poster presentation are given to illustrate effective communication skills. Each student gives a short presentation that is digitally recorded and critiqued by the Workshop Coordinator and seven other students. Subsequently the Workshop Coordinator discusses the digital recording with each student via a 30-minute one-on-one consultation. All Workshop materials including the digital recordings can be downloaded by the students from a dedicated website. Student feedback is obtained via an anonymous formal evaluation and via postings on the website. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2008.