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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Improving Communication Skills by University of Pennsylvania

4.7
stars
1,918 ratings

About the Course

Learn how to communicate more effectively at work and achieve your goals. Taught by award-winning Wharton professor and best-selling author Maurice Schweitzer, Improving Communications Skills is an essential course designed to give you both the tools you need to improve your communication skills, and the most successful strategies for using them to your advantage. You'll learn how to discover if someone is lying (and how to react if they are), how to develop trust, the best method of communication for negotiation, and how to apologize. You'll also learn when to cooperate and when to compete, how to create persuasive messages, ask thoughtful questions, engage in active listening, and choose the right medium (face-to-face conversation, video conference, phone call, or email) for your messages. By the end of the course, you'll be able to understand what others want, respond strategically to their wants and needs, craft convincing and clear messages, and develop the critical communication skills you need to get ahead in business and in life....

Top reviews

MG

Mar 11, 2020

This course surpassed my expectation. I can not only apply what I have learned in my professional life but also can help me to improve some personal aspects, like communication with my family members.

SP

Sep 9, 2020

An absolutely wonderful course on communication skills. Its a course every professional should take as it teaches the very basics of communication that we all should incorporate and practice everyday.

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401 - 425 of 495 Reviews for Improving Communication Skills

By Naif M A

Jul 29, 2018

5

By FEDRO A S M

Jul 11, 2018

G

By aymara b t

Jun 8, 2018

P

By Dimitris D

Dec 12, 2017

G

By Cara T

Jun 21, 2017

It would have been nice if throughout the course the material was tied back to real world examples. So at the end of a week there might be a video saying 'hey this week we learned about building. Now we're going to look at how this might help you in a real world communication scenario. You've started a new job and it's your first day on the job. You want to make sure you're off to a good start' then maybe play through some examples of the right and wrong ways to build trust maybe with a question like the scenario plays and then the presenter asks 'was that the right way to build trust? Lets review' and then it plays back through the scene stopping for comments along the way.

By Lavanya Y

Jul 8, 2021

As a person who has always struggled to understand subtle verbal and non-verbal cues in communication, I have greatly benefitted from this course. Professor Maurice Schweitzer uses research studies and specific examples to help better understanding of the course content. I can already see a lot of practical day-to-day applications both in personal and professional life. It would have been helpful though if there was more elaboration and depth to some of the concepts like how cultures influence ways of communication. I also felt the quizzes are quite straight-forward and easy, would have liked little more complexity in assessing concepts and skills learnt

By Nga D

May 4, 2018

Very useful materials based on interesting research. Mind opening to many effective communication practices that are based on research of real life examples. I'm excited to take a reflection of my communication, interaction with others everyday and practice what I have learned in this course to improve it. However, the course appears to me at first a collection of unconnected ideas and concepts. But when I get a better sense of the overview picture and the style of the Professor, I start kind of seeing how things are connected. I think this is something Professor should improve upon.

By Elle C

Apr 21, 2020

Warm, engaging, articulate professor with well-studied, insightful concepts. I was expecting a course more focused on improving delivery/execution of actual (verbal) communications/presentation skills, but this course centered on broader topics around the behaviors/psychology of various aspects of communications (see syllabus for topics) highlighted with studies and stories, rather than the actual delivery of communications. Nonetheless, this was an interesting course as part of the overall Achieving Personal and Professional Success Specialization.

By Denis K

Jul 15, 2020

It is a nice course but my anticipation was so high that I ended up being a little bit dissapointed. There are at least two reasons for that. The first reason is that this course lacks readings section. I expected to see some references to books and reseacrh literature so those students who wish to expore the topic more fully could do that. The second reason is that the course isn't challenging enough, although I do understand that it might not be true for everyone. I give this course 4 stars but in reality it's more like a 3.5 stars course to me.

By Hans

May 30, 2017

All the content is based on Professor's book Friends and Foe. It is quite good to combine these two learning resources together. There are quite a lot new perspectives and insights. The most wonderful part is the module 1 &2. The most practical part is the module 4. Module 3 on Deception is good. If the content can include more how we can take advantage of these findings, the course could be better.

By Jianwei W

Feb 6, 2018

I found this course very informative, filled with many many aspects, physiology, cooperate communication, etc. It is not about how to write email but much deeper. I would appreciate better assignment design - real life situations which can immediately apply what I have learned. In the end, people are coming here to improve their real life communication skills not theories.

By Utku K

Jan 31, 2018

Some more detailed could be more helpful I think, like non-verbal communication types, types of cons, signals in different cases, useful signals, not useful signals... But in general it was a very good course, I enjoyed everything, I wished furthering my knowledge in the area thats why would like to have more detail. Thank you very much! Great course!

By Karen Y

May 11, 2020

Did not feel I learned as much as I could because quizzes were not permitted to be taken without grade as an auditor. I was able to take quizzes in other classes which was a much more beneficial approach to learning. I enjoyed the professor and the material, however, and thank you for offering this free course during my COVID-19 quarantine.

By Mehrunisa B

Jan 4, 2020

An incredibly motivational classes besides of thought provoking. It helps to think over good perspectives of every actions. Makes me to built firm relationships. And to cultivate new ideology. I leant when to trust and when not,and benefits of goal settings, Key ideas about deception, effective speaking...

By Himanshu

May 13, 2020

This course helped me a lot. Many a times I was able to relate to the teachings ang examples and other times I was left thinking, pondering over the lessons and consequences. It will definitely help me being a better version of myself. Thanks to Coursera to introducing us to such a wonderful course

By Yuliya P

Jun 5, 2018

Quite useful though in some cases quite general. Very easy to follow the presenter. The idea of the course is to get some take-away points and start practicing them in your daily life. So don't expect to become a professional communicators but rather expect some useful ideas. Thank you!

By James E

Dec 13, 2019

This course is incredibly realistic and awesome. It gives different psychological approaches to solving several different niggling issues as 'how to gain trust' and 'detection deception'. However, some points expatiated I think could be viewed more relatively. Especially signalling.

By Álvaro M

May 9, 2022

I really liked the course, and the instructor as well (it was easy to understand him). Also I would rather name the course more related to the "Communication Process" itself than with a set of tools or skills to be applied or enhanced through it.

By Meghavi

May 16, 2018

Back to basics course on communication. Well developed modules as communication is not just jargons, vocabulary but also about building a relation. The faculty Prof. Maurice is extremely knowledgeable and well researched on the topic.

By Manuel G

May 12, 2017

Very interesting. From my point of view, it offers a good grasp of the theorethical basis which underlies the different phenomena explained and good practical stories which illustrate them. I enjoyed it and recommend it.

By Luca B

May 14, 2020

Through several examples, the course explains a lot of the ins and outs of communication. It is well built and consistent, focusing on ways to understand and enhance how to communicate in a constructive manner.

By Lucas P

Jul 17, 2022

Really great lecturer. As previously mentioned materials including layout are not the best. They somehow only repeat what was said however would beneficial to have document in the form of syllabus or guidance.

By Ramiro J S A

May 3, 2020

Although the course deals with very important topics about communication in different settings, especially in business, it does not integrate these concepts with the other courses in this specialization.

By Mandhir S

Apr 6, 2021

Decent course. Good basic understanding. However, some of the examples left us hanging ie what about the Cop who convinced the suspect to plead guilty - how did he do it, why only in half hour?

By Maryam A

Jan 12, 2022

The material is a bit tough and the ppts arent as elaborative/helpful as they should be with regards to the specific points tested in quizzes. Otherwise, the instructor is great