Peer Review

15.279 Management Communication for Undergraduates (MIT)

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Reviewed:: Mar 27, 2022 by Professional Coaching

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

The goal of this course is to help students learn to communicate strategically within a professional setting. Students are asked to analyze their intended audience, the purpose of their communication, and the context in which they are operating before developing the message. The course focuses specifically on improving students’ ability to write, speak, work in a team, and communicate across cultures in their roles as future managers.

This course is an archived version of a previously taught course at MIT, hosted on the MIT OpenCourseware platform. The content contained in the online version is available the the public at large and provides full details of self-study on the objectives noted.

Type of Material:

Online Course

Recommended Uses:

This course is well developed and fully self-paced. It may be readily adopted by faculty teaching management communication skills, including business, professional communications, and management, as well as other disciplines in which professional communication techniques are required. For students, this course is a great overview of communication hurdles and techniques and would allow for an excellent asynchronous online course. This course provides detailed recommendations for readings, as well as outlines of how the course itself was taught. Because of the outline for lesson planning, this course may be a great pre-packaged set of materials for faculty new to teaching management communication techniques to adopt into an OER course format, or to use as a supplement for individual modules within current courses that have a focus of topic on professional communications.

Technical Requirements:

This course is fully hosted on MIT OpenCourseware site, and therefore requires access to an internet browser and high-speed internet. Additionally, most of the content, including lecture notes and other materials provided are in PDF format; therefore a PDF software reader program is required to access the provided materials in this online course.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

This online course is archived from a prior offering by MIT, and hosted on MIT OpenCourseware. This course focuses on these core objectives through the assigned readings and materials:

Formulate an effective communication strategy for any message, in any medium, and in any situation
Write clearly, concisely, and convincingly
Create impressive presentations that are delivered with confidence and poise
Give and receive feedback that will improve yours and others' communication
Listen for understanding
Work effectively with others in small groups or teams
Identify and negotiate the difference in communication between yourself and people who are not from your culture

Target Student Population:

College undergraduate students in business, management, communications, and other academic disciplines focused on professional communications.

Faculty developing OER courses with content focused on professional communication and management will also benefit from the implementation of these materials.

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

A basic understanding of management/business would be helpful based on the content covered in this course. While not required, students would benefit from having completed either an introduction to business or an introduction to management.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The outline of the course, including the syllabus, course structure with topics and assigned readings, and details on the class design and student demographics are exceptional.

The structure is easy to navigate and the materials are easy to access and download. One of the amazing, helpful features is the batch download function to download a package of all digital files from the course. This feature is especially useful for students who may need to access content offline, or with inconsistent access to the internet.

Concerns:

None

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: The content includes carefully selected readings from the instructor of the course, and each provides exceptional, updated materials on the assigned topic. The learning objectives are met well with the assigned readings and activities. Lecture notes, assignments, and review materials are all well designed and provide excellent supplements to studying each of the assigned topics in the course.
Concerns:: None

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: Course structure is straightforward, consistent, and easy to follow. The design is straightforward and easy to follow with the left-hand menu. As noted previously, bulk download provides an ease of access that many users may prefer.
Concerns:: The many pdf attachments included are not ADA compliant and and therefore are not fully accessible to screenreaders. While text and headings appear ADA compliant, the many embedded images are not tagged appropriately, and therefore are either ignored, mislabeled, or read out of order. These need to be corrected to be compliant with ADA as a publicly, openly available resource for the global community where many users may need access to screenreading software.

Other Issues and Comments:: None
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