The 15.277 Special Seminar in Communications: Leadership and Personal Effectiveness Coaching course builds on the work done concurrently in 15.280 Communication for Managers and 15.311 Organizational Processes in the first semester of the MBA program at the MIT Sloan School of Management. 15.277 acts as a lab component to 15.280 and provides students additional opportunities to hone their communication skills through a variety of in-class exercises. Emphasis is on communicating to individuals and teams as a leader.
Type of Material:
Online Course
Recommended Uses:
The focus is on in-class activities. However, some of these could be assigned for homework either for individuals or teams.
A lecture is recommended to explain expectations and parameters if these are treated as out-of-class assignments.
Technical Requirements:
Firefox 32.0.0.330
Google Chrome,
Microsoft Edge
The course can also be downloaded as a zip drive for viewing offline.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
After completing the course, learners will be able to:
set goals for individuals and the team, give and receive feedback
structure an impromptu answer
tell a story about leadership
describe cultural leadership traits
management conflict
respond to interview questions
communicate a vision of leadership
Target Student Population:
Graduate and professional development; some of the course material could be adapted for upper-level undergraduate
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
None
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
Each lab has its own explanatory pdf with instructions, research support based on the course readings, and facilitation instructions.
Four of the labs had student handouts with additional clarification for abstract concepts, instructions and evaluation criteria.
There are extensive documents embedded in the course, lists of activities, and opportunities to improve communication skills throughout the course.
As with an MIT course, all of the course materials can be downloaded.
Concerns:
This was developed and used in the fall of 2008 and as such is somewhat dated.
There is more recent and relevant research regarding communication that should be researched and included instead of just relying on this material alone.
As this course is treated as a lab and supports two other graduate courses, it is not realistic to expect a typical course structure since these activities were intended to be in-class exercises.
The Communicating Your Vision of Leadership Feedback Worksheet had evaluation criteria that were subjective, and culturally biased toward the dominant American culture such as sensitivity, eye contact, gestures...etc).
Also, it is not clear whether or not the evaluator is supposed to use yes or no responses, open comments, or circle the best option to rate the presenter.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
An overview, activity outcomes, and connections to prior concepts and knowledge is provided.
The labs were designed to accompany the Communication for Managers course, but they can be used in other business, leadership, or communication courses as ice-breakers, activities, and discussion prompts.
Student learning outcomes can be measured.
The variety of exercises provides many options for in-class use.
With some small adjustments, the exercises can also be assigned as homework or as team assignments.
Concerns:
Because of the nature of these assignments is to improve communication, if this is used online, the instructor needs to develop interactive assignments to compensate for the face-to-face class expectations in this course.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The website has an easy-to-follow design with links for its features.
There is a visually appealing photo on the homepage with a caption for the visually impaired.
The course materials are embedded, easy to find, and also easy to download.
Concerns:
The Activity Assignments link did not work. The topics links for Business and Social Sciences lead to other courses.
Creative Commons:
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