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

4.7
stars
1,917 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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26 - 50 of 494 Reviews for Improving Communication Skills

By Mohammed E

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Jul 4, 2018

Great course and I really liked the ideas and concepts shared in it. It really helps how you can improve your communication skills and how you can use these skills on a professional level. Also, it combines practical tips and tactics you can use to apply those different skills. I strongly recommend it to anyone want to improve his/her own communication.

By Kierra A W

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Jun 23, 2019

I strongly encourage taking this course! The descriptions and explanations for each topic are rich, informative, and interesting. Each week holds lots of information that has changed my perspective on communication and the best way to get what you want. Overall, this course is extremely exciting and I strongly recommend taking it.

By Piotr

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Jul 7, 2018

Very interesting course which is increasing awareness about people behaviours while we communicate. You can understand why some people are better in communication then others. There are few information which I can apply to my day to day life, whereas majority is more of informational knowledge.Still I am recommending it.

By Ruiqi J

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Dec 10, 2017

The course is structured, informative, and not dull to take; the professor speaks with a loud, clear and engaging voice that adds motivation to stay in the course. Understand the materials used come from primarily academic studies, it'd be better/helps understanding if more example of life-related scenarios can be used.

By M V B

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Dec 2, 2017

Improving communication skills is of utmost important course. It helps in learning the key concepts of communication by building the capability to understand comparisons, rivalry and other important concepts. Application of the concepts explained in the module will elevate oneself as a good leader.

By sara m m

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Sep 11, 2017

Dr Maurice Schweitzer thank you very much for every thing really I learned a lot from this course that helps me in my life and I like your way in explanation it is much pretty I have enjoyed attending this course really I will miss this helpful , amazing lectures that I have learned a lot from it

By Marcin K C V P

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Jan 23, 2020

The course goes quite unexpected ways. I was not expecting what I got and I must admit I really liked it. The approach taken is very human-centric with lots of references to psychology and the way people work. It is less about structure and red tape. Perfect mix of skills for a XXI-century leader.

By Chin L Y

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Oct 17, 2019

Great knowledge that I can use in advertisement, networking, buying process, team management, sales/ profit motivation ( what not to do), interview, making friends feel important, portraying oneself as the more honest and approachable person, reducing rivalry and in turn becoming happier.

By Gabriela A

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Mar 22, 2020

A very good certification for people that are looking to enhance strategic managing skills. With good examples and very straight to the point information the professor is able to reflect the importance of each skill and the possibilities this knowledge can add to your experience.

By Jhemmylrut T

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Mar 25, 2020

This course is very strategic in term of personal communication, particularly in a professional setting. Basically, it makes you think first before opening your mouth. Read verbal and non-verbal communication. It is very useful for personal and professional growth.

By Maria G

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Mar 12, 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.

By Gilbert C

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Jan 25, 2020

Overall, the lectures were good but I could not see how this would assist me in my career. 'Communication' seemed to be limited to a rather combative understanding around competition and ldeception, and consequently how to build trust or detect lying in such circumstances, while 'effective communication' was limited to how to apologise. While these are useful lessons for circumstances that are combative, I don't think these reflect the day-to-day communication I have in my current job and the presumption of bad faith in communication can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy that can be detrimental to one's career. Also, the assessments don't get the students to reflect and implement the ideas. The questionnaire questions call upon students to memorise irrelevant bits of information that test whether students were 'paying attention' rather than whether students understood the core concepts.

By Karen M

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Jul 24, 2020

I apologise, but I found this course difficult. I am at retirement age and my whole working life I've been praised for my communication skills. I received the highest pass possible for my English exam and was praised all throughout 4 years at University, but I still found this difficult. It didn't hang together for me; it didn't build on the previous section, its focus on deception and threats was disturbing . I never felt like giving up, so it held some interest for me to be fair. But just not my cup of tea.

By Sai K S

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May 1, 2020

A bad course, nothing much was taught at all in this course. It was just talking and one-way interaction was completely boring. Please dont take it.

By Alex G B

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May 26, 2020

Lectures are a bit of a letdown after the Success course. Quizzes are also quite picky seemingly for the sake of being picky.

By DANIELE G

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May 4, 2020

Only week 4 contains topics about Communication...

By Jun W T

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Jun 30, 2023

The content is too academic without little practical application.

By Joann N B

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May 25, 2023

Delightful course. I learned a great deal and shared some knowledge with my husband, who seemed to know everything. So, for me to share knowledge with him is a victory. He has graduated many times from a private University in California. I helped pay for his education by working two jobs in our younger years. He worked full-time with the government and part-time with my business while attending the last two years of his final degree. We are both type A personalities. I enjoy learning and will continue to educate myself throughout my life. I enjoy the University of Pennsylvania. The flow of this class and the style were excellent. I often smiled when our professor continued to talk with his hands—a definite course to recommend.

By Marjorie D F M

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Jun 13, 2020

This course is very insightful and has taught me more about communication. However, there were instances when the examples and/or application questions were quite difficult to understand perhaps because I live in a different country and i am not so knowledgeable about the events that have transpired in other places in the world but nevertheless was able to grasp the main idea of each lecture. it gave me a deeper understanding of social connection with other people, building trust with strangers, challenges encountered with deception, dealing with threats and also setting realistic and learning goals to improve yourself not just in the field of communication but as well as for your personal well-being.

By Khangeldy K

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Apr 13, 2020

In my opinion, the course gets better and more interesting as you go through it. So if the first week does not really seem like fun or useful, stick with the course and you will not regret. The name of the course may well be changed to "strategic communication", and that's what I liked about it — the focus of the course was not so much on the methods, but on the general thinking that helps us (hopefully) become better communicators, negotiators, and, in general, effective managers. The instructor's ideas are easy to follow and the flow of video lectures really keeps you motivated and interested in the material. Overall, I very much enjoyed the course.

By Lukrecija V

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Jun 16, 2020

This course helped me to learn more about the non-verbal communication, negotiation, and active listening. As I want to continue my studies in the journalism field, this course provided me with some basic information about how to make my communication/interview skills better. This course would also help people interested in marketing, and other business fields, as it provides information of how to make messages more memorable, and helps to understand how to become trustable by your opponent.

By Michal

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Jul 11, 2020

This course was not only insightful for team building, but was also applicable to every day life with friends or even coworkers! I found Professor Schweitzer to be engaging and interesting; conveying his points with ease and used relevant examples to drive home the point in each section. I'd most definitely recommend this course for those wanting to learn how to interact with others and gain an understanding in beginner level communication.

By Levi

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Aug 19, 2022

This course was very interesting and informative. Only time will tell how much it actually helped me but as things stand right now it has offered some good insights into improving communication. I would suggest if you have some free time to go through this course. For me, the cost was free so well worth it but I have to say that I will most likely look into other courses they have to offer based on this experience -- pay or otherwise!

By Seleem B

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Jun 20, 2020

This course was exceptionally taught, the professor was engaging and brought up plenty of very good and applicable case studies that fortified the taught concepts. The topics and concepts were very interesting and helpful to learn and have changed the way that I perceive many of my conversations or communications with others where I look out for those certain tactics as well as try to use them myself. Thank you so much!

By Jazeeoou u

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Dec 21, 2021

I really loved this course. After showing the certificate that I got to my peers, they gave me feedback that they did see some changes and improvement in my communication skills. Although, it would've been a better experience if the course had any interactive activities that could've enhanced the skill more, perhaps somewhat of a simulations of situation and let us choose how to respond to them