. . . clearly, the traditional way of. . . doing things was not going to work. At first glance, Harbert College’s course in Business Communication looks like a breezy, quirky way to learn how to improve your speaking skills. But that easy-going style is deceptive. It’s the product of long hours, hard work and no small amount of imagination. The collaborators that produced the course managed to find their way around a host of problems, design interesting, unexpected solutions, and ultimately create a successful educational experience. Communication skills have always been important to business graduates, and in recent years, with the proliferation of media, those skills have become vital. At the same time, business schools have struggled with how to teach effective communication. “In 2011, we decided to tackle the problem head-on by adding a new communications course to our core curriculum,” says Norman Godwin, associate dean for academic affairs. But that addition, though seemingly small, posed a large challenge. The problem was twofold: the sheer logistics of the course and the educational efficacy of the material. Communication courses are usually taught in sections of 25 students. “800 business students need the course each
year. That’s 32 sections. We don’t teach 32 sections of anything,” says Godwin. “We’ve got to teach this material, but we don’t have enough faculty and we don’t have enough classrooms. How are we going to do that?” The goal, ultimately, was to create a superior educational experience, to engage the student and develop relevant, tangible skills. “We were running into obstacles from the outset. We had to keep our goals in mind, but clearly the traditional way of doing things was not going to work. We had to find a different path.” That pivot was to technology. Many online courses simply place a camera at the back of a classroom and try to replicate the experience of the professor speaking before the class. Godwin: “While that approach can work in some circumstances, we didn’t think it was a good fit for the the subject matter and we knew we would not be taking full advantage of the opportunities the technologies afford.” Moreover, the amount of content that needed to be packed into the allotted timeframe demanded a highly-focused presentation. “Video captures everything and you don’t have a place for ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ and rabbit
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