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COMMUNICATION SKILLS (UCU 3102) [45 LH]

PURPOSE OF THE COURSE

The course is designed to provide the trainee with knowledge in communication skills relevant to academic, social and work place perspectives.

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to apply relevant skills to:

  1. Practise inter-personal, intra-personal and public communication skills.
  2. Listen and take notes from a lecture
  3. Use print and non-print sources in retrieving, storing and using information for a purpose.
  4. Recognize developments in communication technology
  5. Read scientific, academic texts and use contextual clues to interpret technical terms and features.
  6. Write term papers and scientific reports

COURSE CONTENT

Communication Theory: Definition and functions of communication. Types of Communication. Interpersonal communication, Intra-personal communication, public communication (group presentations), verbal and non-verbal communication. Office Communication:  memos, minutes, curriculum vitae. Information. Communication process and barriers. Listening Skills: Hearing, listening, and  note taking. Effective listening techniques. ,How to follow lectures and instructions Not-taking. IT tool for communication..Presentation skills. Study Skills: Planning and organizing academic activities; Time management; study groups for cooperative learning; Study habits and study aids. . Preparing and taking examinations. Mind maps.;

Reading Skills: Reading concept, SQ3R for selecting relevant sources for reading. Styles of reading- skimming, scanning, intensive and critical thinking. Note making, reflex reading, Trans-coding and interpreting diagrams, tables and  graphs; note making., Topic sentence in extracting main ideas from a text. Writing skills: Topic analysis. Preparing a plan for a write up; Academic argumentation in academic essays;, paragraph development. ., In-text referencing styles. Compiling a bibliography and list of references. Library skills: Define Library, Types of libraries. Use of IT, Library classification and cataloguing to locate a source – Call number in library. Accessing Library sources using bibliographic details. Types of authors, Types of reference sources. Project: Setting relevant research topic. Library research, Note-making skills. Conventional skill for writing references for the selected sources. Plagiarism. Compile a bibliography to avoid plagiarism.