Presentation Skills a Holistic Way to Develop Communication Skills of Engineering Students: Opportunity for Self-Learning During COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

Communication is the very lifeblood to succeed in life, whether it is your personal life or professional life. So, it is important to develop and enhance the communication skills of undergraduates, especially engineering students. Organizations are willing to invest in students who showcase the true potential and are employable. Communication is multi-faceted. It will be beneficial to improve the students’ language skills, such as listening, speaking, reading, and talking. In addition to the four mentioned skills, emphasis should also be given to general knowledge, vocabulary building, and non-verbal communication, thereby growing a versatile, confident and generation of students ready to face the real world. In light of the above-mentioned points, an assignment on creating a recorded video presentation was given to the first-year engineering students using the ICT tool. During lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this assignment was given to develop their communication skills. Moreover, oral feedback was collected from students to understand their key-take away from a virtual learning platform. This paper will focus on how self-learning can also be a good form of pedagogy to improve one’s communication skills by the medium of presentations. The results showed that self-learning could improve communication skills through digital presentations.