Skills Assessment

For this assignment, you will begin by creating a preparation worksheet assessing your public speaking skills at this point in the course. Please click the following link to complete the preparation worksheet. After completing the preparation worksheet, you will create a four- to five-minute video blog in YouSeeU giving a final assessment of your oral communication skills. This video blog will only be available for the instructor to review.

In your video blog, you will answer the following questions:

• What are your current strengths in oral communication and how do they differ from when you began the course?
• What are the areas you believe you still need to improve upon?
• What is the status of the goals you set for yourself in Week One of the course?
• What are the new goals that you want to achieve after finishing this course?

Please include specific details involving your experiences thus far in the course. The best assessments will reference course material and guidance from which you will base your observations and insights. When recording your video, please utilize both the verbal component of speaking and presenting, as reviewed in the course text on pages 257-266 of Chapter 12 and the non-verbal component of speaking and presenting, as reviewed in the course text on pages 266-270 of Chapter 12.

Please submit your preparation worksheet as an attachment to your video blog in YouSeeU. Both the completed preparation worksheet and the video blog will be evaluated as part of the grade for this assignment.

Preparation Worksheet for Skills Assessment (Video Blog #3)

Prior to recording your video blog assignment, it is important that you go through a systematic self-assessment of your public speaking skills at this point in the course. By going through this assessment, you will be more effective at covering everything that needs to be said when it comes time to record your video blog. Follow the steps below in order to complete the required preparation. Completing these preparatory steps should take approximately 60 minutes.

Examine the ways you have attempted to develop your public speaking skills. Using your own paper, write a list of at least three improvements you have made in your oral communication skills since your mid-course skills assessment. (Spend approx. 10 minutes on this)
Examine the ways you still need to work on developing your public speaking skills. Using your own paper, write a list of at least three areas where you would still like to improve your oral communication skills. (Spend approx. 10 minutes on this)

Reexamine your likes and dislikes. Review the likes and dislikes you identified in your initial video blog assignment. Then, using your own paper, write a list of three ways that your likes and dislikes have either changed or been reinforced by your public speaking experiences since your mid-course skills assessment. (Spend approx. 10 minutes on this)

Reassess your personal goals. Review the personal goals you identified for your previous video blog assignment. Then, using your own paper, write an update for each goal indicating how you feel you have progressed (or possibly regressed) in terms of achieving that goal since your mid-course skills assessment. (Spend approx. 10 minutes on this)

Identify new personal goals. Using your own paper, writea list of at least three new goals for improving your oral communication skills that you would like to achieve after this course has been completed. (Spend approx. 10 minutes on this)

Prepare an outline. Using the answers you wrote down for the previous five steps, create an outline to help you organize how you want to discuss this information in your video blog. The outline can be used to help you practice delivering your video blog. (Spend approx. 10 minutes on this)

Keep the notes you create during this preparation process, as well as this preparation worksheet. They will be useful for when you record your video blog. Remember that the video for this assignment should be 4 - 5 minutes in length.