The course was actually fairly good and educational. However, the final assignment requires you to present your presentation to the class...of 20,000+ people. In this age of cybersecurity issues and facial recognition software, I am here to learn and demonstrate that learning, but anonymity is paramount. I don't need my face posted all over the web. I keep my social media settings private for a reason. I suggest this course learn to do the same.

Communication Strategies transformation is going to be the backbone of all organizations and the pandemic has simply accelerated this shift. This is a MUST course for everyone. 5Star's for this... :)

Sir does a wonderful explaining the topic and imparting his knowledge in this beautifully made course, this has tremendously helped me improve my presentations and communication. Thank you Ivan sir.

The course was really helpful to strengthen communications skills and I got a chance to learn many new aspects. Thanks a lot for making this course available. I really enjoyed learning something new.

Before reviewing content, I'd like to point out a huge issue I faced on the platform - peer review based assessments would not be a bad idea if learners were not complete random. Unfortunately, I have to resubmit my assessment (in this and other courses) multiple times due to some individuals not taking it seriously and with respect to other peers and just clicking all 0 points without even opening a file submitted. This is a major factor making the whole platform incredible and learning experience extremely frustrating. CONTENT: The content was actually good and useful. Although it might seem at first that we already know it, but most of the times us and our colleagues aren't aware of such delicate details. I'm personally very passionate about communications, social behaviours and people motivation in both professional and personal life, so it was a pleasure to hear more about it in a structure ways. Videos aren't too long and time used very efficiently, with great real life/ work examples and explain in easy to digest ways even for someone with a little experience in presentations and business communications. I agree with other reviews noting the security and privacy aspect of sharing your face recorded with anonymous "peers".

The communication strategies taught in this course were too practical and superficial for my taste. The course features a lot of very basic instructions on how to communicate. While receiving and practicing with a toolbox is certainly always an element in a good course on communication, in my view, I expect a lot more when it comes to communication.

First, what I missed in the course was the role of genuineness and authenticity in communication and how to ensure this in a virtual age. The impression I received of the instructor was that he was at all times very aware of the way he presented and my impression was that that focus was stronger than establishing a connection to the viewers of the video. I would like to see a little more courage to imperfection, for instance.

Second, communication to me is about internalising a certain attitude. As an example, Rosenberg's non-violent communication is based on four steps. However, I will only successfully apply this concept, if I internalise the philosophy and attitude behind the concept and if I can identify with it. Having taken this course, I cannot tell what approach/ attitude/ philosophy is behind it or whether there's a common thread at all.

The valuable elements of the course are the "tips" to incorporate while doing live presentations (or video) and PowerPoint presentations. More than offering some of the content as an "advice" the facilitator stated the content as a "must". Based on this course many TED Talks would be rated as ineffective which couldn't be farther from reality. Not all presentation approaches work for all situations and topics, he should know that. I definitely felt so uninspired and discouraged to do my final assignment.

One thing I definitely disliked and considered unethical is part of the content of Module 3, when dealing with the "Supportive" type person, which searches for the group approval. He stated that we have to approach the person by saying "everybody things X or Y about you" or "everybody told me to talk to you", literally he is asking the students to LIE, this represents a high level of hypocrisy and it a terrible part of any corporate culture. He even justified himself by saying something like it's just a matter of being "strategic" to obtain what we need, and that it's the reality we deal with nowadays. Really?! Basically, he told the audience that the ends justify the means.

I learned some useful tips but definitely I expected more of the course. As a suggestion, more than preparing a video (ok, maybe in addition to that) students can be presented with a complex problem and be required to write a strategy to solve the situation.

Thank you

I've learned some great presentation tips from this course, it allowed me to step out of me comfort zone and I had fun doing it!

This course is really interesting, and it has a lot of good matters about communication. However, I think it should have other ways to evaluate the students in the final task. Not everybody feel confortable about recording a video and it doesn't mean they didn't learn great things and deserve the certified. Other thing to be considered is the time we have to accomplish it. I think one of the reasons people choose an online course is because it should be more flexible and they can manage time, so this course should allow the students to accomplish it in their own time, and it doesn't happen.

Yeah, Interesting concepts applicable for presentations however my main concerns are with cybersecurity. I do not want my face to be recognized all over the internet, hacked or copied. I am afraid of such issues. I have not been able to finish the course because I knew what the peer-graded review was all about. And the learners and grading each other really good marks sharing their links to each other while others have been waiting for days. The course has to consider these crimes of information hacking and the like, I think the course is quite outdated in terms of that because you cannot choose to make a video where you don't have to present yourself and be effective. I thought the course was about online learning and communication but this was not the case given that the title itself suggests "Virtual Age." Surely they should have changed considered issues such as these from their activities and peer-graded assignments. These are the kind of peer-graded assignments I would not approve of. There aren't even alternatives to finish the course. No thanks, I'll just try to get the content but that's it. I don't mind not earning the certificate as long as I don't put my online information out in the open.

Ivan is a fantastic presenter. I never felt overwhelmed by the content or that I couldn't follow along. I see a tremendous value in the easy to digest modules in this course.

Thank you so much!

Much of the course content videos contradicted the Traps of Communication the instructor himself pointed to. Most videos were unnecessarily long and provided little more context than could be summarized in a sentence. Thankfully, the instructor often ended videos with a summary. Thee course content included communication "strategies" GOS, KNOW Rule, Area 47 .... that were ultimately concepts of which most people are already aware, but rebranded for this course. I felt like I was spending more time feeling confused about what the names of the strategy were, rather than how to use them. The instructor tried to use examples in his videos, but would explain them "Say you were doing X, and your boss wanted Y....." This format could have been improved by simply having two different people or slides SHOWING the concept in action (roleplaying/acting), rather than describing. I also really disliked the cliche music in the introductory video to the course which overshadowed the presenter's own voice. All in all, the course was satisfactory for providing food for thought regarding communication styles and motivations, but it was not the highest quality course I've seen on Coursera or elsewhere. I expected more from the UofT School of Continuing Studies.

This is truly an exceptional communication course. The instructor is the one of the best instructors I've ever seen. His teaching style and his engagement level is brilliant. The course videos are really helpful.

The actual theories, videos, and instructor were great! This is exactly what I was expecting. However, I was disappointed with the final assignment submission which is basically a bribing competition among learners to get your assignment graded in order to complete the course. If no one reviews your assignment, than you are not able to complete the course even though you submitted on time. This piece should be graded by the instructor, not the learners.

This course was good as an arena to practice your digital presentation skills. There wasn't anything particularly new discussed, but it's good to think about techniques that you may use every day, in a practical, objective way to understand why they are or are not effective.

This was an excellent course. Ivan Wanis Ruiz was amazing, great instructor. I really enjoyed and learnt a lot from module 4. Learning about Area 47, the Lazy Rule and the Belly Button Rule were all new and are the highlights that I will be walking away with. I am quite confident that I will drastically improve in my presentations.

I love this course. It's broken down to simple bits which makes it easy to understand. I didn't like the polls that pop up in the videos but that's just a small thing compared to the value I received.

This course was very informative and helpful

The course description/title was a bit misleading. I was expecting the course to be more theoretical with concrete examples of communication strategies that can be adapted and used in a digital age (e.g. how to enhance engagement across digital platforms). The course mainly touched on the psychology of communication and the different styles of communication, which may or may not be adapted to the virtual age but it definitely did not focus on the virtual age itself.

Well outlined and delivered. I would highly recommend it to anyone who runs a team or online training. It also helped me improve my presentation skills.

I need to drop this class. Please advise

It's a pity there is no initial task similar to the final assignment, so you can feel the difference of what you've learnt from the course. This set of lectures would be really helpful for either managers and their subordinates to communicate effectively, to reach the goals that depend on others, and to get pleasure from the communication. I'm happy I could learn a lot and I'm glad to apply it in practice -- it works!

I totally recommend this course, the tittle doesn't do justice to its content, it is helpful for lots of things: learning how to communicate both in virtual and real world, how to identify peoples motivation by knowing their communication styles, how to make a good presentation by asking the correct questions and giving the exact message and image you want to people. I learned a whole lot!

It's a great course, but Peer Review here is something awful - the evaluating people might get the course topics and ideas totally wrong and they would rate you based on their vision.

IMO, that system works well with technical tasks, but not soft skill evaluation.

As for the course itself - it coves a lot of aspects with really little time needed, including some public speaking basics and presentations. The course professor Ivan is just the best one ;)

Interesting course for basic . Easy to follow and to complete. unfortunately few external links didnt' work well.