A "Communication Skills for Computer Scientists" Course

Abstract

This paper describes "Communication Skills for Computer Scientists," a novel undergraduate course at the University of Toronto. We describe in detail the three major instructional streams of the course: writing, speaking, and interpersonal communications. We present a novel approach to teaching writing, interactive multimedia web technology to teach public speaking, and specific interpersonal skills training as the integral parts of the course. We contribute a detailed description of the curriculum and report measures of success, both quantitative data and reactions from students in their own words.