Importance of Effective Communication Skills in Higher Education

This article discusses the importance of effective communication skills in higher education and how to develop them through collaboration with peers. It covers topics such as listening skills, non-verbal communication, sharing actual facts and figures, and more. The article also highlights the benefits of effective communication and provides ways to collaborate for developing effective communication skills.

Importance of Effective
Communication Skills

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Communication skill and its importance in higher education................................................3
Ways for collaborating for development effective communication.......................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
Communication skill is the ability to convey message to other individuals. Here, a individual
share their ideas, thoughts and feelings to other individual so that they will understand the
message clearly and respond it (Suratno, Tonra and Ardiana, 2019). Gaining communication
skill is most important for an individual to develop their personal and professional life. When an
individual is having effective communication skill then they are able to influence others and
understand what others perceive regarding their message. It is essential to communicate more
with others and observe their way of conveying their message so that observer can grab the
opportunity to learn from their experience. The following file covers ways in which collaborating
with peers during this module has helped to develop effective communication skills.
Main Body
Communication skill and its importance in higher education
Communication skill is ability to share words and thoughts between two or more person.
It is an two way process where a sender send message whatever he want to convey and receiver
will receive the message and provide feedback to sender that whether they understand the
message or not. There are few communication skills which must be presented within an
individual to become effective communicator and these skills are mentioned below-
 Listening skill- It is essential that a individual must listen what their opponent person is
saying and then respond and share only those facts and figures which is totally related to
the topic shared by an individual.
 Non- verbal communication- These are those body gestures which a individual share
without speaking any word from their mouth. For example, when a individual shake their
head in vertical way then it means he is saying 'yes' and when the same individual share
his head in horizontal way then it means they are conveying 'No' in respond (Yang,
2018). Therefore, as a student, it is essential to understand the non-verbal communication
ways of the colleague. Having proper eye contact with audience, tone of voice should by
arranged according to content like using high tone will help to grab the attention of
audience to a particular statement or topic.

 Sharing actual facts and figures- As a student, it is essential that the individual will
share the message by using actual facts and figures related to topic. This will help to
maintain good personality in front of others.
Learning communication skill for a student is essential in their higher education because
this will help them to bring the confidence which further help them to share their innovative
ideas openly and clear their doubts with their teachers after sharing the issues. Hence, a student
can learn communication skill effectively in their universities by interacting more with people
and gain knowledge appropriately (Hartinah and et. al., 2019). Secondly, effective
communication also helps students and teachers to create a good relationship between them.
Here, students openly share their point of view in front of teachers and teachers can correct them
in case they share any wrong information and correct their information so that they will gain
correct knowledge which is one of the most important factors in gaining effective skill.
Benefits of communication- There are various kinds of benefits of effective communication for
a student and few of the benefits are mentioned below-
1. Develop employability skills- After higher education at universities students are required
to apply for job where they have to give interviews for getting selected for the job role
which they have chosen. Face to face interviews will check the communication of a
individual. Therefore, as a student of higher education I always prefer to gain effective
communication skill at my university which will help me to clear my interviews related
to communication skill testing.
2. Helps to develop personality- Today most of people are developing their
communication skill so that they will impress other with their effective communication
skill where they share actual facts and figures. Hence, a student sharing good way of
conveying their message will gain high reputation in others point of view.
Ways for collaborating for development effective communication
 Listen for the group members- It is essential for me to listen what my group members
is conveying to me. Here, I have to listen the suggestions of my peers in completing this
project so that I can make effective decision. While listening to my group member’s
suggestion and advices patiently, I have got to learn effective factor of communication
skill. Here, I supposed to listen the message of colleague patiently and let them finish
their advices and recommendations first and then I start sharing my point of views.

 Making plan for the module- While me and my team members were planning for the
module that how it will be completed at what time and which group member is going to
perform which task then we all share our point of views in planning process and analyse
that providing task related to their expertise is effective. For example, providing the role
of group leader to the individual who have effective leadership skills, providing resource
arrangement activity to that student who is having good knowledge to arrange and
manage resources, providing data collection practices to those who are having good
research skills and many others (Brown and et. al., 2018). Hence, here I get to know that
analysing things surround us is important and further help to make correct decision for
completing any task. Therefore, by planning process of this module I have gained
effective communication skill.
 Making notes- This is my one of the best habit that I make notes. Hence, while
performing this module I make notes of everything which I observe so that I will get to
know what is left to and what is going to do in the module. Making notes will help me to
record proofs that what task is done at what time and by whom. Hence, here I get to know
that collecting evidence and proofs of the information which we convey in our
conversations is important in communication skill which further helps me to gain
effective communication skill.
 Discussing the module with teacher and taking her suggestions- While we are
preparing project on the given topic I discuss with my teacher about various factors with
my teacher that what helps me to complete the project with effectiveness, where should I
start and where to finish and many others. This will make me understand that clearing
doubts is effective and helpful in gaining high communication skill. In case I did not clear
my doubts then it might be possible that I will learn wrong information which can impact
badly upon my communication skill. Hence, clearing doubts is important in
communication skill.
 Think before conveying messages- It is essential for me to think before conveying the
message (Mitchell, Lemoine and Lee, 2021). Here, I must think what I am conveying to
which kind of person by analysing their attitude to perceive the message and respond.
Thinking before conveying message to team members will reduce conflicts which arise

due to harsh words. Hence, this will help me to analyse what is good and what is bad for
sharing any information.
 Defining the purpose- It is essential for me to define the purpose of module to my team
members so that they will collect appropriate information and analyse in which direction
they are reaching their goals. Hence, this also helps me to learn effective way of
communication where I must supposed to clear the mission and vision of the team at
academics.
 Involve the right people- Involving right people for communication will make it
effective to share information in good manner (Kurniawan, 2021). Most of the time I
make sure that the people to whom I interact must have interest to listen what I am
conveying and have at least little knowledge regarding topic so that the message which I
will convey them must reach them in a proper way to clear their understanding.
 Make team members to feel free to suggest their ideas openly- I have also learned
effective communication skill by allowing my team members to encourage the activities
which will provide free flow of communication. I will motivate my team members to
share their ideas openly so that I will also learn from any team members which may share
some essential information for completing the module. This will help me to learn the
actual facts and figures which others share to develop my knowledge. It is very essential
for me to gain appropriate knowledge to learn effective communication skill.
 Using appropriate medium- It is also essential for me to choose appropriate medium of
communication which will help me to mitigate all issue related to conveying message. An
appropriate communication medium channel will help me to share my message
appropriately (Yang, 2018).
 Distributing resources- This process will also help me to enhance my communication
skill because when I distribute resources to my team mates then I make sure that correct
resources will be provided to correct people according to their experience and skills.
Hence, I communicate more with my team members to analyse their needs and
requirements related to resources and I start gaining information and understanding my
team members.
 Collecting information- When I and my peers collect information related to this module
then we make sure that we all will collect primary data as well as secondary and for

secondary data we need to make sure that the information must have evidence and proofs
of reliability. Therefore, here I develop effective communication skill where collecting
actual data is as much as important as other aspects of communication skill. In case of
primary data which is collected first time, me and my team members involve in
communicating with various individuals face to face to collect information related to their
point of view on the topic importance and effective communication skill and the ways
they gained communication skill for them self in their life (Kwon, Kim and Jung, 2018).
Hence, when I interact with various individuals then I observe how they respond our
questions and how patiently they listen our questions. This make me learn that listening
patiently and responding to the same content is important to gain effective
communication skill.
 Sorting of data- After collecting data me and my team members starting sorting data and
eliminates those data which are not important. Hence, here I and my team members are
having effective conversations and discussions related to eliminating data. For example,
few of the group members thought of eliminating those data which are preferred as
important for other team members (Lee, Lee and Gu, 2020). Hence, here we have strong
conversation and I get to know that saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to any statement is not important
but justifying the statement is important. Hence, this helps me to learn new aspect of
communication skill which is essential in a student’s life.
Conclusion
From the above information it is concluded that communication is two ways process
where sender send message and receiver receives message through a medium. Communication
skill is important at higher education because this is the last stage where an individual can learn
the effective communication skill because after it they are going to start their professional life
where they have to communicate well with their colleagues to complete their task. It is also
concluded that listening patiently is also important in communication skill, providing evidence
and sharing actual facts and figures is also helpful in gaining effective communication skill.

References
Books and journals
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Scientists, 7(4), pp.799-814.
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374.
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Psychology.
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Yang, Y.K., 2018. Mediating effect of communication skill in the relationship between fatigue
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