Duration
3 weeksWeekly study
4 hours
Communicating Complex Information: Presenting Your Ideas Clearly and Effectively
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Understand how to communicate complex information to lay audiences
In a time when experts are all too often ignored or misunderstood, communicating complex information accurately to inexperienced audiences is a prized skill. This course will help your develop this skill. You will learn specific strategies to get your ideas across in a more impactful way; discovering how to organise your messages, techniques for explaining abstract ideas, and how to use and create visuals to enhance understanding.
What topics will you cover?
- Three different explanation models: quasi-scientific, transformation and elucidating
- Barriers to effective explanations including myths
- The importance of audience analysis in effectively communicating complex ideas
- Using analogies to explain abstract ideas.
- Effective organization in oral presentations
- Infographics.
- Creating organisational structures.
- Producing charts which enhance audience understanding.
What will you achieve?
By the end of this course you will be able to:
- Use different methods to overcome the barriers that most audiences face when learning complex information
- Apply practices for organizing and explaining ideas orally
- Design presentation slides for improved audience understanding
- Communicate complex ideas or material to various audiences.
What topics will you cover?
Course Topics
- Three different explanation models: quasi-scientific, transformation and elucidating
- Barriers to effective explanations including myths
- The importance of audience analysis in effectively communicating complex ideas
- Using analogies to explain abstract ideas
- Effective organization in oral presentations
- Infographics
- Creating organisational structures
- Producing charts which enhance audience understanding
Learning on this course
On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Present complex ideas to non-expert audiences
- Apply practices for organizing and explaining ideas orally
- Design presentation slides for improved audience understanding
- Investigate different methods to overcome the barriers that most audiences face when learning complex information
Who is the course for?
This course is for anyone who has to explain new ideas to lay publics where there are vast differences between the speaker and their audience in their command of the content. It will be of particular use to teachers, scientists, communication experts, financial experts and medical experts.
What do people say about this course?
Who will you learn with?
Melanie Morgan is an associate professor of communication at Purdue. She teaches classes in science communication and quantitative research methods and is the author of Effective Presentations.
I am the assistant course director for Science Writing and Communication at Purdue and a PhD candidate in interpersonal communication. I research the "light side" of communication like humor and play.
Learning on FutureLearn
Your learning, your rules
- Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
- Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
- Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores
Join a global classroom
- Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
- Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
- Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others
Map your progress
- As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
- Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
- Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate
Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn
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You can use the hashtag #FLComplexInfo to talk about this course on social media.