Evaluating Strategic Communication Plans

Learning outcomes:
LO3: Evaluate strategic communication plans and provide feedback that improves their effectiveness.
LO4: Present a final strategic communication plan that has implemented feedback to more effectively advance strategic objectives.

Name:

1. Instructions and guidelines (Read carefully)

Instructions

1.    Insert your name and surname in the space provided above, as well as in the file name. Save the file as: First name Surname M8 U3 Ongoing project – e.g., Lilly Smith M8 U3 Ongoing project. NB: Please ensure that you use the name that appears in your student profile on the Online Campus.

2.    Write all your answers in this document. There is an instruction that says, “Start writing here” under each question. Please type your answer there.

3.    Submit your assignment in Microsoft Word only. No other file types will be accepted.

4.    Do not delete the plagiarism declaration or the assignment instructions and guidelines. They must remain in your assignment when you submit.

PLEASE NOTE: Plagiarism cases will be investigated in line with the Terms and Conditions for Students.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please ensure that you have checked your course calendar for the due date for this assignment.

Guidelines

1.    There are 11 pages and 2 questions in this assignment.

2.    Make sure that you have carefully read and fully understood the questions before answering them. Answer the questions fully but concisely, and as directly as possible. Follow all specific instructions for individual questions (e.g., “list,” “in point form”).

3.    Answer all questions in your own words. Do not copy any text from the notes, readings or other sources. The assignment must be your own work only.

Mark allocation

Each question receives a mark allocation. However, you will only receive a final percentage mark and will not be given individual marks for each question. The mark allocation is there to show you the weighting and length of each question.

Adherence to instructions                                                                    8

Question 1                                                                                           16

Question 2                                                                                           24           

TOTAL                                                                                                48           

Questions

The focus of this ongoing project is your final communication plan. Your communication plan will consist of two components:

1. A written report that describes your communication plan and the strategic thinking underpinning its various elements.
2. A video submission, where you deliver a presentation for your audience as described in your communication plan.

Format:

For your written report, you are required to submit your response in the form of a cohesive memo. This means that the tone and structure of your response should be as though it were intended for a colleague to read and comprehend. However, please take note that your reader should require no extra information outside of this memo to understand your intended meaning.

You may make use of a memo writing guide if you require it. However, remember that effective memo writing does not mean you must only make use of one specific format; the greater priority is to ensure that meaning is communicated clearly and concisely.

Most memo writing guides recommend the inclusion of personal details. However, in this course, you will not be required to include personal information in your memo. For your video submission, you will be uploading your video online and providing a link in this document. More details on how to submit your video will follow the instructions for Question 2.

Question 1

For this question, you must compile your final communication plan. This plan must include specific information that can be structured in any order you want. What you need to demonstrate throughout your entire written plan is how and why you have selected each element strategically.

If you completed the journal component earlier in this module, you are welcome to incorporate that information here (where relevant). However, you are also encouraged to review your plan and refine it where necessary. If you received feedback on any of your strategies in either of the discussion forums in this module, you should also briefly indicate here (where relevant) how you used that feedback to improve your final plan. You are also encouraged to refer to your ongoing project submissions from earlier modules, as some of your responses will be relevant to this project.

Your plan must describe and explain the following information:

• Your goal
  • What goal(s) do you want to achieve by implementing your strategic communication plan?
  • When and how will you know if your goal has been reached?
  • How will presenting your plan help advance or achieve your goals? Will your single presentation lead to you achieving your goals, or is this presentation only one necessary step toward implementing a larger strategy?
• Your audience and stakeholders
  • Which audience can help you advance or achieve your plan?
  • What do you want the outcome of your presentation to be? What do you want your audience to do afterwards?
  • Why is it valuable for you to persuade your audience to act as you propose?
  • Which stakeholders can help you persuade your audience? How can they help you? How do you get these stakeholders on your side?
• Your persuasive strategies
  • How would you strategically persuade your audience to act as you want it to?
  • How do the visual and verbal elements of your presentation help to persuade your audience?
  • How could any documents distributed before, during or after your presentation help to support or enhance your presentation? (Max. 800 words)

Question 2

For this question, you will need to submit a video of yourself delivering the presentation described in your communication plan. You will need to appear on camera so that your Learning Facilitator may see you delivering your presentation. You may submit your video by uploading it to YouTube and pasting the link in the space provided below. Your video should be between two and seven minutes long.

If you do not have access to YouTube in your region, you may make use of an alternative video hosting site, as long as you are able to provide a link that your Learning Facilitator can view your video with. For example, you may decide to use Screencastify, which you can either share via YouTube or an MP4 file.

In your video recording, you should deliver a pitch or presentation to your audience that is essential to the success of your communication plan. This presentation is your opportunity to persuade your audience, in a face-to-face context, how your goals will be achieved or advanced. Because you will not have an actual audience present that can respond in real time, you need to speak directly to your audience as though it is waiting for you to finish your entire presentation before it responds.

Ensure that you have explained in Question 1 precisely why you chose to speak or present in this manner, elaborating on word choice or style where appropriate. In your video, you are welcome to include any visual communication elements that you may want as part of your presentation, as long as you have explained why you have chosen to include them.

Your Learning Facilitator grading this video primarily needs to see that you have strategically considered every aspect of your presentation, and have only included something if it serves a definite purpose.Keeping in mind the time constraints of your video, it is best to focus your presentation on how you will achieve, or advance, your goals.

Instructions for recording and uploading your video

1. Record your video

You can use the built-in webcam software on your PC, laptop or tablet to record a video. Alternatively, you can use the camera on your mobile phone to record yourself. You may also ask someone to help record you, as long as those people cannot be heard or seen in the final video. Ensure that the lighting in your recording room is sufficient, so that you can be seen clearly in the video.

Please ensure that the size of your video recording does not exceed 5GB.

The following links provide technical guidance on how to record a video:

1. Windows
2. MAC OS
3. An iOS mobile device
4. An Android mobile device

2. Upload your video to YouTube

Once you have recorded your video, please upload it as a YouTube video by following the instructions below:

1. Sign in to YouTube.
2. Click on the video upload button at the top of the page and select “Upload video.”
3. Before you start your upload, choose your privacy settings:
   1. Sign in to YouTube Studio beta and select “Videos” from the left menu.
   1. Hover over the video you want to update and select the “Live” tab to see your live uploads.
   1. Click on the pencil icon under “Visibility” and choose “Public” or “Unlisted.”
4. Select the video you would like to upload from your computer or import it from Google Photos.
5. If you chose to make your video public, click “Publish” to finish your upload. For an unlisted video, click “Done” to finish the upload, and “Share” to share your video as unlisted. Copy and paste the link to your video into the space provided under Question 2 in this document.
   1. Before submitting the link to the final version of your video, you may test if anyone with the link can access it as needed. You can do so by asking a trusted stakeholder to test your link, or by opening the link yourself in a different web browser from the one you created it in.

3. Upload your video to Screencastify

If you cannot access YouTube, an alternative option is to make use of Screencastify. You can upload a video to Screencastify by following the instructions below:

1. Open your Google Chrome web browser.
2. Open Screencastify’s browser extension page.
3. Click the button labelled “Add to Chrome.”
4. Once installation has completed, click on the Screencastify extension icon in the top right of your browser page, immediately next to your Google profile icon.
5. Follow the on-screen instructions to activate your account.
6. To begin recording your video, click the Screencastify extension icon again.
7. Choose what you want to record: your browser tab, entire desktop or webcam.
8. To narrate over your recording using an internal or external microphone, turn on the toggle next to Microphone.
9. To capture the audio originating from within your browser tab or application, such as from a video being played, click “Show more options” and turn on Tab Audio or System Audio.
10. Turn on the toggle next to Embed Webcam if you want to include your webcam as part of your recording.
11. Click RECORD. You will see and hear a countdown, and then your recording will begin.
12. When you have finished recording your video, click on the Screencastify extension icon again, and select “Stop”.
13. You will be taken to a screen where your recording will be shown to you, and where you may edit it if you wish.
14. Once you are ready to share your final recording, click the “Copy shareable link” button on the right of your video-editing screen.
15. Paste that shareable link in the space provided in this document.