Course Descriptions - Communication Studies

This course provides instruction and practical experience in the basics of public speaking. This course has a performance component: students are expected to create and deliver informative, persuasive and other types of speeches.

This introductory course looks at communication in one-to-one relationships in friendships, families, the workplace, and elsewhere. Students will be challenged to discover and assess their own communication strengths and weaknesses as they define and discuss what it means to be a competent interpersonal communicator. Course content includes both theory and practice (skill development).

This course examines communication in small groups. Students will participate in and analyze how small groups function, how leadership roles evolve, how decisions are made and how conflicts can be resolved. Students will work in small groups, complete group projects, and analyze group interaction.

The influence of culture is an especially important and sensitive issue facing us today. A person's culture strongly influences his/her identity, beliefs, expectations, and communication style. This course explores communication across culture as defined by nationality, gender, and ethnicity while concentrating on effective use of communication in all of these areas.

This course will examine the development of the video game industry and research on social effects of video game play. Issues discussed include video game violence, effects of gender and cultural representation, visual messages in gaming, pro-social relationships, and emerging technologies in gaming.

This introductory course is intended to develop critical and analytical skills for understanding mass media; for recognizing messages, making deliberate choices about them, and evaluating the effects of these messages in both an individual and societal context. Students will examine the history, evolution, and societal impact of a wide variety of media, including print, film, and social media and will develop skills to make informed, ethical evaluations of the mediated messages they receive.

This introductory course is intended to develop critical and analytical skills for understanding human communication in the health care industry. Students will discuss and apply various communication strategies in a variety of contexts, including patient care, between healthcare professionals, and with a larger public in the form of healthcare advocacy campaigns. The impact of cultural diversity and ethics in decision-making will be examined in the context of healthcare professions.

This course is intended to develop critical and analytical skills for creating persuasive messages to audiences in formal, oppositional settings. Students will discuss and apply various communication strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of evidence, gain experience in a more formal debate setting, and evaluate and craft arguments ethically and responsibly. These assignments will prepare students for debate in a range of contexts, from interpersonal and small group settings to larger discussions of public and social policy in American culture. Prerequisite: COMM 1010

This course will provide flexibility in offering an in-depth review of topics of immediate importance and topical interest. These topics will go beyond the introductory courses in examining specific aspects of the subject matter.

This course examines the principles, evolution, practice, and ethics of strategic communication and public relations. Student will learn to analyze and critique different public relations and strategic communication campaigns across different contexts, cultures, and communities. Students will engage in the campaign creation process through research, message and narrative creation, and evaluation of strategic communication.

The communication capstone course is intended for students who want to engage in a professional application of communication skills gained from their prior coursework. This could range from social media internships, public speaking events, communication campaign work, or other projects within the scope of communication studies.Students must take one COMM course and have instructor permission.