Proverb Activity: Understanding How Perception and Gender Stereotypes are Formed

Objectives: Students will understand perception and apply step-by-step skills in a personally relevant way by rethinking taken-for-granted proverbs related to gender stereotypes

Courses: Gender and Communication, Intercultural Communication, Interpersonal Communication     

How it's Done: Using Hitch as a Guide to Uncertainty Reduction Theory

Courses: Communication Theory, Interpersonal Communication, Introduction to Human Communication

Objective: Students will apply Uncertainty Reduction Theory to initial relationship development in the film Hitch     

Clothes Make the Person? Performing Gender Through Fashion

Objectives: Students will: (1) think critically about how they perform gender through clothing choices and (2) recognize how different cultures define masculinity and femininity

Courses: Communication Theory, Gender and Communication, Popular Communication, Rhetorical Theory, Visual Rhetoric     

Gender,Games, and Toys: Role Communication and Socialization through Play

Courses: Introduction to Communication, Gender and Communication, Rhetoric and Criticism, Intercultural Communication, Organizational Communication

Objectives: Students will develop a basic understanding of how femininity and masculinity are distinct, constructed, and culturally enforced. Students will investigate how gender roles are reinforced by children's games and toys.     

The Interpersonal Development Project: Bridging Theory and Practice in Interpersonal Communication Courses

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Communication and Conflict

Objectives: Students will develop theoretical knowledge of specific student-selected interpersonal communication theories and concepts. Students will apply theoretical knowledge to their own communication practices and track improvement over time.     

Children's Literature in the Undergraduate Course on Communication Research Methods

Objective: Students will develop positive attitudes toward communication research by linking new values and principles with the familiar values and principles contained in children's literature

Course: Communication Research Methods

Objective: Students will develop positive attitudes toward communication research by linking new values and principles with the familiar values and principles contained in children's literature     

Teaching technological determinism and social construction of technology using everyday objects

Courses: Communication Technology, Communication Theory, History of Communication, Media and Society.

Objectives: Students will develop an understanding of the two principal theories of technology and culture: technological determinism and the social construction of technology.     

Picture This: Exploring Nonverbal Communication Through Self-Portraiture

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Nonverbal Communication, Basic Course, Business and Professional Speaking, Group Communication, Organizational Communication

Objectives: Students will understand the relationship between nonverbal behaviors and perception formation in the communication process. Students will synthesize communication information while working in varying contexts ranging from individual to class settings.     

Reframing Michael Scott: Exploring Inappropriate Workplace Communication

Courses: Public Speaking, Small Group Communication, Intercultural Communication, Organizational Communication

Objectives: Students will understand the importance of framing communication appropriately in professional settings. Students will practice expressing themselves in appropriate ways.     

Teaching Citizenship: Student-led Documentary Film Projects in the Communication Classroom

Courses: Communication and civic participation course; rhetorical theory, political communication, leadership

Objective: Students will explore citizenship through role models and story-telling     

Media Monopoly: Understanding Vertical and Horizontal Integration

Objectives: Students will understand the implications of media conglomeration. Students will also realize how difficult it is for independent media outlets to communicate as efficiently and broadly as large media conglomerates.

Courses: Mass Communication Theory, Mass Communication & Social Issues, Media Effects, Advertising, Public Relations, Media Literacy     

Improving Students' Understanding of,and Ability to Identify Independent and Dependent Variables

Objectives: Students will critically and analytically evaluate widely recognized (and often inaccurate) narratives. Students will also recognize the importance of evaluating supporting evidence.

Courses: Public Speaking, Persuasion and Social Influence, Argumentation, Communication Technologies     

Using Students' Prior Knowledge to Teach Social Penetration Theory

Courses: Introduction to Human Communication, Communication Theory, Relational Communication, Interpersonal Communication

Objective: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the premises of social penetration theory based on prior knowledge as a starting point     

Why “Video Killed the Radio Star”: Teaching “The Medium is the Message”

Courses: Introduction to Communication, Persuasion, Communication Theory

Objective: Students will demonstrate understanding of Marshall McLuhan's aphorism “The Medium is the Message”     

Electronic Portfolios: A Demonstration of Multi-level Communication Skills and Professional Accomplishments

Courses: Business and Professional Communication; Organizational Communication; any capstone or service-learning course

Objectives: Students will demonstrate their communication abilities and skills to future employers and to graduate school programs by creating an electronic portfolio and will learn how to present their work to an audience while reflecting on course concepts     

Using Word Clouds to Teach About Speaking Style

Courses: Hybrid/Introduction to Communication, Public Speaking, Advanced Public Speaking (online and face-to-face)

Objectives: Students will understand the importance of repetition, style and focus in speeches. Students will evaluate the effectiveness of their language use by creating and reviewing word clouds     

Metaphorically Examining Organizational Communication: A Student's Perspective

Courses: Organizational Communication (assignment can be adapted easily for other theory courses, such as Interpersonal Communication, Rhetorical Theory, Communication Theory, or Persuasion)

Objectives: Students who successfully complete this assignment will be able to analyze critically and describe creatively an organizational concept or theory.     

Staging scenes of co-cultural communication: Acting out aspects of marginalized and dominant identities

ABSTRACT

Courses: Intercultural Communication, Interracial Communication, or an Interpersonal Communication class that covers co-cultural theory.

Objectives: Students will be able to demonstrate a practical application of co-cultural theory by creating scenes that illustrate different communicative approaches and desired outcomes based on communication between marginalized and dominant group identities. In this experience, students will reflect on their own marginalized and dominant identities and consider ways in which they experience privilege and disadvantage based on these identities.     

Using Barbie Stories To Develop An Understanding of Polysemy and Encoding/Decoding

Courses: Media Studies, Gender and Communication, Communication Research Methodologies

Objectives: Students will develop a complex understanding of the critical/cultural media studies concepts of “polysemy” and “encoding/decoding” used in audience research and apply their knowledge of these theories in writing.     

Exploring Cultural Identities: Renewing the Family Interview Assignment

Objectives: Through an examination of their cultural and familial histories, students will develop an awareness of how they are situated within the socio-cultural landscape of the US and the global village. Students will identify how family histories assist in their construction of cultural identities.

Courses: Intercultural Communication and Family Communication