The “Unplugged” Project

Courses: This assignment, with modifications, can be used in most Communication Studies courses along with other courses across disciplines

Goals/Objectivies: Students will (1) demonstrate an awareness of their digital media use, (2) identify how their digital media use affects their communication behaviors, and (3) identify how their digital media use affects other aspects of their lives     

When do Online Audiences Amplify Benefits of Self-Disclosure? The Role of Shared Experience and Anticipated Interactivity

ABSTRACT

As individuals increasingly write about their distressing experiences online, it is important to understand how perceived online audiences influence the effects of self-disclosure. In an experiment, participants wrote about recent breakups for online audiences purportedly varying in 1) whether they shared recent breakup experiences and 2) their ability to leave comments. Participants perceiving audiences with shared experience showed more cognitive processing in their writing and reported increased post-traumatic growth at follow-up than participants perceiving general audiences. Those anticipating comments wrote less about emotions than those who did not. Mechanisms accounting for the benefits of shared experience warrant further investigation.     

Blogging in the Communication Technology Course

Courses: Communication Technology or New Media; could also be used in Broadcast Journalism, Print Journalism, Public Relations, Advertising, or other communication courses

Objectives: By creating and maintaining a blog, students will improve their research and writing skills, participate in collaborative learning, and acquire the digital literacy skills necessary for success in rapidly changing media and communication industries     

Tweet for support,blog for peace

Courses: Intercultural Communication

Objectives: Students will achieve the following learning outcomes: (1) demonstrate knowledge of intercultural systems by identifying roots of intercultural communication conflict, (2) address intercultural problems by taking action within the context of their own lives, (3) collaborate with peers to problem solve based on voices from Twitter, assigned academic resources and intercultural competence theories in class, and (4) assemble and deliver their plan through a blog and 15-minute presentation.     

Focus on Ethics and Public Relations Practice in a University Classroom

Courses: Intermediate and advanced public relations courses. Can also be modified for graduate courses.

Objectives: The following objectives, based on Fink's (2005) recommendations for writing learning objectives, focus on what students should learn about ethics in the practice of public relations: ? Understand basic notions of the philosophical basis for ethical decision making.

? Relate their intuitive senses of ethics to ethical decision making in public relations.

? Understand the social implications of ethical public relations practice.

? Use the Public Relations Society of America's (PRSA) code of ethics on in-class case examples and for all subsequent case analyses for the semester.

? Value ethics as an important dimension of effectiveness and professionalism.

? See ways to build on ethical understanding now and in their careers.

     

Step by Step through the Scholarly Conversation: A Collaborative Library/Writing Faculty Project to Embed Information Literacy and Promote Critical Thinking in First Year Composition at Oregon State University

ABSTRACT

At Oregon State University, writing instructors and librarians collaboratively teach research writing and information literacy in first year composition courses. A four-week unit focuses on the connections between critical thinking, writing and learning, and information literacy. This article describes the process of developing, implementing, and refining this collaborative curriculum. By using assignments and texts that model a recursive critical research and writing process for students, librarians and writing instructors help students think more deeply and critically about their topics.     

Application of Instructional Design Principles in Developing an Online Information Literacy Curriculum

ABSTRACT

An online information literacy curriculum was developed as an intervention to engage students in independent study and self-assessment of their learning needs and learning outcomes, develop proficiency in information skills, and foster lifelong learning. This column demonstrates how instructional design principles were applied to create the learning experiences integrated into various courses of the medical curriculum to promote active learning of information skills and maximize self-directed learning outcomes for lifelong learning.     

A Down Under Reference Experience

Summary

In the summer of 1999, the author, a library science student pursuing his master's degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, travelled to Australia to do a field experience at the University of Sydney Law Library. This article talks about his experience, discussing, among other issues, his experiences behind the reference desk and difficulties in learning how to research Australian law.     

Puzzled by communication? Playing with puzzle pieces to promote teamwork and theory understanding

Play provides an opportunity for students to learn information and concepts in an active format while facilitating different ways of learning. This puzzle activity is designed to increase student engagement, leverage different learning styles, help students make connections in communication theories, and enhance memory of important communication concepts. As an active learning exercise, play requires students to coordinate behaviors and participate in the learning process differently than through traditional lecture formats. Considering the information on active learning strategies, this activity involves using puzzle pieces labeled with theory components to help students learn each theory term and better understand how the terms work together to form the theory.

Courses: This single-class activity is appropriate for courses across the communication curriculum and is particularly well suited for classes with multi-part concepts and/or theories, including communication theory, organizational communication, interpersonal communication, persuasion, conflict communication, and the public-speaking/basic course, among others.

Objective: As a result of participating in this single-class activity, students will demonstrate understanding of key theoretical terms/concepts and how those concepts work together to inform communication theory. Further, students will work together in teams to bring in outside examples of the theory in action and practice explaining the concepts to their classmates to enhance learning and long-term memory of class concepts.     

Student voices: Re-conceptualising and re-positioning Australian library and information science education for the twenty-first century

This paper reports on the preliminary research findings of the sub-study group of a larger undertaking, the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) priority project Re-conceptualising and Re-positioning Australian Library and Information Science Education for the Twenty-first Century. It examines student experiences of library and information science (LIS) education across both the tertiary and vocational education sectors in Australia. The student sub-study group’s task was to provide the student/recent graduate perspective on LIS education in Australia. The research considered four major themes to find out how students and recent graduates felt about LIS education in Australia. The themes were: learning opportunities; learner attributes; learning experiences; and learner outcomes. In the second half of 2010, self-administered anonymous web questionnaires and focus groups were used to explore issues such as student demographics, socio-economic backgrounds, past experiences, expectations and rationale behind course choices. In addition the destinations of graduates were explored. Key findings suggest there are various pathways that students take to achieve a LIS qualification in Australia; students are generally optimistic about the future of the LIS profession, and consider that technology will continue to play a key role in future career options; they stress the importance of practical workplace experiences as part of course structure; their satisfaction levels with current courses are high and students feel confident they have been provided with the skills required to begin their professional life.     

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     

On the Road,Playing with Legos®, and Learning about the Library: The Rutgers University Art Library Lego Playing Station,Part Two

ABSTRACT

In Playing with LEGO®, Learning about the Library, and “Making” Campus Connections: The Rutgers University Art Library Lego Playing Station, Part One, the author discusses the importance of outreach, creativity, and innovation to the future of academic libraries. Low-cost making activities, can encourage creative problem-solving skills and be an innovative way to teach students, faculty, and staff more about academic libraries. In this article, the author will look more closely at the hands-on learning experiences that resulted when academic library faculty and staff were introduced to the LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® methodology by means of a mobile makerspace.     

Secretly Recording the Police: The Confluence of Communication,Culture, and Technology in the Public Sphere

Courses: Human Communication and Culture; Communication Law; Argumentation and Debate; Intercultural Communication

Objectives: Students will understand the intricate and mutually influential relationship between communication, culture, and technology by role playing popular news stories about citizens who record public arrests. Through this structured role play, students improve their argumentation skills by learning to craft concise arguments in the face of opposition.     

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.     

Material-Mind-Method: On the Teaching of Reference beyond the Lecture: In-Class Hands-On Contact with Reference Sources

ABSTRACT

Reference librarians need to know how to use a vast array of reference sources. How do they acquire this knowledge? How can students arrive at their entry level positions with an arsenal of known sources and strategies for advancing this knowledge? Various strategies can be employed to provide students with options on how to launch their understanding for how and when to use specific sources. This column provides examples of how to incorporate active learning activities devoted to providing students in a group setting with options on how to begin and share their learning about reference sources.     

Revival of the Position Paper: Aligning Curricula and Professional Competencies

Those of us who teach technical and professional writing may read [findings on typical pedagogical effectiveness] and end up feeling that our efforts to simulate workplace writing and to teach workplace genres in our classrooms are at best unreliable and at worst futile. Blakeslee (2001), p. 170.

Courses: Writing for Public Relations, Business Communications; Marketing

Objective: Students will be able to identify audience issues, marshal evidence, garner support, and motivate adoption of a position via visual imagery and persuasive writing     

Using mindfulness to teach perception

Using the philosophy of mindfulness is an innovative way to teach about perception. By participating in a mindfulness awareness practice, engaging in an activity with all your senses and being in the moment without judgment, students learn about the concepts of perception and mindfulness; analyze their personal perception process before and after the activity; and reflect individually and in group discussion on how mindfulness can change the perception process.

Courses: Any course where perception and the perception process are taught including: Introduction to Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Intercultural Communication, and Health Communication.

Objectives: Students will (a) learn about the concepts of perception and mindfulness, (b) apply their knowledge by participating in a hands-on mindfulness awareness practice, (c) analyze their personal perception process before and after the activity, and (d) reflect individually and in group discussion on how mindfulness can change the perception process.     

Raising awareness of campus diversity and inclusion: Transformationally teaching diversity through narratives of campus experiences and simulated problem solving

ABSTRACT

Courses: Organizational Communication, Intercultural Communication

Objectives: This activity encourages students to learn collaboratively about diversity through the sharing of student experiences; deepen and complicate their understanding of organizational diversity; and enhance their ability to apply course material to increasingly complex organizational environments.     

Illuminating everyday performances of privilege and oppression

ABSTRACT

Courses: Intercultural Communication, Interracial Communication, Gender and Communication, Introduction to Communication Course (within a unit on culture), and any courses encouraging critical analyses of power.

Objectives: This activity will: illuminate the ways in which everyday performances of privilege and resulting oppressions connect with symbolic, individual, and institutional ideologies and actions; identify the ways in which individuals who are marginalized and oppressed may internalize and/or resist dominant ideologies and actions through such performances of privilege; recognize how individual biographies play into our everyday communication and performances with/of power; encourage intersectional analyses of identity, context, and performances of/with power; and develop communication tools for disrupting and speaking back to oppressive performances of privilege.