Department of Communication Studies

Course Listing

The online courses offered by the Department of Communication Studies may be partially or completely online. Courses partially online may have some face-to-face class meetings. You should check with the instructor or read the course information below to find out when and how many face-to-face meetings are required. Courses completely online require no formal face-to-face meetings but may require some face-to-face student group work. Certificate courses are taught completely online. 

Courses with an asterisk * are taught partially online. Click here for PDF

*R110. Fundamentals of Speech Communication - This course is the online version of the general education requirement for the University. There are three required face-to-face meetings and two other occasions when students may have to come to campus to complete the required work. Five speeches and associated paperwork are required. It is textbook driven. More writing and homework assignments are embedded in this version of R110, and is offered by permission only. Jennifer Cochrane, Instructor: contact

Courses designated with an asterisk * are taught completely online.

* C108. Listening - Dr. Beth Goering, Instructor: contact

 * C180. Interpersonal Communication - You cannot not communicate. Everything you say and do sends a message. In C180 Online, Introduction to Interpersonal Communication, we will examine the ways in which our communication behaviors shape our relationships. Each week, you will complete readings and assignments with two goals. First, you'll examine theories and concepts to help you understand why and how we communicate. Secondly, you'll participate in discussion forums, group activities, and reflection exercises to experience those theories in action. The course covers a variety of topics including self-disclosure, symbolic interaction, and the perception process. In particular, this section of the course will include special coverage of interpersonal communication in an online and electronic environment. Our ultimate goal is to help you become a more effective communicator. Krista Longtin, instructor: contact

* M150. Media and Society - A critical overview of the role of electronic mass media in contemporary society. Provides an introduction to such issues as industry structure, organization, and economics; regulation, public interest, and media ethics; impact of programming on individuals; media construction of social institutions; media issues in the global village. Dr. Kristine Karnick, instructor: contact

* C223. Business and Professional Communication - This is a 3-credit course designed to introduce students to the study of communication within business and professional organizations. The focus of this course is on preparation for communication events including interviews, speeches, and oral reports appropriate to business and professional organizations. Students will also engage in online group discussions using synchronous and asynchronous methods.  This is an intermediate level course.

* C228. Discussion and Group Methods - Working in groups or committees has gained a less than favorable reputation, a reality that is captured by the following quotation from the preface of your textbook: "On judgment day, the Lord will divide people by telling those on His right hand to enter the kingdom and those on His left to break into small groups." And yet, small groups are an unavoidable part of our work and social lives, and the ability to communicate effectively in small groups consistently has been identified as a key factor in predicting an individual's "success." This course is designed to help you improve your skills as a communicator in small groups. However, because I believe that skill can only truly be enhanced when practice is informed by theory, this course will also provide you with a solid theoretical understanding of how groups function. The online course focuses particularly on the ways in which groups communicate within the context of emerging communication technologies. Dr. Beth Goering, instructor: contact

* C395. Gender and Communication - Gender and communication is a course in which you will examine the meaning of gender in our culture and its interaction with the relationship to communication. Gender includes not just femininity, feminism, or "women's issues," but men and masculinity. In addition, gender is something perceived as a barrier to effective communication between women and men. We will consider questions such as: What is gender? How do people become gendered? How do individuals express their gender in both fact-to-face and online contexts? What are some of the cultural and political implications of our current gender systems? We'll explore multiple ways communication in families relationships, schools, the workplace, religious institutions, politics, organizations, and society in general create and perpetuate gender roles, considering how gender is displayed and maintained through our verbal, nonverbal, and online interactions. We'll consider how we enact socially created gender differences in public and private settings and how this affects success, satisfaction, and self-esteem. Finally, we will explore gender and the media, focusing on questions such as: How do media influence our experiences of gender? How have feminisms(s) and men's movements affected representations of women and men on television and in advertisements? Perhaps most importantly, we'll connect theory and research to our personal lives. Your experiences, insights, questions, and ideas are a key part of this course. Dr. Kristy Sheeler, Instructor: contact

* M215. Media Literacy - Dr. Kristine Karnick, Instructor: contact

* R321. Persuasion - The study of persuasion is one of the oldest sub-areas in communication; it has been a mainstay in fields such as social psychology, advertising and marketing (product promotion and consumer behavior), political science (voter studies, political socialization, propaganda), and many more. This diversity of interest in persuasion signifies the pervasiveness, importance, and complexity of persuasive phenomena. R321 is concerned with persuasion in its broadest sense, how it affects our lives everyday and how we can find evidence of persuasive tactics in unexpected places. Students are given the opportunity to examine and apply persuasion variables in contexts such as campaigns, social movements, news, music and advertising. Because persuasion occurs in so many places that we will not limit its study to public speeches. Students will have the opportunity to explore persuasion in its fullest sense, as it influences human behavior. Students will have the opportunity to critically and carefully evaluate persuasive messages and understand the basis of their appeals. The most important thing is that students will have the opportunity to become more critical consumers and effective, ethical producers of communication in its oral, written, and mediated forms. Dr. Kristy Sheeler, instructor: contact

* R310. Rhetoric, Society and Culture (formerly Rhetoric and Public Address) - This is a course about ideas-the history of ideas about rhetoric, the study of persuasion in public forums. In this course, you will be asked to examine ideas from some of the greatest thinkers in Western culture and to analyze, comment on, and apply those ideas to contemporary American society using the online discussion forum tool and a writing portfolio. Since the time of Aristotle in the 5th century B. C. E., rhetoric has been a concern of scholars and lay people alike. In contemporary society, persuasion plays a critical role in everything from making career choices, to selecting the softest bathroom tissue brand. Every day we are bombarded with persuasive messages from friends, family members, professors, bosses, journalists, musicians, and political and religious leaders. Many communication scholars suggest that all communication is some form of persuasion and that all rhetoric, therefore, is a form of public persuasion. Despite the prevalence and significance of persuasion in both our personal and professional lives, many people know little about the persuasion process. It is the goal of this course to explore the persuasion process by examining the historical development of rhetorical theory and practice in the Western world, and by studying and applying rhetorical concepts in contemporary culture to our everyday lives. Dr. Catherine Dobris, instructor: contact

* R350. Feminist Rhetoric - In this course, students will examine the ideological development of American feminist rhetoric within the historical context of the last three centuries. Focusing on public address from the sixteenth century to the present, this course will begin with an examination of speeches by well known, so-called "Great Women." A second major thrust of the course will include the examination of non-traditional rhetorical forms of so-called "ordinary women," including costume design, architecture, diaries, fiction, photography, reading groups, and other kinds of women's communication that, until recently, were not generally considered under the rubic of "public address." In the last third of the course, the intersections between and among race, class, ethnicity, sexual preference and gender, will serve to shape and illuminate discussions of women's issues. Dr. Catherine Dobris, instructor: contact

* C380. Organizational Communication - Organizations are an unavoidable part of the human experience. We work in, are educated in, are governed by, and often socialize in organizations. Just take a minute to think of all the organizations with which and in which you interact on a regular basis. The number you are able to generate in just a few minutes may surprise you. This class will focus on the communication processes that constitute and characterize human organizations. This course explores communication designs, superior/subordinate communication, conflict, information management, networks; communication relative to employee motivation, satisfaction, productivity and effectiveness. It is my hope that as you develop an understanding of organizational communication, you will simultaneously develop competencies that will be useful to you as you interact with and in the organizations that are part of your life. Dr. Kim White-Mills, instructor: contact

* C394. Communication and Conflict - This course analyzes conflict as a unique type of communication between two or more people. Both face-to-face and computer mediated means of working through conflict are examined in a variety of contexts including relational, marital, work groups, and organizations. Topics include different perspectives and approaches to the study of conflict, power, face-saving, climate, and mediation. Dr. Ron Sandwina, instructor: contact

 * C482. Intercultural Communication - We live in an age where technological, political, and economic factors have come together to create a world in which people from different cultures interact with one another on a regular basis. To function in this ever-changing world, we each need to develop the ability to communicate effectively with people whose beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors are totally different from ours. In this course, we will explore the relationship between communication and culture. Specifically, we will examine three aspects of this relationship: 1) We will explore the ways in which one culture's perceptions of another are shaped through interaction, 2) we will discover the ways in which "culture" is created through communication, and 3) we will discuss the ways in which culture constrains or shapes communication processes generally and in specific contexts, including educational, business, and health care. In the online course, particular attention is paid to the ways in which intercultural communication in each of these contexts is affected by emerging communication technologies. Dr. Beth Goering, instructor: contact

*C316. Human Communication and the Internet - This is a 3-credit core required course for the online certificate in Communication Studies. It is designed to enable students to learn about the advantages and disadvantages of communicating in mediated environments as they learn in that environment. The goal of the course is to pull together the skills, theories, and ideas experienced during the certificate courses to help students become more competent in choosing and using appropriate communication strategies for specific messages and situations. This course is also open to non-certificate students who have taken R110, C180, M150, or any basic communication course. The assignments in this class range from intermediate to advanced. HUMAN COMMUNICATION IN A MEDIATED WORLD - Jennifer Cochrane, instructor: contact