Communication Specialist Track, Professional Communication BA

A student completing this course understands the process of finding, synthesizing, evaluating, and documenting sufficient and reliable information appropriate to a variety of purposes including upper division coursework, senior capstone papers or professional writing, and communication tasks. Students also explore a number of the contemporary issues surrounding information in society, have opportunities to use and/or visit primary resource collections and learn a variety of research techniques. Specific sections of the course will structure assignments around a course theme identified in the class schedule. Prior themes have included Civil Rights, Holocaust and Genocide, Crime and Punishment, Food, Immigration, and Health Care. Both themed and non-themed sections are offered every semester as are online and in-class sections.

Full course description for Searching for Information

Intercultural Communication has a global perspective and engages students in reflectively thinking about the growing interdependence of nations and peoples. Students develop their ability to apply a comparative perspective to cross-cultural communication episodes in interpersonal interactions. Students research topics of interest that compare two or more cultures in some aspect of their social, economic, or political values and practices. Through field experiences, in class exercises, and readings, students learn the dynamics and skills needed to engage in respectful and sensitive communication with others whose beliefs, values, and attitudes are different than their own.

Full course description for Intermediate Intercultural Communication

This course examines communication patterns and systems functioning in modern organizations in sectors such as government, nonprofit and corporate. Course simulations and topics include analysis of organizational communication models, formal and informal communication networks, external and internal communication channels, the changing shape of future organizations, mentoring, ethics, diversity, technologies, and the purpose of communication research.

Full course description for Organizational Communication

This course is designed to provide an understanding of the health care industry and the theory and practice of face to face and mediated forms of communication by health care administrators, managers, providers, and patients. Students will analyze both common and best practices in health care campaigns, training, public relations, patient satisfaction, patient advocacy, administration, media covering health issues, and public education. Significant focus is given to issues of race and racism, and how social constructions of race and racism affect perspectives and create disparities in health care access, communication, and outcomes experienced by different populations.

Full course description for Health Communication

This course is for people who want to understand how public relations establishes relationships with various stakeholders through communication. It outlines elements of the public relations process: research and planning, setting objectives, developing strategies, implementing programs and evaluating results. Overlap: COMM 381T Public Relations Theory Seminar.

Full course description for Public Relations Principles

The advanced study of organizational communication concentrates on current communication topics within organizations such as interaction within a diverse workforce, changing an organizational culture, initiating technology change, ethics and research. Students craft communication solutions and recommendations for specific organizational improvements. Students complete case studies, community-based projects, and final major research projects.

Full course description for Advanced Organizational Communication

This course focuses on designing, implementing, and evaluating communication campaigns designed to impact the beliefs and behaviors of people with the goal of improving health outcomes. In order to prepare Health Communication professions for work on health campaigns, the course will address identifying critical health concerns, exploring the populations and sub-populations affected, determining beliefs and/or behaviors to strategically target, developing persuasive messages, selecting specific media, and evaluating the effectiveness of the health communication campaign. Different persuasion theories and approaches will be explored, and logic models will be developed for campaigns.

Full course description for Advanced Health Communication: Campaigns

This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to effectively promote and advocate for events, organizations, or issues using a variety of social media and multi-media. Students will combine online writing (or blogging) with other forms of social networking and media (wikis, YouTube, Facebook, and/or Twitter) to build a comprehensive online initiative promoting a timely and relevant issue or event either of their choosing or provided by the instructor. Students will increase their knowledge of online rhetoric, audience research, planning for media events, script or treatment writing, and evaluation of communication programs.

Full course description for Communicating with New Media

Internships offer students opportunities to gain deeper knowledge and skills in their chosen field. Students are responsible for locating their own internship. Metro faculty members serve as liaisons to the internship sites¿ supervisors and as evaluators to monitor student work and give academic credit for learning. Students are eligible to earn 1 credit for every 40 hours of work completed at their internship site.

Full course description for Communication Individual Internship

This course is designed to introduce students to their First Amendment rights to freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom to petition. It will also explore citizens' corresponding responsibilities and our frequent disagreements over these rights and responsibilities. Through course assignments students will develop a greater capacity to engage in civic activities by understanding the First Amendment, being able to more fully articulate their personal view of their First Amendment rights and responsibilities, refining their research and analysis skills, and developing their expertise in oral argumentation.

Full course description for Individual Rights and Public Discourse

This course is designed to develop skills in perceiving and responding to others as whole persons. Particular attention is paid to working with individual in health care and human service settings. The course is organized into five major units: 1) Groundwork for helping relationships; 2) Basic skills; 3) Understanding the client¿s current situation and concerns; 4) Assisting the client in identifying and committing to a desired change; and 5) Facilitating the development of action strategies to move forward. The focus within each of the units will be on mastering the communication skills that contribute to the greatest likelihood of success with clients in the helping professions.

Full course description for Interpersonal Communication for the Helping Professions

This course focuses on both theoretical and practice aspects of negotiation and mediation which are applicable to both professional and personal situations. Using lecture, role play, individual and group exercises, students gain the knowledge and skills necessary to be effective negotiators and mediators. Focus will include conflict resolution styles, verbal and nonverbal communication, attentive listening skills, perception, persuasion, ethics, agreement building and power. Special emphasis will be placed on mediation as a facilitated negotiation process. This course meets all Minnesota Supreme Court requirements for certification under Rule 114 of the Minnesota General Rules of Practice. Students who complete this course will be eligible for placement on the state mediation roster as a qualified neutral.

Full course description for Negotiation And Mediation Skills

This course covers theory and practice of communication in small task-oriented groups. Communication topics include team management, models of group problem solving and decision making, leadership, building cohesiveness, resolving conflict, managing diverse views, negotiating roles, and norms. Students learn to interact productively in small task groups as members and leaders. Numerous group activities, group assignments and laboratory work require an extended class time and group meetings outside of class. Overlap: COMM 351T Communication in Work Groups Theory Seminar.

Full course description for Communication in Work Groups

One strategic approach for public relations practitioners is to establish relationships with key stakeholders using mass communication media. Through course projects, students explore, as well as, building partnerships with members of these media organizations with the range of media outlets available. Students also explore preparing members of these organizations to serve as media spokespersons.

Full course description for Media Relations

This capstone course is designed for majors on the health communication track. Students will learn to apply an equity lens to multiple facets of health communication including: how race, culture, and bias play a role in patient-provider communication, health communication campaigns, and mediated representations of health issues in the U.S. context. Students will learn about the historical sources and causes of health disparities as well as learn ways to improve health disparities across these areas. Students will also be exposed to a community engagement component, and will be exposed to health disparities researchers and organizations.

Full course description for Health Communication Capstone: Communication for Health Equity

Designed as an introduction to visual literacy, this course surveys many of the media formats that define today's image-dominant culture. Various examples of print advertising, photography, film, television and multimedia are explored; the focus is equally on principles and concepts from both the fine and applied arts, and draws from history as well as the present day.

Full course description for Visual Communication

Digital storytelling is a growing area of multimodal communication that is part of a larger movement to empower communities and voices through the use of digital tools and platforms. Digital stories are short videos that combine narration, images (still and moving), sound effects, and music to tell a compelling story. Students will create two digital stories: a personal story and a story that promotes a cause or organization (e.g., a Kickstarter-style video). The process will include multiple rough cuts and a final version of each video, as well as extensive instructor and peer feedback.

Full course description for Digital Storytelling

This course explores radio/audio and you learn about podcast creation, international radio programs for development and digital storytelling. Students learn the craft of writing for the ear which can be translated to professional work in broadcast media, advertising, speechwriting or work as an independent artist. Through work as writers, directors and voice talent, students produce projects that range from short dialogue pieces and storytelling to news documentaries, podcast and radio plays.

Full course description for Podcasting: Writing and Producing for Audio/Radio

This course focuses on the multidisciplinary field of environmental communication and helps students understand the ways in which environmental issues and conflicts develop, the values underlying the ideologies on these issues, the ways in which these values are presented, and the variety of scientific and technical communication genres involved in understanding environmental communication messages. Significant focus is given to issues of race and racism.

Full course description for Environmental Communication