Courses: This unit activity applies critical theories from the fields of communication, sociology, and gender studies and therefore can be used in any course that discusses gender studies, qualitative research, content analysis, media effects, film analysis, or LGBTQ studies. This can be modified as an activity for graduate or undergraduate…

Building on two common practices in higher education, the first-year seminar and service learning, this project uses a critical service-learning model guided by intersectional reflexivity to foster critical consciousness among first-year students. Working in small groups, students participate in a four-part critical service-learning project by…

This unit teaches students how to perform racial rhetorical criticism and positions them to engage in discussions of race through experiential learning, namely through exploring the links between rhetoric, public memory, and campus history projects. Courses: Rhetorical Criticism, Rhetorical Theory, Communication Theory. Objective: Students will…

Students' engagement in multimodal remediation of learning material in the form of slideshow presentations dominates universities. Yet, diversification of learning artifacts through the creation of more diverse types of multimodal content is scarce. The current article therefore proposes an innovative project during which students summarize…

This article offers an example of how to use embodied learning effectively in online education. The discussed assignment is designed for classes in rhetoric, visual communication, or public memory, and places pedagogical research in conversation with scholarship in visual, aesthetic, and rhetorical communication. This type of digital aesthetic…

Institutions are increasingly supplementing their traditional class formats with hybrid approaches that mix in-person, remote synchronous, and remote asynchronous delivery methods. Even when the student population expects and appreciates more flexibility in scheduling, students still struggle with technology-enhanced instruction when course design…

Undergraduate students entering the classroom are often expected to have the skills needed to find, utilize, and synthesize academic scholarship. Yet, few feel prepared to do so. The research methods classroom provides immense opportunities for developing a meaningful foundation for students to enhance information literacy such that they feel…

Courses: Theories of Organizational Communication; Communication Theory. Theories of Organizational Communication; Communication Theory. Objectives: The proposed activity utilizes a digitally interactive global positioning system--based augmented reality game to help students (a) gain a richer learning experience through immersion and engagement…

Public speaking creates discomfort for many students. Instead of seeking to avoid this inevitable discomfort, six speech-variation activities explained in this paper are intentionally designed for, a little bit at a time, embracing momentary discomfort in public speaking. By embracing the inevitable discomfort of public speaking head-on in a fun…

Courses: Health Communication, Public Communication Campaigns, Public Relations, Introduction to Communication. Objectives: By the end of this workshop, students will be able to: (1) understand how artificial intelligence--based large language learning models work and be able to explain core concepts such as word embeddings, neural networks, and…

The proliferation of deepfakes and visual misinformation coupled with the fast-paced nature of social media has prompted an increased need for media literacy skills among emerging citizens. The unit activity detailed in this article overviews a media literacy framework for engaged citizenship and presents media literacy strategies that emerging…

Communication is used to engage and involve students in addressing food deserts and developing sustainable solutions. This application-based activity allows students to explain the reality of food deserts, map the food deserts in an area of interest, develop an intervention, and present their communication intervention to a nonprofit interlocutor.…

This paper provides a theory-based introduction to instructional design that can be used in pedagogy seminars, training sessions, professional development events, colloquiums, and/or programmatic guidebooks. It includes a series of activities designed to assist instructors in the classes they teach. The exercises combine theory with practice to…

The curriculum review and transformation project reported in this paper represents an intentional and collaborative effort of faculty and administrators in one academic department to implement meaningful changes in undergraduate curricula. Supported by two internal grants from the university, this three-year project included all faculty and…

This activity introduces undergraduate students to the idea of metacommunication by means of a performance praxis assignment. Students will engage in a performance that enhances their communication skills and better understand how the frames of mimesis and poiesis are utilized to understand communication form and context. Courses: A single-class…