Courses: This unit activity is intended for public relations (PR), crisis communication, or journalism courses. Objectives: The purpose is to equip future PR professionals with critical thinking skills and experience to manage crises. Students demonstrate mastery in two ways: by crafting clear crisis response messages and materials in a narrow…

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Relational Communication Objective: This article teaches students to explain and evaluate Knapp's Relational Staircase Model through the creation of personalized greeting cards for each relational stage. The in-class activity encourages students to be creative and succinct in capturing the essence of an…

Course: Interpersonal Communication. Objective: This semester-long approach utilizes weekly podcasts to engage students in narrative learning. Students evaluate podcast narratives and apply interpersonal communication concepts and theories through structured and unstructured learning activities.

Courses: Basic communication course. Objectives: Using the Ally, Advocate, Activist framework in a basic communication course will help students apply course concepts to their lives and communities. This framework helps students practice civic engagement while mastering the skills that are typically tested for assessment purposes in the basic…

Negative self-talk and appraisals of self-efficacy can damage students' abilities to do well in college and lead to self-fulfilling prophesies where students fail to meet their academic and professional potentials. This multi-class activity uses appreciative coaching to help students utilize a positive mindset and achieve academic and professional…

Courses: Undergraduate or graduate organizational/crisis communication or public relations courses. Objective: The goal for this single class activity is for students to apply discourse of renewal to an organizational crisis fueled through social media.

Courses: Any introductory undergraduate public-speaking course, in particular in ESL/EFL contexts. Objectives: This single-class activity is intended to (1) build students' ability to communicate orally "off the cuff;" (2) foster students' understanding of the major organizational formats used in organizing speeches; and (3) increase…

Courses: This teaching unit is for intercultural communication but could be used for any course related to globalization, including public speaking, popular culture and communication, or environmental communication. Additionally, the teaching unit is well-suited for other disciplines, including geography, environmental studies, and global studies.…

Course: Civil discourse, argumentation, debate, persuasion, political communication. Objectives: This unit activity will help students build an understanding of civil discourse and its function in society. Students will: (1) increase their capacity to examine arguments critically, (2) enhance their own ability to self-reflect critically, and (3)…

Courses: Presentational courses such as Public Speaking, Interviewing, Business and Professional, Persuasion, Interpersonal; any course where civility may be promoted in the classroom. Objectives: At the end of this single-class activity, students will have an understanding of civility in order to: (1) identify civility and consequences of…

Courses: Research Methods (undergraduate or graduate level). Objective: The aim of this exercise is to optimize the ability for students to integrate an understanding of various methodologies across research paradigms within a 15-week semester, including a review of procedural steps and experiential learning activities to practice each method, a…

Courses: Small group communication or any courses with units on group/team work. Objective: In this single-class activity, students will use reality TV to identify Tuckman's five phases of group development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Students analyze how phases of group development manifest through group interaction…

Courses: Communication Theory, Organizational Communication, Strategic Communication. Objectives: Students will identify and categorize organizational discourses on their campuses; students will become aware of the ethical considerations of communication; students will recognize the different perceptions of organizational culture on campus.

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Family Communication, Relational Communication. Objectives: Students reflect on and discuss how personal objects are connected to their identity and relationships with others. This activity illustrates the ways course concepts such as relational metaphors, stories, rules, rituals, and other patterns of…

Courses: Communication Activism; Public Advocacy; Social Movements; Public Speaking; Persuasion; Argumentation; Public Sphere. Objectives: This semester-long activity helps students implement a solutions--strategies--tactics framework into their advocacy work. More specifically, students learn to (1) designate, research, and assess the causes of…