Courses: Rhetorical Criticism, Contemporary Rhetoric, Argumentation, Persuasion, Communication Theory. Objectives: Students will (1) learn the basics of the narrative rationality as a mode of judging rhetoric, and (2) observe the ways in which humans use narrative fidelity and narrative probability to judge stories.

Originally developed in the field of design, design thinking is widely used as a pedagogical tool to help non-designer students cultivate creative thinking and problem-solving skills. Despite its positive effects on student learning via increased motivation, openness to new ideas, and creative thinking, the understanding of design thinking is…

Courses: Rhetorical Criticism, Communication Theory, Media Criticism. Objectives: This activity uses a diagram to help students visualize Kenneth Burke's theory of dramatism. Specifically, through an analysis of the film Hell or High Water, students learn to identify each stage of the guilt-purification-redemption cycle and gain insight into its…

Rubrics are a commonly used tool to evaluate student work in the introductory communication course. Although rubrics may appear objective, they are continually interpreted by both instructors and students, often reflecting traditional classroom power dynamics. In order to understand how rubrics constrain as well as expand opportunities for the…

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic brings both challenges and opportunities to crisis communication education. This article reports on student perceptions of an upper-level undergraduate course on risk and crisis communication that was taught in the fall 2020 semester. The course syllabus was redesigned to assist students in better understanding…

Students will participate in a "think-pair-share" activity where they will be challenged to demonstrate and recognize nonverbal communication cues that convey emotion. Students will work individually, with a partner, and with the instructor to understand the importance of nonverbal communicative cues and the effect of the nonverbal cues…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for a full academic year, Zoom rooms became classrooms for synchronous online learning at schools and universities across the world. This shift in learning space required instructors to adopt new patterns of instructional communication. Grounded in research in instructional proxemics and learning spaces, this study…

Jada Pinkett-Smith, Willow, and Gammy are hosts of the internationally renowned "Red Table Talk," where family members and A-List celebrities join the Facebook Live streamed conversation about personal and controversial issues. This proposed activity builds upon black feminist thought and utilizes the format of the "Red Table…

Courses: Intercultural Communication, Interracial Communication, Gender Communication, Interpersonal Communication. Objectives: Students will: (1) identify how positionalities shape perception; and (2) practice reflexive writing to understand and analyze experiences related to privilege and oppression.

Courses: Digital Media, Survey of Social Media, Professional Communication Skills, Interviewing, and Mediated Communication. Objectives: The goals of this classroom activity are for students to understand strategic communication for self-promotion on social media platforms, especially Twitter, and to utilize them effectively for job applications.

Courses: Rhetorical criticism, public address, persuasion, public memory theory, argumentation. Objectives: Through analysis of public controversies about Confederate monuments on college campuses, students will: (1) explore the concept of "public memory," how groups of people form shared interpretations of the past; (2) examine how…

This paper outlines a unit-long or semester-long project that aims to build students competencies in interpersonal, international, intercultural, and language-learning proficiencies, mediated through the use of technology. The project is considered a Collaborative Online International Learning or COIL project, and offers detailed instructions on…

Courses: Interpersonal Communication, Communication Theory. Objectives: Students improve their understanding of relational framing theory, consider features of interactions that influence message interpretation, and reflect on ways framing impacts their interactions.

This article outlines a structured writing community activity originally created to assist communication majors complete their capstone projects. This activity draws upon the Writing Accountability Group (WAG) strategy that has been utilized to facilitate graduate student and early career faculty writing. The current article provides an overview…

When we spend the first class period focusing on the syllabus and letting students leave early, we miss an opportunity to expose them to the course content. What happens to those who drop that day? By spending the first day illustrating expectancy violations theory, both instructors and students can explicate anticipated behaviors and use them to…