CURRICULUM

The focused, highly interactive curriculum fuses communication theory with practice equipping students with the skills essential to professional success. The four-quarter curriculum consists of a set of core courses with the flexibility for students to create their own program via a choice of concentration in communication technologies, strategic organizational communication, or a combination of both. These elective options further address the growing interdependency between technologies and their impact on leadership, strategy and management.

Students are enrolled in one core course and one elective each quarter. In addition students will complete a series of one-day graduate level topical seminars to fulfill the Master’s Practicum requirement. At the end of the academic year students will have completed 9 credit hours to receive the Master of Science in Communication degree.

Change Management

This course focuses on the use of basic communication theory to examine communication as a process and as a resource at both micro and macro levels, as well as the management of communications in organizations.

Communication in the Global Workplace

Successful managers in a global workplace must recognize and work with local cultural forms and practices at odds with what were once simply practical, instrumental and rational propositions of organization, technology and economics. This course seeks to foster an awareness and understanding of cultural perspectives, values and communication styles and show their relevance to conducting business globally.

Communication, Technology & Competition

This course explores the roles of communication technologies in shaping industries and organizations. Investigates how information technologies impact productivity and determines criteria for evaluating investments in technology.

Contemporary Media in Business, Government and Society

This course concerns the many intersections between media – both old and new – and social institutions.  These institutions include business, the not-for-profit sector, the professions, science and government.  The focus of the course is on news and informational media broadly defined to include, for example, advertising and public relations.  The general orientation of the course is social scientific although that too is broadly defined to include, the history of media development.

Corporate Citizenship

Addresses the relationship between corporations and their stakeholders; exploring best practices for improving social responsibility, transparency and effectiveness of ethical communication in a (sometimes) unethical world.

E-Business Law & Strategy

In this course students discuss the legal framework affecting the full range of converged communications, including intellectual property law; communications law and regulation; spectrum policy; web contracting; corporate email and Internet policies; compliance with Internet privacy regulations; online liability; and issues of competition and industry structure. Students will also conduct an extensive examination of strategies for corporate influence of the marketplace and participation in policy making.

Innovation, Technology & Organizations

This course is designed to provide students with a mix of approaches and techniques to manage technological innovation and change within their organizations. The course examines how to design teams and organizations to promote innovation; strategies that encourage or impede effective product development; and practices used to implement new technologies and drive change.

Leadership & Decision Making

This course investigates how individuals influence group decisions. Students are video-taped in decision making interactions in order to assess and improve their leadership and analytical thinking skills in groups. This course is highly interactive – allowing students to evaluate and practice real world challenges in this content area.

Managing Global Teams

Learn to leverage human capital, financial resources and communication technologies to successfully build and manage each phase of team development across cultural and geographic differences.

Managing Workplace Diversity & Inclusion

Workplace diversity represents significant managerial challenges and opportunities. This course explores current diversity issues, including gender, ethnicity, class, age cohorts, disability and personality, and identifies a range of inclusive strategies that can lead to productive teams. Issues of work/life/family balance and a dispersed workplace also will be addressed. The course seeks to foster an awareness of both differences and similarities in order to create a culture productive inclusion in the work place.

Masters Practicum Seminars

The Practicum is designed as a series of one-day graduate level seminars as a content addendum to the curriculum. Seminars are revised annually to include topics such as crisis management, corporate ethics, digital media, globalization/economy, and communication technologies to name a few. Students are required to complete three (3) Pass/Fail seminars.

Organizational Behavior

Motivation, job attitudes and emotions are critical elements in an organization’s culture. Similarly, organizational networks, teams, feedback loops and other influence processes impact managerial and leadership effectiveness. This course examines essential theories in the context of organization case studies and experiential learning.

Public Persuasion

This course is an exploration of the ways in which communication can be more effectively used to exert influence and to exercise power — bringing together a variety of disciplines including rhetorical analysis, leadership theory, composition, speechwriting and public speaking. The goal is to help students understand how the beliefs and behaviors of decision-makers and publics can be influenced by effective communication.

Understanding & Leveraging Networks

This course uses social network concepts to understand and leverage the growing connectivity and complexity in the world around us on different scales — ranging from small teams to the World Wide Web. It discusses how we create and manage social networks within organizations, as well as with suppliers, customers and competitors and how these networks shape attitudes and behaviors.