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Classes are designed to challenge your thinking and develop your professional skills. You’ll leave each class with a unique set of tools to approach new communications challenges.

Tailor your experience to your career goals by focusing on one of eight areas of specialization. Use the search widget below to sort classes by quarter, specialization, instructor and degree track for each quarter. Get a comprehensive view of the full academic year in our Course Guide.

View the University of Washington Academic Calendar for important dates, including quarter start and end dates, registration dates and deadlines, and campus holidays.

Registration numbers (SLNs) are located on the Time Schedule. Please read the Department’s statement on internet resource requirements for access to courses.

COMMLD 581: Leadership in Emerging Technologies & Trends: Communications in the Age of AI

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- 2025-2026 | Winter 2026

Open Elective | 5 Credits
Sundays 1/11 (online), 1/18, 1/25, 2/1, 2/15, 9:00am – 5:00pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 12664

Course Description:

AI is transforming how organizations communicate, and the skill gap is real. The 2025 World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report states that “On average, workers can expect that two-fifths (39%) of their existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated over the 2025-2030 period.” AI and information processing technologies tops the list as the core drivers of this change.

This intensive class is about getting out in front. We’ll dive into the questions communication leaders are wrestling with right now: When should you use AI for comms and who should be empowered to use it? What are the risks if your team is unprepared, if you are too slow in adapting, or if you use it in inappropriate or ineffective ways? And how do you build policies and strategies that allow AI to accelerate work responsibly and ethically?

Students should come prepared for an intensive experience, with a full quarter’s work conducted over a 6-week time period. Class sessions will be fast-paced, hands-on, and grounded in real-world challenges. You’ll use multiple AI tools in class and for homework, debate outputs and scenarios, discuss best practices for decision-making, and hear from industry experts already implementing AI inside their organizations. The goal is to give you the tools and judgment to help you and your future employer navigate fast-evolving AI with confidence. 

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COMMLD 570E: Culture Design for Communication Leaders

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- 2025-2026 | Winter 2026

MCCN Elective | 5 Credits
Thursdays, 1/8 – 3/12, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 22135

Course Description

As organizations navigate unprecedented changes driven by technology, shifting expectations, and global challenges, the need for culture-centered leadership has become paramount. This is especially true for communication leaders who will continue to shape how work is understood and practiced. 

During this course, students will explore the key aspects of culture design, co-creation, and leadership for the future of work. Students will identify their own co-creation and leadership style within the context of an organization,  and learn to leverage these strengths in coordination with others. They will also design specific elements of culture including working agreements, collaborative work environments, and steps for fostering autonomy within the workplace. 

At the end of this course students will be able to answer the question – How do communication leaders build/support organizational culture to create environments that support psychological safety, collaboration, and drive innovation? 

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COMMLD 570B: Stakeholder Mindset & Communication

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- 2025-2026 | Winter 2026

Open Elective | 3 Credits
Thursdays, 1/8 – 3/12, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 12662

Course Description:

In August 2019, the Business Roundtable, a group of 181 CEOs from the largest corporations in the world, created, signed, and distributed  a formal document, “Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation.” This communication stated that this group was committed to leading their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders — shareholders, communities, employees, suppliers, and customers. 

In this course, we’ll examine this diverse set of stakeholders and take a closer look at how they interact with corporate leaders and each other internally and externally. What role will marketing communication professionals have in making companies’ messaging more stakeholder focused and inclusive going forward? 

From Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover to the mercurial work policies at Amazon, we’ll examine why companies which do not support stakeholder theory risk losing value. And why the ones that do gain it.

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COMMLD 562: Communication for Advocacy

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- 2025-2026 | Winter 2026

MCCN Elective | Meets Law and Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Thursdays, 1/8 – 3/12, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 12660

Course Description:

This course is focused on ”integrated advocacy,” which is a strategy of communicating one’s advocacy efforts through multiple channels – like the marriage equality movement, net neutrality efforts by Google, Facebook and Netflix, and the passage of the Affordable Care Act of 2010.

This is a hands-on course. You will develop part of an integrated advocacy campaign working for a client in this class. Real-life challenges and advocacy needs of our clients will allow us to use integrated advocacy model in an applied sense. We will build stories around goals and solutions. We will come up with advocacy tactics and create an advocacy campaign that will ignite change.

The course will help you develop immersive storytelling skills, and practice community organizing. You will learn persuasive communication and engagement methods, and how to pack a punch with a campaign aimed at making change. Guest speakers and mentors with experience spearheading campaigns will serve as guides throughout the quarter. The course will culminate with a short advocacy pitch session.

“Changing the world” gets a lot of lip service – this class actually teaches you how to do it! Sejal’s experience on successful advocacy campaigns like the $15 minimum wage provides a backdrop for instruction in tested strategies and techniques that can be deployed to move the needle at the community, social and policy level. Watching my fellow students’ presentations at the end of the quarter, I felt like we were all really well equipped to go out and have a positive impact like never before.  — Alex Stonehill, Associate Director, MCCN Cohort 19

Meets Law & Ethics requirement.

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COMMLD 543: Leadership Approaches to Equity Initiatives in Organizations

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- 2025-2026 | Winter 2026

MCCN Elective | Meets Law and Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays, 1/7 – 3/11, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 12655

Course Description

In this leadership development course students grow intra-personally in order to more effectively communicate and collaborate to change organizational systems and cultural norms toward greater equity, justice, diversity, access, belonging, and inclusion.

The course is designed to meet students where they are and coach for growth in self-awareness, communication skills, and comprehension of equity concepts. Students learn interactively together in order to explore interconnections among dimensions of our intersectional identities and experiences of power, and to expand our collective understanding of how organizations, and the people within them, function within larger societal systems of power.

Dual tracks of learning structure the quarter: shared equity related content learning and independent individually-bespoke topical inquiry. Students transform their understanding of their identities and agency, gain confidence for communicating about often-taboo topics, experience iterative reflection as a social justice practice, and expand their comprehension of the distinct roles of individuals, groups, organizations, and societal structures in making genuine system change.

Sarah’s course was intentional and thought-provoking and provided me with the tools to assess and navigate current and future workplace dynamics. I am now able to critically question and analyze organizational health.–AK Sterling, MCCN cohort ‘19 alumni

Meets Law and Ethics Requirement.

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COMMLD 541B: Crisis Communication

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- 2025-2026 | Winter 2026

Open Elective | Meets Law and Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays, 1/6 – 3/10, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 12654

Course Description

Crisis communications is about much more than “spin.”  Crises will happen – in government, in the corporate sector, in nonprofits and political campaigns.  What will differentiate you as a communicator is your ability to plan for it, navigate it in real time, and learn something from it.  There is opportunity in crisis.  A crisis forces us to look inside ourselves, at our policies, at our practices, and at how we do our business.

Of course, crisis communications has always been tough; social media and the advent of generative AI have just made it tougher.  We will navigate the latest cultural challenges, from “cancel culture” to messaging in our polarized society.  In this course, we will look at before the crisis (including planning), how we respond during the crisis (this includes the critical crisis communications plan) and after (this is where we cover actions one must take afterwards, including how to repair the damage done).  The class is designed to look at crises in various sectors and will include participation from professionals in the field.

Meets Law and Ethics Requirement.

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COMMLD 540C/D: Public Speaking & Presenting with Impact

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- 2025-2026 | Winter 2026

Open Elective | 2 or 3 Credits
Wednesdays, 1/7 – 3/11, 6:00pm – 7:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
2-credit 540C Registration SLN: 22027
3-credit 540D Registration SLN: 22028

Course Description

Skilled presenters have the power to move people and inspire change. Becoming a more effective and dynamic public speaker means making the complex accessible, connecting the dots for your audience, and developing confidence over canned answers.  By using storytelling and other communications strategies to become a better presenter, you’ll resonate with your audience in new and more meaningful ways.

In this course, you’ll learn how to grab attention immediately, the importance of simplifying your visuals, and why it’s critical to know your message well enough to speak directly to your audience — not to your notes and not to your screen.  We’ll address the mistakes most people make, and how to avoid them to ensure that you’re communicating with poise, confidence and conviction in a way that captivates your audience.

Whether it’s over Zoom or winning over the room, by mastering your public speaking skills you will learn to overcome doubt, increase your confidence and find your voice.

Note: 540C is the 2 credit version; 540D is the 3 credit version. The 3-credit version will include additional presentation assignments and deliverables.

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COMMLD 530B: Foundation of Documentary Storytelling

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- 2025-2026 | Winter 2026

Open Elective | 5 Credits
Wednesdays, 1/7 – 3/11, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 22026

Course Description

Foundations of Documentary Storytelling is a workshop-based course where students get hands-on experience in building documentary stories from start to finish. This course supports and cultivates curiosity-driven mindset and the technical skill development needed to produce compelling documentary media for innovative marketing and media production. How do you take a compelling topic and make it an engaging story? Documentary Storytelling will teach you to take stories, characters and themes and craft them into stories by breaking chronology, building emotional resonance and cultivating buy-in so that we want to know what happens and get invested in the outcome. 

You will learn to craft character-driven nonfiction narratives while mastering the complete production process: research, story craft, video/audio styles and equipment use, field recording and interview techniques, film editing and constructing feedback. This course looks at both technical proficiency and ethical responsibility in documentary as well as exploring production roles, documentary industry standards, and the power dynamics inherent in capturing others’ stories. 

Students will create multiple documentary productions with various crew structures and independent work which will be paired with guest speaker workshops and film case studies from award-winning professional documentarians. You will leave the class with a strong understanding of what is required throughout a production process through holding a variety of production roles. Get ready to deep dive on building stories from the world around you and explore how documentary techniques can transform your skills and repertoire as a communications leader.

This Course is Ideal for Students Who:

Aspire to integrate relational storytelling methods into their communication leadership practice

Seek project-based learning experience

Want to develop transferable core storytelling and editing skills 

Are interested in understanding how documentary can successfully shift culture, policy and public opinion through storytelling

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COMMLD 520A: Principles of Marketing

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- 2025-2026 | Winter 2026

Open Elective | 5 Credits
Mondays, 1/5 – 3/9, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 12645

Course Description

This course provides a foundational understanding of marketing principles and their application within business, nonprofit, and public-sector organizations. Students will learn through the lens of integrated marketing, a key skill in today’s marketing landscape. Our focus will be on understanding the key elements of a marketing strategy, including goal setting, audience identification, planning, and landscape analysis. Students will learn practical and commonly-used tools like SWOT analyses, stakeholder maps, brand positioning exercises, and messaging frameworks. 

Building on this foundation, the course will also explore elements of brand and behavior change marketing, with real-world applications in areas such as public health, sustainability, and social impact. Students will complete the course with increased confidence in designing and executing strategies that work across public relations, creative, digital, and operational functions in complex organizations.

Through lectures, case studies, guest speakers, in-class activities, and group projects, students will connect theory with practice, based on their areas of interest and expertise. Students will develop portfolio-level plans to support their career goals. This class is a fit for students who plan to pursue more advanced coursework, and those with an interest in marketing, communications, public affairs, or brand strategy careers where cross-functional collaboration is essential.

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COMMLD 510B: Introduction to UX Writing & Content Design

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- 2025-2026 | Winter 2026

Open Elective | Meets Professional Writing Requirement | 3 Credits
Tuesdays, 1/6 – 3/10, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 22024

Course Description

User Experience (UX) Writing involves the words used in a website, app, or other digital experience flow. The job of UX Writing is to make sure those words help make that experience simple, conversational, and easy to use. This course will use design thinking to guide you through solving complex UX issues using workshops, real-world examples, emerging AI tools and techniques, and creating your own unique UX writing flows and portfolio.

This class is a good match for students who:

• want to showcase UX writing flows in their UX portfolio

• are planning to pursue a career in the UX and/or marketing field

• want to gain team-based competencies aligned with industry practice

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COMMLD 503A: Practicum: Building Community Through Livestreaming

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- 2025-2026 | Winter 2026

Open Elective | 2 Credits
Mondays, 1/5 – 3/9, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 12638

Course Description:

In this course, students will learn what it takes to design, plan, and oversee professional live streaming projects. We will explore the difference between live streaming as traditional event coverage or “virtual events” versus the conversational, community-focused approach of creators on platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.

By experimenting with strategies that invite participation and make audiences feel seen and heard, students will design and produce individual and team-led live streams that support broader communications strategies for real brands and organizations. Students will leave this practicum with a strong foundation to lead live stream projects in real-world settings, with principles relevant for everything from simple webcam setups to large-scale productions with professional crews and equipment.

Note: This is not a video production course. The focus is on content design and project leadership for marketing and communications professionals, using accessible, web-based tools that are easy to adopt in any communications role.

About Communication and Leadership Practicum:
Communication and Leadership Practicum courses can be taken at any time in your Comm Lead Journey. They give you the opportunity to engage in contemporary professional practice by addressing the challenges of real-life organizations. Each section is matched with a client organization or group of client organizations, and focuses on a distinct professional skill or practice that is deemed essential across a variety of professional fields. 

Designed to mirror a professional setting, our Practicum offer you the opportunity to work at a higher level and with greater responsibility than what you might encounter in an internship or in entry-level work. In the span of a quarter, you will enhance highly-desirable professional skills, produce work that you can include in your own professional portfolios, and most importantly, leave with a story–your story – of what you did in this project to create value for your client.

Credit/No Credit Only

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COMMLD 570A: Building Successful Online Communities

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- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025 | Current Quarter

MCCN Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 9/30 – 12/2, 6:00 – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
SLN: 13032

Course Description:

Before Wikipedia was created, there were seven very similar attempts to build online collaborative encyclopedias. Before Facebook, there were dozens of very similar social networks. Why did Wikipedia and Facebook take off when so many similar sites struggled? Why do some attempts to build communities online lead to large thriving communities while most struggle to attract even a small group of users?

This class will begin with an introduction to several decades of research on computer-mediated communication and online communities to try and understand the building blocks of successful online communities. With this theoretical background in hand, every student will then apply this new understanding by helping to design, build, and improve a real online community.

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COMMLD 538: Storytelling & Communications for Mission-Driven Organizations

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- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025 | Current Quarter

MCCN Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Thursdays 9/25 – 12/4, 1:00pm – 4:50pm | Online
Registration SLN: 13022

Course Description:

Nonprofits, NGOs, campaigns and social enterprises are driven by their desire to make the world a better place. As their storytellers, our job is to make sure their messages reach the right audiences and recruit those audiences to the cause. Keeping in mind that mission-driven organizations will often work on complex issues involving vulnerable populations, our job is to pursue this work within an ethical framework that centers the concerns and desires of the people whom our clients serve. Upon completing the course, students will be able to work with mission-driven organizations as their primary storytellers.

Jordan brings a passion for storytelling for positive change that is infectious. And that enthusiasm is grounded in vast experience that makes him a valuable guide through the complicated ethics of storytelling, with a breadth of practical resources to support powerful, community-based, media production that mission-driven organizations are in need of. Given how deeply he engages with and inspires students, it’s no wonder many of them have gone on to be his professional collaborators.  — Alex Stonehill, Associate Director, MCCN Cohort 19

Meets Law & Ethics Requirement.

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COMMLD 590A: Capstone Preparation: Research and Development

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- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025 | Current Quarter

Open Elective | 3 Credits
Thursdays 9/25 – 12/4, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 23416

Course Description:

This course builds a foundation in research design and practice to support the development of an impactful, and well-scoped research project. A range of research approaches will be introduced, including qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods, and emerging modes such as futures thinking. Students will begin by exploring existing academic and professional conversations to identify gaps, opportunities, and areas of relevance. From this foundation, they will learn to frame meaningful research questions, select appropriate methodologies, and design ethical, context-aware studies. The course also includes strategies for identifying relevant participants, stakeholders, audiences  and data sources aligned with research goals.
The primary outcome of the course is a complete research plan, which will serve as the foundation for students to continue the work through the academic year, culminating in the Spring Quarter Capstone class.

Credit/No Credit only.

A note on the Capstone: If you are an MCCL student, you will complete a Capstone project as part of the requirements for graduation. Capstone projects are a chance for you to develop a rigorous, in-depth portfolio project that demonstrates impact, whether social, organizational, community, or professional.

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COMMLD 503: Practicum: Advanced Marketing

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- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025 | Current Quarter

Open Elective | 2 Credits
Thursdays 9/25 – 12/4, Time 4:00pm – 5:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Application Required

Course Description

Level up your leadership. Build a real-world marketing strategy that actually gets used.

In this hands-on practicum, you’ll partner with a real client to create and deliver a strategic marketing plan—plus sample content they can start using now. You’ll assess their current outreach (social, web, posters, community engagement) and design a smarter, more integrated approach. The client will provide real-time feedback and decide what to adopt—so the stakes (and impact) are real.

This course is built for students ready to stretch: to lead through ambiguity, influence without authority, and work through the messy middle of real-world challenges. There’s no step-by-step playbook—just strong coaching, clear expectations, and support to help you grow fast.

By the end, you’ll walk away with a marketing plan, content samples, client-facing experience, and a standout project for your resume or portfolio.

Credit/No Credit only

**Since this class takes foundational concepts to the next level, students who register must have already taken any of the following courses:

• COMMLD 520: Advanced Marketing (Marr)

• COMMLD 520: Principles of Marketing

• COMMLD 520: Strategic Communications

• COMMLD 521: Digital Marketing

• COMMLD 522: Future of Marketing

Or have equivalent Marketing experience. 

Please fill out the form below to the best of your ability. If your form is approved, you will receive an add code to register for the course. (Note: applications will be time stamped, and qualified applicants will be added to remaining class spots on an equitable basis determined by time of application and remaining time in the program.)

Apply here: https://forms.office.com/r/KjnNbFSCKR Form will open on Monday, June 9, at 12:00pm (noon)

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COMMLD 525: Brand Values & Creativity

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- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025 | Current Quarter

Open Elective | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 9/24 – 12/3, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
SLN: 13017

Course Description:

This course will take a close up look at corporate brand values in marketing communications today. Brand values should be timeless and unchanging, but in a constantly fluctuating business environment, is this goal even possible? While high volume video advertising and A/B testing is exploding, paradoxically, messaging of corporate brand values is oftentimes minimized. Marketing today is composed of ever-changing algorithms, transactional communications, and confusing narratives. Should creativity play a bigger role in storytelling in today’s marketplace? Do customers even know what the companies they make purchases from actually stand for values-wise? Does it matter? How can companies still connect emotionally with consumers? Students will ideate a marketing film for a company or nonprofit of their choice. All the while, they’ll be considering deeply how emotion, story, and marketing message function in a project that resonates with the consumer while also reinforcing an organization’s belief system.

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© Copyright 2025 Department of Communication. University of Washington

© Copyright 2025 Department of Communication. University of Washington