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Classes

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 541: Crisis Communication

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- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025

Open Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 9/24 – 12/3, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Online
Registration SLN: 13024

Course Description:

Nothing is more dramatic than a crisis. When an organization, company, industry, or individual in the public eye is in a crisis, communication is one of the crucial routes back to normalcy. Oftentimes, organizations find themselves unprepared when a crisis hits and only then think “Oh goodness, we should get a crisis communications plan in place!” Trying to “spin” a bad situation can both be unethical, and ineffective, damaging reputation, and subsequently business.

This course will teach you how to be rapidly responsive, responsible, and to avoid common pitfalls in crisis comms. We will examine how organizations attempt to anticipate and recover from crises, how the broadcast and print media cover different types of crises, how crisis communications fails, and how it succeeds.

Meets Law and Ethics Requirement.

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COMMLD 540A: The Power of Revision

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- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025

Open Elective | Meets Professional Writing Requirement | 3 Credits
Mondays 9/29 – 12/1, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 13023

Course Description

No matter what kind of writing you do, editing skills are essential to producing your best work. In this course, experienced writers will learn a rigorous, methodical approach to revision that transforms a rough draft into a compelling finished piece. You’ll gain the awareness and control you need to diagnose and address problems, develop ideas and themes, create structure, and craft a story. You’ll also hone your ability at the line level, learning ways to make your writing clearer and more precise by eliminating clichés, clunky phrases, and extraneous words. As an editing workshop, this course emphasizes the importance of giving and receiving kind, productive feedback. It focuses on longer-form texts for public audiences, such as blog posts, executive op-eds, and news releases, though its principles are applicable to all forms of writing and creative iteration.

Editing IS Writing! Leah Baltus approaches her craft with precision and clarity, and her mission is to pass on her knowledge to students in a highly structured way, with loads of productive feedback. Several students from this class have had their work published in professional/ trade outlets. If you want a surefire way to improve your writing effectiveness, this class is for you!–Gretchen Ludwig, Associate Director

Meets Professional Writing Requirement.

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COMMLD 535: Foundations of Audio Storytelling (e.g. Podcasting)

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- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025

Open Elective | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 9/30 – 12/2, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 13021

Course Description

The podcasting industry has surged in recent years, with podcasts also becoming an increasingly important part of marketing and communication campaigns. Since it is the only medium that audiences can consume while engaged in a multitude of other activities, audio storytelling has a unique advantage to inform, entertain and call to action.

This course will teach you how to use audio to tell a powerful story. You will learn how to create your own short sound-rich, nonfiction audio story driven by characters and scenes. You will move through the process of research, reporting, interviewing, writing, editing, and mixing an audio story, as well as pitching a story for radio or podcast. By the end of the class you will have a working knowledge of the basics of audio storytelling and production. You will feel more confident about how to support visual storytelling with audio, as well as how to work with a larger production team on audio projects.

This course is a good match for students who:

• Are seeking an individualized, project-based course

• Want foundational storytelling and editing skills that can translate into any medium

• Would like to learn how audio can elevate and transform storytelling

This class greatly elevated my ability to concisely tell stories!—Jacob Christensen, Foundations of Video and Advanced Video Practicum Instructor, and MCDM cohort ‘15 alumni

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COMMLD 520A: Principles of Marketing

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- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025

Open Elective | 5 Credits
Mondays 9/29 – 12/1, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 13013

Course Description

This course is designed to provide you with an understanding of foundational marketing concepts and their application within business and non-business organizations. We start with an overview of marketing strategy, including strategic goal setting and planning and assessment of the market environment (company customers, and competitors), and then review fundamental elements of the marketing mix – product, price, placement (distribution) and promotion. We’ll go deeper into marketing communications, including product/service launches, branding, and integrated campaigns. We will explore all this through a dynamic mix of lectures, case studies, guest speakers, videos, in-class discussions, and individual and group projects.

At the end of the course, you will know how to develop a marketing plan, including how to perform market segmentation, targeting, and positioning; implement branding concepts; execute market research tools and techniques; analyze consumer/audience behavior, introduce new products or services, and develop advertising and integrated communications campaigns.

This class is a good match for students who:

• Want a foundational understanding of how marketing strategies and tools function in the world of business and organizations

• Plan to pursue marketing roles within organizations not limited to communication or creative

• Want to learn to create a portfolio-level marketing plan for an actual client

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COMMLD 513: Content Marketing

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- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025

MCCN Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Saturdays 9/27, 10/11, 10/25, 11/8, 11/22, 9:00am – 5:00pm | Online
Registration SLN: 13011

Course Description

This course focuses on the approach and implementation of marketing programs that encourage community building and engagement. Content marketing is a special kind of content that you can use to build relationships with audiences, drawing new audiences or rewarding loyal fans. Our focus will be on how to give freely of our knowledge. We will explore a research-backed method for how to make content that educates and supports audiences, that complements advertising, mission-driven, or task-based content.

To do so, we will learn the basics of a content strategy process. Our 6 part data-driven methodology includes working with secondary research: stakeholder goals and audiences. Conducting our own primary research in comparative and content review. Building from research, we’ll explore best practices and tactics for messaging, content planning, and delivering strategy concepts to clients or coworkers. Our final product focuses on building brand storytelling, effective messaging, and planning adaptable content for multichannel (physical or digital) environments. Final materials can be useful for portfolios.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

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COMMLD 501: Leadership & Communities

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- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025

Core Requirement | 5 Credits
Thursdays 9/25 – 12/4, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 13006

Course Description

Our core class offers an interactive, community-focused learning experience where students define and express their values, shape their leadership practices, and create portfolio pieces. Through a blend of individual and group assignments, we explore the meaning of “communication leadership” while developing key skills like active listening, reflection, innovation, collaboration, and storytelling. We aim to foster an awareness of the communication practices our community can contribute to shaping the future of work.

During class sessions we articulate shared values and cultivate a community that understands our mindsets are not fixed. Along the way, students build professional connections and engage with key leaders in the field who review and discuss topics with them.

Credit/No Credit only

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COMMLD 591: Independent Research

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- 2024-2025 | Spring 2025 | Summer 2025

Track Neutral | 1-5 Credits
Application Required

Course Description:

Independent Research projects are student-driven, with faculty serving in a loose advisory capacity. This option is for students with a clear project in mind who will only need minimal faculty support to accomplish their end goal. See complete details and application instructions on the Guide to Independent Research page.

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COMMLD 560E: Inclusive Design & Product Equity

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Liu

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- 2024-2025 | Summer 2025

Track Neutral | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 6/23-8/18, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 126
SLN: 10758

Course Description:

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of the critical intersection between Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and technology. In an era where technology such as artificial intelligence and machine learning plays an ever-expanding role in shaping our world, we should interrogate who gets to build it, use it, and profit from it. As future technology leaders it is imperative to not only be well versed in DEI but to create necessary solutions that democratize technology rather than allow it to perpetuate systems of inequality.

Meets Law & Ethics Requirement.

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COMMLD 541A: Crisis Communication

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Schwartz

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- 2024-2025 | Summer 2025

Track Neutral | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 6/25-8/20, 4:00pm – 7:50pm | Online
SLN: 10757

Course Description:

The 24-hour news cycle, social media, and online reporting fundamentally changed how institutional leaders, executives, celebrities, politicians, and organizations address crises big and small. Effectively managing a crisis means not just employing PR strategies, but developing a comprehensive communications plan that disseminates actionable content and engages all stakeholders with equal focus across multiple and diverse networks.

This course will identify the key communication issues that must be addressed during an organizational crisis (real or imagined). We’ll examine implementation strategies to engage traditional and social media; digital networks; federal, state and local lawmakers; external and internal stakeholders; and consumers or constituents. As important, we’ll deconstruct and reinforce the personal ethics and behavior required by professionals in a crisis situation. This class uses current events, interactive discussions, real-time exercises, and engaging guest lectures to provide practical insight about effective techniques and lessons learned.

Meets Law and Ethics Requirement.

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COMMLD 530B: Ethics of Storytelling

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Graney-Saucke

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- 2024-2025 | Summer 2025

Track Neutral | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Thursdays 6/26-8/21, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 126
SLN: 10756

Course Description

Ethics plays a critical role in how we tell stories. What values are behind the story? Who is telling the story, and for whom? What is the intended outcome, and what could the potential impact be? What are the ethics around new media technology like deep fake as we continue to take stories at face value?

Ethics and subjective bias in storytelling can also be complex, and thus they require our attention and reflection in responsible and responsive creative communications. This course will address various storytelling mediums and scenarios where ethics in storytelling are actively at play. Students will engage in critical discourse and assignments to assess values that impact ethical decisions personally and professionally. Assigned media and reading material as well as student sourced case studies will be used in order to ensure diverse and current content. As a conclusion to the class, students will create a final video, audio, web or UX project that engages an ethical challenge.

Meets Law & Ethics requirement.

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COMMLD 520 B: Advanced Marketing

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Marr

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- 2024-2025 | Spring 2025

Track Neutral | 5 Credits
Mondays 3/31 – 6/2, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 126
Application Required

Course Description

This advanced course explores the evolving challenges and opportunities in marketing management, equipping students with the tools and strategies to excel in today’s dynamic marketplace. Through a combination of case studies, group projects, and industry experts, students will delve into topics such as AI in marketing, customer insights, digital transformation, omni-channel strategies, and new revenue models. Designed for graduate-level students, Advanced Marketing emphasizes practical application of marketing strategy and execution.

By the end of this class, students will be able to:

• Analyze the challenges and opportunities marketing leaders face in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

• Apply advanced marketing strategies, including AI, personalization, and omni-channel integration, to real-world scenarios.

• Develop and present a comprehensive marketing plan, incorporating insights from customer data.

• Evaluate and implement customer-centric approaches to improve customer experience and drive business growth.

*Asynchronous work will be added to make up for Memorial Day.

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

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.)

The application will go live on Tuesday, February 18, 2025 at 6:30 AM here: https://forms.office.com/r/MZT7VgETXc

Here are the questions to the form to help you prepare before it goes live:

Full Name
UW Email

Have you taken or are currently taking any of the following courses:

COMMLD 520: Principles of Marketing (Meyer)
COMMLD 520: Strategic Communications (Keyes/Ramos)
COMMLD 521: Digital Marketing (Mottola)
COMMLD 522: Future of Marketing (Salkowitz)

(If you have not taken any prerequisite) You have stated that you have not taken the prerequisites for this course. You may still be qualified if you have previous experience. Please describe your marketing experience.

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COMMLD 570 D: Online Community Data Research

(

Hansen

)

- 2024-2025 | Spring 2025

Track Neutral | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 3/31 – 6/9, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 230
SLN: 12593

Course Description

Navigating online communities constitutes a large portion of what we experience as “the internet,” and yet understanding these communities is not always a straightforward or easy task. This course will explore the nature of online communities, different ways we can come to learn about them, and how we should think about handling the data we collect (and indeed, whether to collect it at all). Students will gain a basic social scientific foundation for thinking about communities and the affordances of computer mediated communication before surveying several established approaches to collecting and analyzing data produced by and about specific communities, including surveys, web scraping, and social listening/monitoring. 

Throughout, we will consider the ethical implications and demands of our work as researchers and professionals, emphasizing such values as respect for persons, prevention of harm, and beneficence. Students will conclude the course by developing group research projects using one or more of the methods we’ve learned together to answer a clearly defined research question and presenting their findings within a professional context.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

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COMMLD 525: Brand Values & Creativity

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Howard

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- 2024-2025 | Spring 2025

Track Neutral | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 4/1 – 6/3, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | DEN 258
SLN: 12579

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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COMMLD 573: Listening and Leadership for Participatory Design Skills

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Crofts

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- 2024-2025 | Spring 2025

Track Neutral | 2 Credits
Wednesdays 4/2 – 6/4, 6:00pm – 7:50pm | Online
SLN: 12594

Course Description:

While there are many skills that contribute to being an effective leader at any level of any organization, you would be hard-pressed to find a list that didn’t include listening up at the top. Across the field of professional communication, teams collaborate to design things every day—from a strategic communications plan to a new app. Participatory design centers the voices of end-users in the design process, with a goal to create products or services that thereby better meet the priorities of the user by listening carefully to their insights, observations, and feedback. (Other terms for participatory design include cooperative design, co-design, or community design.) One could argue that strong leadership and strong participatory design share a common feature when it comes to listening: both your colleagues and your clients thrive when you actively listen and learn from them.

This class takes an applied approach to listening skill development by inviting students to become keen observers of their listening habits, as well as active participants in strengthening this crucial skill set. We will explore listening as it relates to participatory design, from UX research to community development, and from listening across differences on diverse teams to advocacy movements.

Throughout the quarter, we were able to learn about various listening styles and how we can apply them in our personal and professional lives. To this day, I still reference the material and course reading that we learned and reviewed in class.–AK Sterling, MCCN cohort ‘19 alumni

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COMMLD 560 D: Communications & Design for the Environment

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Russell

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- 2024-2025 | Spring 2025

Track Neutral | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 4/1 – 6/3, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 242
SLN: 12591

Course Description:

The climate crisis and other environmental problems are not strictly scientific issues, they are also design and communication issues. This course teaches students to look at the environment from the perspectives of communication (for example, which topics are resonant with audiences, whose views get amplified and whose get shut down, which ideas are backed by money and which are people-powered) and design (for example, our public space, our stuff, how we get around, what we wear and the structures we live in.) These perspectives can empower us–no matter our profession, background or political affiliation–to see and respond to the climate and other environmental crises in more creative and impactful ways.

This course is co-taught by Adrienne Russell and Dominic Muren

Meets Law and Ethics Requirement.

This course is a good match if you are:

• Passionate about the environment and social change;

• Interested in understanding the challenges and opportunities faced by environmental groups, journalists and scientists;

• Curious about how design can be applied for environmental impact

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COMMLD 551: The Law & Ethics of Organizations

(

Tausch

)

- 2024-2025 | Spring 2025

MCCN Elective | Meets Law & Ethics OR Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Thursdays 4/3 – 5/29*, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 302
SLN: 12588

Course Description

All organizations — private, public and nonprofit — inevitably encounter legal and ethical challenges when building and engaging with their communities and networks. Leaders must be able to identify, anticipate, and problem solve how to legally and ethically create, grow, and maintain organizations. This course examines the legal and ethical realities of leadership through a cross-sector approach, particularly by utilizing racial equity and anti-oppression frameworks and grounding in behavioral ethics (decision-making and heuristics). We will survey a wide array of case studies, many with a social justice backdrop, in which law and ethics may overlap, conflict, or contain gaps. We will engage in simulations and consider real-world scenarios to maximize understanding of the impact of law and ethics on organizational communications to clients, customers and constituencies. Throughout the course, you are encouraged to bring in legal and ethical issues from your professional experiences to enrich discussion of course topics. No prior experience in law is required.

Meets Law & Ethics Requirement OR Research Methods Requirement

Note: This course will end on 5/29 instead of 6/5 for Screen Summit. Asynchronous work will be included to make up for that session.

There’s a reason that final projects from this course consistently are nominated for the Comm Lead Department of Communication Research Award (one of B. Tausch’s students won in 2023), and it has all to do with the superb design of the course and how students are motivated by B.’s committed and thoughtful instruction to produce award-winning work. Legal studies can feel like another language, but not in this class: B. makes great use of real world scenarios to bring law and ethics alive in a professional communication context. — Anita Verna Crofts, Comm Lead Artist in Residence

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© Copyright 2025 Department of Communication. University of Washington

© Copyright 2025 Department of Communication. University of Washington