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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 535: Foundations of Audio Storytelling

(

Partnow

)

- 2022-2023 | Autumn 2022

Track Neutral | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 10/04-12/06, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | CMU 322
Registration SLN: 13021

Course Description:

Whether gathered around a radio in a living room or walking plugged in with headphones, the medium of audio storytelling has always offered the opportunity to build a mindset-shifting community around content. This course traces the evolution of audio storytelling from radio to podcasting that links to communities for various purposes: to educate, to entertain, and to inspire action — and the new golden age of podcasting that we find ourselves in means that audio storytelling has the potential for broad reach and powerful impact. Consideration is given to the core characteristics of strong storytelling, observed through an auditory filter. Class materials are twinned with a selection of cross-sector guest speakers who bring their own craft perspective. Students will experiment with designing their own short audio pieces.

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COMMLD 531: Foundations of Video Storytelling

(

Christensen

)

- 2022-2023 | Autumn 2022

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 10/04-12/06, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | CMU 302
Registration SLN: 13020

Course Description:

The landscape of web-distributed video can be broadly divided into two motifs: Entertainment and Information. From YouTube to Facebook, AR to VR, Twitch to Facebook Live, online video is a storytelling revolution.

Storytelling has been part of the human experience since the formation of language. Today, the technology that surrounds the “tell” of a story (the modes and channels of communication) directly shapes the immersive experience felt by the viewer.

This course focuses on the decisions we make when we tell our stories. This course is both theoretical and practical. Students will be afforded the skills to create and distribute video stories. Additionally, students will be expected to display critical thinking around point of view, audience targeting, ROI success criteria, methodology, and production standards. You are expected to exercise the craft of content creation while at the same time critically evaluating and deconstructing content you see in the marketplace.

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COMMLD 523: Foundations of Branding: Social Media Communications and Strategy

(

Tang

)

- 2022-2023 | Autumn 2022

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Saturdays 10/01, 10/15, 10/29, 11/12, 12/3, 9:00AM – 5:00PM | Online
Registration SLN: 13016

Course Description:

Communication on digital platforms and networks will be the forever norm of our society and human experience. In this course, we will learn, practice and investigate the fundamental principles of communication through digital platforms such as social media. We’ll identify strategies used by social media platforms to maximize their key metrics and apply them to business metrics that brands and organizations use to fulfill their objectives and goals. At the end of this course, you’ll be able to identify areas of opportunity on social media platforms to create interesting campaigns, analyze emerging social trends to stay ahead of the curve, and use the tools and best practices of the world’s most powerful brands to engage audiences.

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COMMLD 512: User Research and UX Strategies

(

Levine

)

- 2022-2023 | Autumn 2022

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 09/28-12/07, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | CMU 104
Registration SLN: 23379

Course Description:

This course focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of user interfaces from a usability perspective. The aim of the class is to study the concepts, methods, and techniques of usability engineering, with a focus on the artifacts where user experience is essential. Historically, usability has covered aspects of efficiency, learnability, and ease of use. Today, a large number of other measures for success rely on elements such as playability, engagement, entertainment, immersion, and aesthetics.

The above concepts will be detailed with the expectation that by the end of the quarter, students will recognize the aspects of each of the following deliverables within Interface Design and User Research. At the completion of this course, students will have portfolio-ready, end-to-end work examples. The work examples are designed for students to demonstrate they can: understand basic principles of user interface design, implementation, and evaluation, design and conduct usability studies, select an appropriate evaluation method and articulate its advantages and disadvantages, establish useful test objectives, and prepare reports and presenting results.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

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COMMLD 510: Leveraging Diverse Perspectives in Product Content Design

(

Davies

)

- 2022-2023 | Autumn 2022

Track Neutral | 3 Credits
Wednesdays 09/28-12/07, 6:00PM – 8:20PM | DEN 212
Registration SLN: 13012

Course Description:

This course will guide students through a variety of techniques and processes to building experiences that are inclusive, and designed to directly serve their intended audience. This includes a lightweight look at understanding and defining your audience, testing for a variety of accessibility challenges, designing for inclusion, and an overview of ways to get feedback from your audience.Students will then be able to leverage these techniques to evaluate experiences to identify opportunities to improve.

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COMMLD 501: Leadership and Communities

(

Yasin

)

- 2022-2023 | Autumn 2022

Track Neutral | Core Requirement | 2 Credits
Thursdays 09/29-12/08, 6:00PM – 8:20PM | PCAR 192
Registration SLN: 13009

Course Description:

This foundational class considers leadership development through the two lenses of story and community. Sustained community engagement in the service of a more equitable and just world requires strong leadership models. Personal history and cultural context influence leadership styles, so using cross-sector profiles and guest speakers, we will carefully consider a range of leaders, their life stories, communication styles, and how they connect meaningfully to customers, colleagues, and constituents. Credit/No Credit only

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COMMLD 520: Creative Branding Intensive

(

Schiller

)

- 2021-2022 | Summer 2022

Track Neutral Elective | 3 Credits
Monday-Friday, 8/1-8/5, 9:00AM – 5:00PM | DEN 210 | In-Person
Registration SLN: 14392

Course Description

In this class, students will have the opportunity to bring a client’s brand story to life in a format that matches a real-world agency setting. Over the week – and with the guidance and feedback of your instructor who is the co-founder and copy chief of Rumble Marketing – you will bring together ad copy and visuals to create a pitch for a potential client. On the final day of this intensive you will deliver your pitch and get the kind of feedback you could expect in a real-world marketing agency environment. You will not only learn the tools of the trade in how to conduct a winning pitch, but create materials to add to your marketing portfolio.

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COMMLD 510: Introduction to Information Architecture

(

Weaver

)

- 2021-2022 | Summer 2022

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Saturdays, 7/9, 7/16, 7/30, 8/6, 9:00AM – 5:00PM | Online
Registration SLN: 14391

Course Description:

Information Architecture (IA) helps users understand where they are, what they’ve found, what’s around, and what to expect when they are visiting a website or application. When you have large amounts of information to display, IA can help you create groups, sorting, labels and provide navigation to help people browse your content.This class sets up the basics for organizing content through architecture. We’ll learn about the theory and techniques that help us provide clear paths through content. Through best practices articles, real world examples, and student projects, we’ll explore the foundations and potential of  Information Architecture.Students will take on their own mini-project and present their IA discoveries at the end of the session.

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COMMLD 521: Digital Media Branding and Marketing

(

Mottola

)

- 2021-2022 | Summer 2022

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Wednesdays, 6/22-8/17, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | Online
Registration SLN: 14393

Course Description

This course is designed for students that will be utilizing their Comm Lead education and experience in the marketing arenas in businesses and organizations (including non-profits) or in leadership functions where an understanding of marketing is an important skill. The focus on the course will be on how to best utilize digital media vehicles along with more traditional forms of communications and advertising (and other marketing or Research and Development functions). Because of the ever changing nature of the advertising world with the advances and acceptances of digital media platforms, we will showcase industry “heavy hitters” from local marketing and advertising agencies to discuss the trends and issues the industry faces, using real life situations to explore alternatives and solutions. We will also explore how new media can be used with traditional channels of distribution (clicks and bricks), as well as in the R & D functions by encouraging and mining information from current and potential customers. Students that have not had a basic marketing class will be assigned pre-course supplemental readings and we will do a quick review at our first session so that everyone has a common understanding of the subject before we move into the more cutting edge concepts.

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COMMLD 511: Introduction to User Centered Design

(

Gordon

)

- 2021-2022 | Summer 2022

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Thursdays, 6/23-8/18, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | DEN 213 | Partially In-Person
Registration SLN: 14390

Course Description:

This course focuses on the fundamentals of user experience design, identifying the skills and concepts needed to successfully design products and services for humans. We will learn the principles of design thinking so that students come away from the class with a framework for understanding how to identify real user problems, design solutions for how to solve those problems, and then test those solutions with real people.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

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COMMLD 503E: Practicum: Strategic Communications Planning

(

Chang

)

- 2021-2022 | Spring 2022

Track Neutral | 2 Credits
Mondays 3/28-6/6, 6:00PM – 7:50PM | Online
Registration SLN: 21582

Course Description

In this practicum, students will design and deliver a strategic communications plan to a live client for review and adoption. The purpose of the communications plan is to bring a systematic solution leveraging all the current outreach tools used by the organization (social media platforms, website, community engagement) to be less ad hoc and more strategic. Students will conduct a communication needs assessment, map current outreach approaches and proactively identify and work through the process of understanding the needs of the client, who will provide real time feedback in addition to deciding what to adopt real-time.

The learning challenge: This practicum is for students who are ready to grow as leaders–leaders who recognize that wrestling with real-world problems calls for moving through ambiguity in design, planning and collaborating. Just like in real-world work contexts, this course will not include heavy text-based teaching or pre-designed road maps of ‘here is what to do every step of the way’. Instead, there will be steady and strong coaching and support from an instructor with a specialized expertise in navigating ambiguity and leading through influence. You may not be as comfortable as you thought in this course, and that will be a mark of success and growth. Every student will create a tangible skill-based experience to use in their career development, professional networking and portfolio. In other words, there will be a direct answer to the question of “tell me about a time when you developed a real-life communications product for a client.”

About 503 Communication and Leadership Practicum

Communication and Leadership Practicum courses give students an opportunity to engage with and understand the uses of course concepts in contemporary professional practice by addressing the challenges of real-life organizations.

Each section of the Comm Lead Practicum focuses on a distinct professional skill or practice that is deemed essential across a variety of professional fields. Students can choose their section based on their interests and needs. Each section is matched with a client organization or group of client organizations who are interested in partnering with Communication Leadership students.

In the span of a quarter, students analyze the issues faced by the client organization(s), collaborate and brainstorm collectively in small teams, and with the support of their faculty mentor create a deliverable for the client organization(s) that relates to the specific practice. Students may also create creative samples as part of the project. In doing so, students can develop and enhance skills, build foundations of practice, and produce work that they can include in their own professional portfolios.

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COMMLD 503D: Practicum: UX Design for Chatbots

(

Joslyn

)

- 2021-2022 | Spring 2022

Track Neutral | 2 Credits
Wednesdays 3/30-6/1, 6:00PM – 7:50PM | Online
Registration SLN: 21581 (application required)

Course Description:

This practicum will offer students the chance to experience what it’s like to plan, build, test, and complete a real-life UX design project. The goal of the practicum will be for students to create a chatbot that answers the primary questions prospective students have when exploring the Comm Lead program, which will be embedded in the Comm Lead site.

Students will be organized into pods to complete key milestones of the work.  Some students will work on project management, some in content design, product design, and UX research. A project brief and key milestones will be provided to start the class, but everything from picking out the chatbot product, working with stakeholders, creating the experience, conducting research, and providing a completed chatbot experience will be students’ responsibility to own. Class will be held each week, with some weeks giving more time back for pod working.

**Since this class takes foundational concepts to the next level, students who register must have either already taken one of our intro courses (511 or 512) or Psychology of UX (517). Please fill out this form 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 can be found here: https://forms.gle/5WxQN58yUo9GoQJs6

About 503 Communication and Leadership Practicum
Communication and Leadership Practicum courses give students an opportunity to engage with and understand the uses of course concepts in contemporary professional practice by addressing the challenges of real-life organizations.
Each section of the Comm Lead Practicum focuses on a distinct professional skill or practice that is deemed essential across a variety of professional fields. Students can choose their section based on their interests and needs. Each section is matched with a client organization or group of client organizations who are interested in partnering with Communication Leadership students.

In the span of a quarter, students analyze the issues faced by the client organization(s), collaborate and brainstorm collectively in small teams, and with the support of their faculty mentor create a deliverable for the client organization(s) that relates to the specific practice. Students may also create creative samples as part of the project. In doing so, students can develop and enhance professional skills (such as learning how to manage ambiguity), build foundations of practice, and produce work that they can include in their own professional portfolios.

Credit/No Credit Only

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COMMLD 530B: Ethics of Storytelling

(

Graney-Saucke

)

- 2021-2022 | Spring 2022

Track Neutral | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 6:00PM – 9:50PM, 3/30-6/1 | DEN 111 | Partially In-Person
Registration SLN: 21729

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.

Instructor: Elliat Graney-Saucke
elliatgs@uw.edu

Elliat Graney-Saucke (she/they) is a white queer femme documentary director/producer, creative sector consultant, industry curator, and educator. While producing media in the US, Germany, Denmark, England, Poland, Serbia, Italy, Spain, Canada, and Israel/Palestine over the span of 20 years, Elliat’s work has focused on marginalized cultural identities. Upon returning from spending the majority of ten years in Berlin, Germany, Elliat served as the first Executive Director of Seattle Documentary Association, organizing industry gatherings involving partnerships with the Wenatchi Tribe and the Washington Film Commission. Seasoned in working with communities and organizational stakeholders internationally, Elliat has produced and curated over 10 culturally specific creative arts festivals and conferences encompassing over 45 nationalities, leading to additional projects like editing the international anthology Innovate Heritage – A Time-Lapse: Contemporary Arts and Heritage in Today’s Society (Springer). Industry and research focus areas include: documentary film industry, storytelling ethics, intangible/tangible and uncomfortable heritage, international diplomacy (UNESCO), creative economy and policy, incarceration, decolonizing the mind, queer/lgbtqai culture and theory, oral history and intergenerational knowledge exchange, and embodied cultural, racial, and geographic equity/justice. Current documentary productions include Boys on the Inside, about three Latinx ‘boys’ who have experienced incarceration in women’s prisons, and Safta, about a holocaust survivor and her close yet complex relationship to her activist granddaughter.

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COMMLD 503C: Practicum: UX Design in Action

(

Gordon

)

- 2021-2022 | Spring 2022

Track Neutral | 2 Credits
Wednesdays 3/30-6/1 6:00PM – 7:50PM | Online
Registration SLN: 21580 (application required)

Course Description
In this practicum, students will work on a real-world design problem—forming a partnership among design students, instructor, and a client.  Students will work in a team-based context and apply their design-thinking skills to improve a business’ website by reducing user frustrations and helping the business reach its goals.

The final deliverable will be a client presentation highlighting what frustrations were discovered through research and testing, how the design thinking process was applied to maximize user and business needs, and will include a prototype to visually express the proposed solution incorporating the totality of the evaluation.

Credit/No Credit Only.

**Since this class takes foundational concepts to the next level, students who register must have either already taken one of our intro courses (511 or 512) or Psychology of UX (517) or have equivalent UX experience. Please fill out this form 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 can be found here: https://forms.gle/NmB7u9gL1oeafptX8

About 503 Communication and Leadership Practicum
Communication and Leadership Practicum courses give students an opportunity to engage with and understand the uses of course concepts in contemporary professional practice by addressing the challenges of real-life organizations.
Each section of the Comm Lead Practicum focuses on a distinct professional skill or practice that is deemed essential across a variety of professional fields. Students can choose their section based on their interests and needs. Each section is matched with a client organization or group of client organizations who are interested in partnering with Communication Leadership students.

In the span of a quarter, students analyze the issues faced by the client organization(s), collaborate and brainstorm collectively in small teams, and with the support of their faculty mentor create a deliverable for the client organization(s) that relates to the specific practice. Students may also create creative samples as part of the project. In doing so, students can develop and enhance skills, build foundations of practice, and produce work that they can include in their own professional portfolios.

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COMMLD 520: Qualitative Research for Social Media Marketing

(

Kubler

)

- 2021-2022 | Spring 2022

Track Neutral | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 3/28 – 6/6, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | CMU 126 | Partially In-Person
Registration SLN: 21605

Course Description:

From selling the newest runway fashions to promoting donations to Greenpeace, successful online marketing campaigns and product launches often start with well planned qualitative research. This course offers a qualitative methodological perspective on how to conduct interviews and focus groups. This course explains the who, what, why and how of qualitative research with practical applications for those professionally interested in marketing, branding, and even user experience as well. Students will work throughout the quarter to design and implement their own qualitative research project.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

Instructor Bio – Kyle Kubler
kubler@uw.edu
Kyle Kubler is a postdoctoral research fellow at the center for Journalism, Media and Democracy, where he studies social media, political economy and information communication technologies. Kyle recently received his PhD from the department of communication at the University of Washington. His dissertation project focused on the beliefs, strategies, and cultural production of fitness influencers and content creators on Instagram. Kyle has recently published research on the framing of technology and the economy in the business press, as well as collaborating on research projects with the University of Washington’s Family Communication Lab.

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COMMLD 517: The Psychology of User Experience

(

Haverly

)

- 2021-2022 | Spring 2022

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 3/29 – 5/31 6:00PM – 9:50PM | DEN 113 | Partially In-Person
Registration SLN: 21604

Course Description: 

Designers, product marketers, and entrepreneurs will learn the psychological constrictions of attention, perception, memory, disposition, motivation, and social influence that determine whether or not customers will be receptive to their digital innovations. This will give their innovations an edge on what are increasingly competitive platforms such as apps, bots, in-car apps, augmented reality content). Students will learn…

  • The psychological processes determining users’ perception of, engagement with, and recommendation of digital innovations
  • Examples of interfaces before and after simple psychological alignments that vastly enhanced their effectiveness
  • How to identify, apply theory, and develop consulting or research recommendations based on psychological theory
  • Application to their own business interests. A deeper understanding of common digital interfaces such as conversion funnels, display advertisements, and mobile notifications.
  • A broader understanding of the human context of digital ventures, and the ethical differences between alignment and meeting needs vs. exploitation and unsustainable design approaches

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

Instructor Sarah Haverly

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahhaverly/

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Contact Us

commlead@uw.edu
206.543.6745
4101 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA
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© Copyright 2022 Department of Communication. University of Washington

University of Washington

Department of Communication

© Copyright 2022 Department of Communication. University of Washington