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.
(
Joslyn
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 1/3 – 3/7, 6:00PM – 9:50PM, + Saturday 2/12, 9:00AM – 5:00PM | CMU 232 | Hybrid
Registration SLN: 22125
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.
(
Warga
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
Track Neutral Elective | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 1/4 – 3/8, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | Online
Registration SLN: 22037
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.
(
Mottola
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 1/5 – 3/9, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | CMU 232 | Hybrid
Registration SLN: 22026
Course Description:
This course is designed for students that will be utilizing their MCDM 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.
(
Kabiri
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
Track Neutral Elective | 5 Credits
Thursdays 1/6 – 3/10, 5:30PM – 9:30PM | Online
Registration SLN: 12695
Course Description:
This course introduces students to content strategy through the lens of Decision Science. Successful content requires solid decision-making by the professionals who create it. But it also relies on a firm understanding of audience decision-making, so that communications can effectively sway audience decisions. This course will explore the audience half of this equation. Students will be introduced to behavioral and social science principles that apply to decision-making, including heuristics, game theoretic models, network effects, institutional constraints, and cultural and social norms. The course will also include a market research component, to teach students how to uncover drivers of decision-making among their target audience. Finally, the course will pull it all together, guiding students as they apply these learnings in the creation of a content strategy proposal.
Note: This course’s permanent number is pending, so please register for COMMLD 510 A. Enrolled students will be automatically moved to the new number (518) once it is ready.
(
Kabiri
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
Track Neutral Elective | 5 Credits
Thursdays 1/6 – 3/10, 5:30PM – 9:30PM | Online
Registration SLN: 22268
Course Description:
This course introduces students to content strategy through the lens of Decision Science. Successful content requires solid decision-making by the professionals who create it. But it also relies on a firm understanding of audience decision-making, so that communications can effectively sway audience decisions. This course will explore the audience half of this equation. Students will be introduced to behavioral and social science principles that apply to decision-making, including heuristics, game theoretic models, network effects, institutional constraints, and cultural and social norms. The course will also include a market research component, to teach students how to uncover drivers of decision-making among their target audience. Finally, the course will pull it all together, guiding students as they apply these learnings in the creation of a content strategy proposal.
Note: This course’s permanent number is pending, so please register for COMMLD 510 A. Enrolled students will be automatically moved to the new number (518) once it is ready.
(
Levine, Skillman
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Saturdays 1/8, 1/15, 1/22, 1/29, 2/5, 9:00AM – 5:00PM | CMU 232 | In-Person
Registration SLN: 22029
Course Description
In this class, students will work in small groups to design and prototype innovative user-centered solutions to real-world problems and develop an application. Students will develop their projects from a user experience (UX) design perspective and produce a strong piece for their portfolio.
The course emulates real-life aspects of UX design teams, including in-depth experience with user research, usability testing and iterating on the product with real-life users. By the end of the course, students will construct a map of a product’s full customer journey, develop personas with use cases, design a working prototype, and build a proposal with requirements for the concept.
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). If you are currently taking 511 or have commensurate work experience, please fill out this form for our review, beginning Friday, November 5, at 6:00am PT. 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/YGgtXTsumNACAwv86.
This intensive course structure includes lecture, small and large group activities, and extended studio time for hands-on work on the projects. Several guest speakers from the UX design field are planned throughout the quarter.
(
Crofts
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
Track Neutral Elective | 3 Credits
Mondays 1/3 – 3/7, 6:00PM – 8:20PM | CMU 126 | Hybrid
Registration SLN: 12694
Course Description
Organizations of all sizes across all sectors rely on community-facing events to build their resources (people’s time, talent, and treasure) to achieve their stated goals. COVID upended these annual events, and as the U.S. eases into a new season of the pandemic, nonprofits with mighty missions are faced with a dilemma: what do community engagement events look like in 2022? At the Seattle-based organization FEEST, this is a critical question given their mission of youth-led food justice. How can FEEST communicate and engage the public creatively in ways that preserve the “breaking of bread” connections that are formed shoulder to shoulder at a shared table? Students will be asked to help FEEST reinvent a Spring 2022 showcase event by researching and designing inventive ways to build community, promote awareness, and center youth leadership. The design challenge of this practicum spans sectors and tools and strategies learned in this practicum have wide application.
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.
(
Visneski
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
Track Neutral Elective | Meets Law and Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 1/4 – 3/8, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | CMU 302 | Hybrid
Registration SLN: 22038
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; internal and external; local, national, and international. 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 address how the tools of communication influence crisis communication strategies. In addition, it will identify the key issues that must be addressed during an organizational crisis (real or imagined) from a communications perspective. It will 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, it will 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.
(
Crofts
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
Track Neutral Elective | 2 Credits
Wednesdays 1/5 – 3/9, 6:00PM – 7:50PM | CMU 126 | Hybrid
Registration SLN: 12707
Course Description:
This course considers listening skills as a key leadership attribute when it comes to effective communication. The behaviors of a good listener are considered through a range of texts related to leadership, but with additional emphasis on audio programs showcasing the interview format where an interviewer’s ability to listen closely and empathically solicits strong connection and memorable storytelling. Foundations in Audio Story is the production course geared toward audiophiles at Comm Lead, whereas Listening and Leadership is for all Comm Lead students who are keen to hone their ability to listen as a critical career skill.
(
Howard
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
Track Neutral Elective | 3 Credits
Tuesdays 1/4 – 3/8, 6:00PM – 8:20PM | CMU 232 | Hybrid
Registration SLN: 12706
Course Description:
Investor Warren Buffett describes the concept of institutional imperative as “the tendency of executives to mindlessly imitate the behavior of their peers, no matter how foolish it may be to do so.” He added, “I then thought that decent, intelligent and experienced managers would automatically make rational business decisions. But I learned over time that isn’t so. Instead, rationality frequently wilts when the institutional imperative comes into play.”
This unseen force has stifled innovation in businesses while focusing solely on short term financial gains for shareholders only. And covering up for this behavior through dubious communication practices has only complicated things. What role will marketing communication professionals have in expanding companies’ messaging beyond just shareholders going forward? Is change truly afoot, or will there be more of the same?
From the Boeing 737 MAX fiasco to the ever-changing excuses of Facebook to the anti-trust actions against Google, we’ll examine why the communication practices of honesty, trust and admiration will always emerge victorious over institutional imperative. During the quarter we will discuss evolving public and private sector stakeholder communications including, Shareholders, Board Members, and Funders, Communities, Employees, Suppliers, and Customers.”
(
Kessler
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
Track Neutral Elective | 5 Credits
Saturdays 1/8, 1/22, 2/5, 2/19, 3/5, 9:00AM – 5:00PM | CMU 126 | Hybrid
Registration SLN: 12700
Course Description:
Thinking Story is a foundational class that focuses on the art and craft of nonfiction storytelling to communicate ideas and emotion, build relationships and community, promote change and inspire action. The class reflects the need in all sectors for superb storytelling. The class explores, investigates and discusses the elements of narrative — what makes a story a story – and looks at examples of nonfiction storytelling across media (text, sound, still image, moving image and multimedia combinations). This platform-agnostic, birds-eye view of story is about learning how to reframe/ reconceptualize “information” and “report” as story, how to locate the small story that illuminates the larger issue, and what it takes to produce such work. At its heart, the class is about learning how to conceptualize issues, topics, brands, and ideas as narratives. Students will learn to “think story,” to pinpoint, pitch and gather material for the production of original, compelling and persuasive content.
(
Salkowitz
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 1/4 – 3/9, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | CMU 126 | Hybrid
Registration SLN: 12698
Course Description:
Rapid evolution of digital media and technology continues to disrupt the business of marketing, making it essential for professionals in the field to keep abreast of trends in a number of areas. This class focuses on the technologies shaping marketing, advertising, media, public relations and communications in the 2-4 year horizon and explores strategies of successful marketing organizations, both digital and traditional.
(
Hall
)
- 2021-2022 | Winter 2022
Track Neutral Elective | 3 Credits
Mondays 1/3 – 3/7, 6:00PM – 8:50PM | CMU 242 | Hybrid
Registration SLN: 22073
Course Description:
The world we live in continues to change at an intense rate. In order to succeed in this uncertain future, organizations must adapt to tough market conditions by changing their strategies, their structures and infrastructures, their boundaries, their mindsets, their leadership behaviors and of course their expectations of the people who work within them. The COVID-19 pandemic has shocked the global health care system and the global economy. The Seattle Times reported in April 2020 that the global economy will suffer the worst year since the Great Depression of 1930. There could not be a more critical time to take a course on change management. Key skills taught in this course will prepare a professional for the shifting workforce. Upon completing the course, students will be able to guide organizations to implement change management programs that support employees and reflect organizational culture.
(
Sampaco
)
- 2021-2022 | Autumn 2021
Track Neutral | 1 Credit
Wednesdays 9/29, 10/13, 10/27, 11/10, 12/1, 6:00PM – 7:50PM | CMU 326
Registration SLN: 23780
Course Description:
Career success is not just about what you know or who you know. It’s about who knows you. If you want others in your industry to know who you are and to recognize your value, you must be intentional about how you show up, how you communicate about yourself, and how you make others feel. Taught by a TV news anchor with more than 10 years of on-camera experience, this course is for ambitious professionals who want to set themselves up for success by growing their professional visibility and advocating for themselves at work. Career strategy, personal branding, and public speaking are core elements of this course. You’ll learn how to improve your on-camera speaking skills (ex. Zoom meetings), how to articulate your value to a prospective employer or client, how to talk about your accomplishments, and how to grow your professional credibility using social media. You will practice speaking in front of audiences (in person or virtually) and receive feedback on how to improve your verbal and non-verbal communication skills, culminating in your final assignment, an “About Me” video (geared towards prospective employers or clients) that you can attach to your LinkedIn profile. Guest speakers will also share strategies for growing their professional visibility and how they approach self-advocacy in the workplace. Women, students of color, and international students are strongly encouraged to register for this course.
(
Joslyn
)
- 2021-2022 | Autumn 2021
MCDM Track | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 10/04-12/06, 6:00PM – 9:50PM PDT | CMU 228
Registration SLN: 23764
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.
(
Tomasic
)
- 2021-2022 | Autumn 2021
Track Neutral | Meets Professional Writing Requirement | 3 Credits
Wednesdays 09/29-12/08, 6:00PM PDT – 8:20PM PDT | SAV 130
Registration SLN: 23608
Course Description:
This collaborative hands-on course explores the kind of short-form writing that dominates today’s rapidly evolving professional communications space — the digital space where lines between content and form increasingly blur and where always-on media feeds deliver a mix of advertising, marketing, public relations, human resources, personal brand-building and journalistic reporting and research. It’s a space that presents new writing challenges every day: professional emails, office memos, newsletters, website copy, funding proposals, executive summaries, op-eds, tweets, blurbs, blogs. Much of this material is badly done. Most of it is mediocre. The best of it, though, sings out and demands our attention, demonstrating mastery in the kind of critical thinking and dedicated practice that delivers copy sharply focused and sure in matching voice and material with form and audience. This course is part professional-communications criticism class and part writing workshop. It’s about learning how to identify good writing; it’s about understanding the process that produces good writing; and it’s about practicing that process yourself.
commlead@uw.edu
206.543.6745
4101 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA
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University of Washington
Department of Communication