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.
(
Holmberg
)
- 2020-2021 | Autumn
MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement
Mondays 10/5-12/7, 6:00pm-9:50pm | Online
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.
(
Davies
)
- 2020-2021 | Autumn
Track Neutral | 3 Credits
Wednesdays 9/30-12/9, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | Online
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.
(
Crofts
)
- 2020-2021 | Autumn
Track Neutral | Core Requirement | 2 Credits
Thursdays 10/1-12/10, 6:00pm – 7:50pm | Online
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.
(
Lohmann
)
- 2019-2020 | Summer
MCDM Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Core Requirement
Mondays, 6/22-8/3; Wednesdays 7/22, 7/29 | 6:00-9:50pm
Note: Classes meet Monday evenings June 22 to August 3, for a total of seven weeks. On weeks five and six, classes meet on both Monday and Wednesday evenings (July 20/22 and 27/29), for a normal summer quarter total of nine class sessions.
Course Description:
This course introduces students to the art of honestly advocating for emerging technologies that an organization has decided to adopt and deploy. It provides a foundation to ensure students understand how to effectively inform stakeholders that these new solutions are both useful, safe and align with values that prioritize the good of the community as a whole. Yet, there’s a fine line between storytelling and propaganda, especially when it comes to making the case around these powerful innovations. What are the ethics of effective advocacy?
How can propaganda be differentiated from honest storytelling? How do we most effectively champion appropriate technologies to our employees, customers, clients or constituents?
We will also examine questions about the platforms and technology themselves: What reference should we use to recognize that emerging technologies are serving as trustful conduits and not propagating misinformation or disinformation? What communications methods, platforms and amplifiers are being used to spread propaganda and fake news, and how does this impact democracy? By learning how to critically think about such questions, students will learn how to communicate clearly and ethically in favor of the use of nascent technology solutions that might impact an organization or community.
(
Levine
)
- 2019-2020 | Spring
MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Core Requirement
Tuesdays, 3/30-6/5 | 6:00 – 9:50pm | CMU 230
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 following 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 articulating its advantages and disadvantages, establish useful test objectives, and prepare reports and presenting results.
(
Philipsen
)
- 2018-2019 | Summer
Track Neutral Elective | Meets Research Methods Core Requirement
Meetings to be arranged between enrolled students and instructor
(application and add code required)
Course Description:
This course is designed for students who want to explore an area and develop a research project of their own. Students work individually in this class with the instructor, Dr. Gerry Philipsen, to develop a negotiated plan of work, involving the reading of important scholarly works in the area of study and the development of an individual creative project designed to enhance the student’s intellectual and practical development. The topics to choose from with Dr. Gerry Philipsen as the instructor/advisor are: Communication that enhances effectiveness in workplace teams, personal negotiation strategies and conflict management in the workplace, and beyond, and cultural and intergroup communication.
Submit your application for this class here: https://forms.gle/Ft4nsCc2c2AMXwVMA.
(
Philipsen
)
- 2019-2020 | Spring
Track Neutral Elective | Meets Research Methods Core Requirement
Meetings to be arranged between enrolled students and instructor
(application and add code required)
Course Description:
This course is designed for students who want to explore an area and develop a research project of their own. Students work individually in this class with the instructor, Dr. Gerry Philipsen, to develop a negotiated plan of work, involving the reading of important scholarly works in the area of study and the development of an individual creative project designed to enhance the student’s intellectual and practical development. The topics to choose from with Dr. Gerry Philipsen as the instructor/advisor are: Communication that enhances effectiveness in workplace teams, personal negotiation strategies and conflict management in the workplace, and beyond, and cultural and intergroup communication.
Submit your application for this class here: https://forms.gle/Ft4nsCc2c2AMXwVMA.
(
Partnow
)
- 2019-2020 | Summer
Track Neutral Elective
Thursdays, 6/25-8/20 | 6:00-9:50pm
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 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.
(
Keller
)
- 2019-2020 | Summer
Track Neutral Elective | 3 Credits
Wednesday-Sunday, 8/5-8/9 | 9:00am-5:00pm
Course Description:
Producing a video is a multi-step effort, with thoughtful decision-making involved throughout the process. How do the choices you make in the creation and delivery of your story affect the reception of your message? This course explores how engaging online video relies on effective storytelling. This skills-based course is designed to familiarize you with video tools associated with storytelling: specifically, how to develop, shoot, and edit video.
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 a viewer’s experience. This course focuses on the practical decisions you make as you craft a narrative.
Given the compressed five-day timeline of this course, we will emphasize skills development. Because this class will be taught virtually you will practice these skills using devices you currently have available. This can be as simple as a phone or as advanced as a DSLR. The skills you will be demonstrating (including pre-production, videography, and video editing) are not dependent on the technology on hand.
(
Schwartz
)
- 2019-2020 | Summer
Track Neutral Elective | Meets Law and Ethics Core Requirement
Tuesdays, 6/23-8/18 | 5:00-8:50pm*
*Please note non-standard meeting time due to instructor teaching from Eastern Time Zone
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.
Student Testimonial:
“This course is one of my favorites and Melissa is infectious. The variety of crisis cases that we looked at, presented each week and the readings that were required to be read were mind boggling. Not only did the course teach how to handle crisis, but also taught how to improve presentation skills, public speaking skills and more than anything, how to prevent crisis especially on social media when you have the option of preventing. Overall an amazing program and I have already recommended it to a lot of my classmates who started in Fall.”
(
Salkowitz
)
- 2018-2019 | Spring
MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Saturdays, 4/6. 4/27, 5/4, 5/18, 6/1 | 9:00am-4:50pm | CMU 126
Course Description:
This course will provide you with a solid understanding of the medium of sequential art and visual narrative (aka “comics”) and the practical ability to incorporate visual storytelling into traditional, digital, and transmedia projects in a variety of entertainment, business, education, social and journalistic scenarios. Why comics? Comics and sequential art have gone from the margins of popular culture to the center of a multi-billion dollar global industry and a respected art-form. Many of the most popular movies, television, video games and transmedia projects are adapted from comics and/or depend heavily on storytelling styles that originated with this unique medium. Issues of digital distribution, adaptation and audience engagement that arise in today’s “comics culture” affect the future of publishing, technology, social media and gaming. Beyond the world of entertainment, the principles of visual narrative are becoming fundamental to all manner of storytelling projects, global initiatives and creative enterprises. This class will explore the history and potential of comics as a storytelling medium in the digital age in both a media studies and business dimension, incorporating both theory and practice.
(
Macklin
)
- 2018-2019 | Spring
MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Tuesdays, 4/2-6/4 | 6:00-9:50pm | CMU 302
Course Description:
Emerging models of interactive and immersive (any screen, responsive, virtual & augmented reality) storytelling are disrupting the ways we can reach and engage with our constituents. This course in Emerging Platforms will have a deep concentration on the production aspects and development tools necessary to create immersive (VR / AR) experiences and Snow Fall like web stories. We will be coupling a critical look at these emerging models while working through the technical aspects of story creation and the implementation of media production tools and platforms. This will be a project-based course through which students will acquire the strategy and skills to make informed design, development and use of immersive storytelling processes. Previous multimedia production and web development is not necessary, though a willingness to learn and play with the underlying technologies is a must.
(
Yasin
)
- 2018-2019 | Spring
Track Neutral | 5 Credits
Thursdays, 4/4-6/6 | 6:00-9:50pm | PCAR 291
Course Description:
This foundational course examines how organizations across all sectors successfully craft their story and message it internally and externally. The course looks at various theories and case studies of organizational storytelling and communication, which provide important context for how organizations map their values, identities and image to the story they convey to employees and the broader public. The course also asks students to apply these theories, create solutions and draft a plan concerning an actual organizational challenge for class clients that they are matched with in the class. In working with real clients, the class hopes to facilitate the pursuit of professional networks for students whilst also building strategic thinking and planning skills, which will be reflected in students’ in-class group projects. In addition to the group projects, students also write professionally oriented articles aimed at developing their leadership in the communication fields.
(
Lohmann
)
- 2019-2020 | Winter
MCDM Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement
Wednesdays 1/8-3/11 | 6:00pm-9:50pm | CMU 242
Course Description:
This course provides an overview on the new regulations and conversations around secure data, intellectual property, and the challenge of data privacy. It also examines the benefits of some uses of anonymous big data for research and health innovation and cures.
(
Schwieterman
)
- 2019-2020 | Winter
MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement
Wednesdays, 1/8 – 3/18 | 6:00 – 9:50pm | CMU 232
*Will not meet 2/5, last class session 3/18
Course Description:
The goal of this course is to provide a strong foundational knowledge of product content strategy as a function within a user experience design team. Skill areas include responsive content strategy, inclusive design, content auditing, performance auditing and more. Specific focus is also given to understanding the perspectives of partner roles, building skills around collaborating and communicating with each role type. You should walk away ready to join a real team and get to work. You will also gain real work examples by working with brands from around the region.
(
Bellinger
)
- 2019-2020 | Winter
MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement
Thursdays, 1/9-3/12 | 6:00-9:50pm | CMU 242
Course Description:
This course is about dealing with the uncertainty of emerging technologies. While the course will not, unfortunately, provide students with a crystal ball capable of predicting all future impacts of a new technology, we will develop a set of questions and conceptual tools that will enable students to critically assess technologies in early periods of development and adoption, and we will explore strategies that students can use to help their organizations better plan for and adapt to technological change. Part of this will involve critically examining the narratives used to explain new technologies and their development: We will examine the theoretical assumptions underlying accounts of technological change, the limitations and liabilities of different theoretical perspectives, and the ways that these assumptions become integrated into expert commentary on new technologies. We will also, as a class, collaboratively develop a “toolbox” of key questions to ask about emerging technologies, precisely to aid in identifying the aspects of technological change that can be overlooked. And finally, we will review practical models for organizational strategy in the face of uncertain technological developments.
commlead@uw.edu
206.543.6745
4101 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA
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University of Washington
Department of Communication