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.
(
Ross
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | 2 Credits
Wednesdays 3/27 – 5/29, 6:00pm – 7:50pm | DEN 213
Registration SLN: 12571
Course Description:
This course provides a primer on equity concepts, such as identity, power, privilege, and systems of oppression. Through reflective writing and facilitated discussions of curated readings, students explore how their identities impact their effectiveness in communicating across interpersonal difference. Designed for students who seek a welcoming space in which to learn modes of inquiry for iterative self-preparation for collaborations across power and identities.
(
Howard
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 3/26 – 5/28, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 126
Registration SLN: 12558
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.
(
Foot
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | 2 Credits
Mondays 3/25 – 5/20, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | CMU 126
Registration SLN: 21560
Course Description
Social change requires organizations in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to collaborate well. However, organizational leaders face many challenges in doing so. Cross-sector collaboration is a complex communicative process that underlies every aspect of societal change, at multiple levels and across many kinds of difference. In this course, students will employ concepts from several fields to analyze and practice real-world instances of cross-sector collaboration, and develop the communication skills essential for interorganizational interactions that foster social change.
The centerpiece of the course is a 5-week simulation of collaborative decision-making conducted during class sessions. In the simulation, each student has a role in a (mock) multi-sector task force– situated in a fictional mountain town– that negotiates the creation of a wildfire mitigation safety plan. Through the simulation, students will apply knowledge gained from course readings, and develop skills in assessing other stakeholders’ needs and motives, building alliances, communicating constructively through disagreements, and negotiating multilateral agreements for the collective good.
(
Hansen
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 3/27 – 5/29, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 242
Registration SLN: 12574
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.
(
Dalch
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | 2 or 3 Credits
Wednesdays 3/27 – 5/29, 6:00pm – 7:50pm | CMU 302
2-Credit 545A Registration SLN: 21557
3-Credit 545B Registration SLN: 21559
Course Description:
Being a great interviewer takes a combination of preparation, presence, and curiosity––whether that interview is with a subject for a published piece or a fact-finding mission with a client. In this class you will learn how to prepare without over preparing, create rapport with your interview subject, and cultivate curiosity and presence while in an interview––so that you can get what you need while creating an engaging experience for both subject and listener/viewer.
The art of inquiry will be approached through a coaching lens in which the interviewer is both directive and actively listening/responding to allow for discovery. Students will also learn about different scenarios in which interviewing skills will be useful (eg, client consulting, podcasting, video, etc.) with guest speakers from various industries invited to add their unique perspectives.
Section A will be 2 Credits. Section B will be 3 Credits with an additional interview project.
(
Tomasic
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | Meets Professional Writing Requirement | 3 Credits
Wednesdays 3/27 – 5/29, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | CMU 126
Registration SLN: 12568
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.
Meets Professional Writing Requirement.
(
Hennessey
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 3/25 – 5/20, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Online
Registration SLN: 12566
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.
(
Baltus
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | 3 Credits
Tuesdays 3/26 – 5/28, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | CMU 242
Registration SLN: 12564
Course Description:
Building meaningful community around your work begins with your team. This course focuses on cultivating community from the inside out, in a series of concentric and overlapping circles. First it addresses ways to bring people together within the workplace and make sure they feel valued through rewarding opportunities to brainstorm, collaborate and critique. Then it explores what it means to set communication norms within an organization and how those norms affect an organization’s culture and identity. Finally, it provides a methodology for deepening connections with external audiences, conducting credible outreach, building load-bearing bridges and inviting widespread engagement that leads to social impact.
(
Partnow
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 3/26 – 5/28, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | PCAR 492
Registration SLN: 21556
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.
(
Christensen
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Saturdays 4/6, 4/20, 5/4, 5/18, 6/1, 9:00am – 5:00pm | Collective Chemistry – 5201 11th Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107
Application Required
Course Description
The world of video production is a mysterious and ambiguous place consisting of freelancers, business owners, and in-house roles. In this course students will learn how to add structure to their client interactions, how to ensure that they’re delivering content that fits their client’s needs, and how to navigate studio-based filming environments. Class will consist of qualitative analysis of how to approach storytelling problems as well as hands-on experiences with advanced camera gear in a professional setting. Students will collaborate in teams throughout the quarter to create one short video for a real-world client.
Students must prove their proficiency in video production to register for this course by meeting the minimum qualifications:
1. Proficient experience in editing video on the following platforms: Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, and/or DaVinci Resolve.
2. Experience in shooting video with either DSLRs or Video Cinema Cameras.
Please fill the form below to the best of your ability. You may be reached out with further clarifications. 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 Friday, February 9, 2024 at 6:30 AM and can be found here: https://forms.office.com/r/7q5gTRMwGL
(
Tang
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Saturdays 4/6, 4/20, 5/4, 5/18, 6/1, 9:00am – 5:00pm | Online
Registration SLN: 12557
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.
(
Romero
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | Meets Professional Writing Requirement | 3 Credits
Tuesdays 3/26 – 5/28, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | CMU 230
Registration SLN: 21555
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.
Meets Professional Writing Requirement.
(
Weaver
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | 2 Credits
Mondays 3/25 – 5/20, 6:00pm – 7:50pm | Online
Registration SLN: 12549
Course Description
In this new practicum focusing on UX copywriting for mobile, we’ll explore the world of organizing, writing, and storytelling for small screens and universal audiences. Over the past two years, students have researched and tested new content and architecture for Comm Lead and it’s time to make it live!
Working in teams, we’ll revise and revitalize different sections of the site. We’ll design page tables and templates for copywriters, write and edit pages following rules in accessibility and UX copywriting for mobile, update style and brand guidelines, and use a collaborative workflow where we help each other edit and proofread final copy.
This practicum is for those with experience writing, editing or translating, who want to build more experience writing website copy and generate writing samples their portfolios. There is no visual or UX design element to this class.
About Communication and Leadership Practicum:
Communication and Leadership Practicum courses 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. Students can choose their section based on their interests and needs.
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
(
Gordon
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | 2 Credits
Mondays 3/25 – 5/20, 6:00pm – 7:50pm | CMU 302
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 already taken any of the following courses:
COMMLD 510: Introduction to Information Architecture
COMMLD 510: User Interface and Visual Design
COMMLD 511: Introduction to User Centered Design
COMMLD 512: User Research and UX Strategies
COMMLD 513: Content Marketing
COMMLD 515: Advanced User Design: UX Studio
Or have equivalent UX 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 Friday, February 9, 2024 at 6:30 AM here: https://forms.office.com/r/E1AtLCJVXT
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.
(
Yasin
)
- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024
Track Neutral | Core Requirement | 3 Credits
Thursdays 3/28 – 5/30, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | PCAR 192
Registration SLN: 12546
Course Description
This foundational class uses the lens of social impact to explore the professional practices that make up the Communication Leadership program. Students get to meet leaders from key organizations in our region and learn about their approaches to their practice, as well as the challenges they confront. Throughout the quarter students develop a communication or leadership project in one of the Comm Lead specialization areas, to address a critical issue of our time. The project they develop will go into their portfolio to exhibit their values, creativity, and commitment to positive change and solutions in our world.
Credit/No-Credit only.
(
Keyes, Ramos
)
- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024
Track Neutral | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 1/3 – 3/6, 6:00 pm – 9:50 pm | CMU 230
Registration SLN: 22325
Course Description:
How should a government agency respond in a Twitter war? How do you score a review for your new product in an online magazine? What’s the best way for a nonprofit to survive a communication misstep in our current cancel culture? This course is designed to help you obtain the knowledge and skills needed to apply a critical thinking approach to communication opportunities and marketing challenges. From creating mission statements to producing videos, this course will teach participants to anticipate the communication needs of an organization and develop effective solutions. We will use a variety of real-world scenarios, interactive discussions and guest lectures to provide practical insight, relevant theory and memorable learning. By the end of this class, you’ll have the knowledge, tools and techniques to understand the components of a strategic marketing communication plan and how to use it to get the right results and build your portfolio for future academic and professional endeavors.
commlead@uw.edu
206.543.6745
4101 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA
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University of Washington
Department of Communication