Archives: Courses - Page 18 - Communication Leadership

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.

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COMMLD 570: Leadership at All Levels

(

Myers

)

- 2020-2021 | Autumn

Track Neutral | 3 Credits
Wednesdays 9/30-12/9, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | Online

Course Description:

Leadership shows up everywhere, every day–and it is open to us all. Building on the Comm Lead leadership coursework, this course will take the theoretical development of one’s leadership style and bring it into practice with one’s work style. Classes will focus on mini-workshops around the following topics: decision-making processes, presentation skills, practical communications, how-to be a team player (including how-to run a meeting, how-to write an email), and drafting your optimum work experience. Students will complete the class knowing how to address bias and success inhibitors within any organization; develop skills for collaborative and successful leadership at any level; and understand how to empower their workplace for everyone. Guest speakers will share stories from leadership perspectives at different companies and how they approach their own development and empowerment.

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COMMLD 580: Leadership in Emerging Technologies & Trends

(

Hosein

)

- 2020-2021 | Spring

Track Neutral Elective | 2 Credits
Wednesdays 3/31 – 6/2, 5:30PM – 7:20PM PST | Online

Course Description:

In this course, you’ll gain a solid understanding of emerging technologies in the context of social change. We’ll develop a set of questions and conceptual tools that will help you critically assess technologies in early periods of development and adoption. We’ll also explore strategies that you can use to help companies and organizations better plan for, adapt to and advocate for more equitable solutions.

What You’ll Learn

How to critically examine narratives used to explain new technologies and their development
The fundamentals of key emergent technologies, including artificial intelligence, smart devices and automation, and their potential human impact
How to advocate for technology that solves a problem without amplifying existing inequity

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COMMLD 530A: Engaging Interviews: How to Get What You Need from Interview Subjects & Clients

(

Dalch

)

- 2022-2023 | Autumn 2022

Track Neutral | 2 Credits
Mondays 10/03-12/05, 6:00PM – 7:50PM | DEN 213
Registration SLN: 23585

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.

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COMMLD 520A: Principles of Marketing

(

Meyer

)

- 2023-2024 | Autumn 2023

Track Neutral Elective | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 10/3-12/5, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | DEN 112
Registration SLN: 23412

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.

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COMMLD 515: Advanced User Design: UX Studio

(

Levine

)

- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 3/27 – 5/29, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 104
Registration SLN: 12555

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.

Prerequisite: COMMLD 511, 512, or 517.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

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COMMLD 510B: Introduction to Information Architecture

(

Weaver

)

- 2023-2024 | Summer 2024

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Saturdays Full-Term: 6/22 (In-Person), 7/6, 7/20 (In-Person), 8/3, 8/17, 9:00am – 5:00pm | CMU 126/Online
Registration SLN: 10830

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.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

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COMMLD 520A: Principles of Marketing

(

Meyer

)

- 2024-2025 | Autumn 2024

Track Neutral | 5 Credits
Mondays 9/30 – 12/9, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 126
Registration SLN: 13053

Course Description

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COMMLD 541A: Crisis Communication

(

Schwartz

)

- 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 520A: Principles of Marketing

(

Meyer

)

- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025

Track Neutral | 5 Credits
Mondays 9/29 – 12/1, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 126

Course Description

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COMMLD 540: The Power of Revision

(

Baltus

)

- 2021-2022 | Spring 2022

Track Neutral | Meets Professional Writing Requirement | 3 Credits
Tuesdays 3/29 – 5/31 6:00PM – 8:20PM | CMU 242 | Partially In-Person
Registration SLN: 12608

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.

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COMMLD 520B: Qualitative Research for Social Media Marketing

(

Wang

)

- 2024-2025 | Winter 2025

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 1/7 – 3/11, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 230
Registration SLN: 12709

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.

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COMMLD 570 B: Leadership at All Levels

(

Myers

)

- 2021-2022 | Autumn 2021

Track Neutral | 3 Credits
Wednesdays 09/29-12/08, 6:00PM – 8:20PM PDT | CMU 230
Registration SLN: 13061

Course Description:

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COMMLD 544: Professional Short-Form Writing

(

Tomasic

)

- 2021-2022 | Spring 2022

Track Neutral | Meets Professional Writing Requirement | 3 Credits
Wednesdays 3/30 – 6/1 6:00PM – 8:20PM | CMU 230 | Partially In-Person
Registration SLN: 21578

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.

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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 517: The Psychology of User Experience

(

Haverly

)

- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 3/25 – 5/20, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Online
Registration SLN: 12556

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.

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COMMLD 522: The Future of Marketing

(

Salkowitz

)

- 2024-2025 | Autumn 2024

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 10/1 – 12/3, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 126
Registration SLN: 13054

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.

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COMMLD 570: Leadership at All Levels

COMMLD 580: Leadership in Emerging Technologies & Trends

COMMLD 530A: Engaging Interviews: How to Get What You Need from Interview Subjects & Clients

COMMLD 520A: Principles of Marketing

COMMLD 515: Advanced User Design: UX Studio

COMMLD 510B: Introduction to Information Architecture

COMMLD 520A: Principles of Marketing

COMMLD 541A: Crisis Communication

COMMLD 520A: Principles of Marketing

COMMLD 540: The Power of Revision

COMMLD 520B: Qualitative Research for Social Media Marketing

COMMLD 570 B: Leadership at All Levels

COMMLD 544: Professional Short-Form Writing

COMMLD 531: Foundations of Video Storytelling

COMMLD 517: The Psychology of User Experience

COMMLD 522: The Future of Marketing

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