> Courses > MCDM

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.

Clear all

COMMLD 540B: Human-Centered, AI Augmented Internal Comms

(

Abplanalp

)

- 2024-2025 | Winter 2025

Track Neutral | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 1/7 – 3/11, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 126
Registration SLN: 12714

Course Description:

This course explores the intersection of internal/ organizational communications and artificial intelligence (AI) with an emphasis on human-centricity and organizational culture. Topics will focus on organizational brand, leadership and voice; automation tools and techniques; pitfalls of artificial intelligence; and considerations for diversity, equity, and inclusion, anti-racism, and accessibility.

Students will examine the impact of AI on internal communications practices and strategies within organizations, including integration of AI technologies in communication development and its implications for leadership and decision-making. Students will also develop strength as human-centered, AI-augmented internal communicators, enhancing workflows and sharpening editorial acumen and critical thinking. Each week, students will engage in case study discussions to analyze real-world scenarios and explore the application of AI in different aspects of internal communications.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 530 A: Storytelling with Data

(

Mcghee

)

- 2024-2025 | Spring 2025

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 4/2 – 6/4, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 302
SLN: 12580

Course Description:

This course teaches students to assemble visual evidence in service of a narrative story. It reflects the new reality that information graphics, maps, and data visualizations are no longer a supplement to text stories created by dedicated service desks, but are free-standing items produced by cross-disciplinary journalists with skills in data reporting and visual presentation.

This course leads students through the process of reporting, analyzing, and presenting a data-driven infographic feature story. Students will explore the gamut of influential and impactful visual stories: an explainer on Covid-19 transmission (the Washington Post’s most popular story of all time); articles exploring California wildfires and street protests in Hong Kong; and stories exploring larger historical and cultural themes like the rise of Confederate statues and such cultural questions as: why are women’s pants pockets so small and K-pop bands so big?

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 540A: The Power of Revision

(

)

- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025

Open Elective | Meets Professional Writing Requirement | 3 Credits
Mondays 9/29 – 12/1, 6:00pm – 8:20pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 13023

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.

Editing IS Writing! Leah Baltus approaches her craft with precision and clarity, and her mission is to pass on her knowledge to students in a highly structured way, with loads of productive feedback. Several students from this class have had their work published in professional/ trade outlets. If you want a surefire way to improve your writing effectiveness, this class is for you!–Gretchen Ludwig, Associate Director

Meets Professional Writing Requirement.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 530B: Foundation of Documentary Storytelling

(

)

- 2025-2026 | Current Quarter | Winter 2026

Open Elective | 5 Credits
Wednesdays, 1/7 – 3/11, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 22026

Course Description

Foundations of Documentary Storytelling is a workshop-based course where students get hands-on experience in building documentary stories from start to finish. This course supports and cultivates curiosity-driven mindset and the technical skill development needed to produce compelling documentary media for innovative marketing and media production. How do you take a compelling topic and make it an engaging story? Documentary Storytelling will teach you to take stories, characters and themes and craft them into stories by breaking chronology, building emotional resonance and cultivating buy-in so that we want to know what happens and get invested in the outcome. 

You will learn to craft character-driven nonfiction narratives while mastering the complete production process: research, story craft, video/audio styles and equipment use, field recording and interview techniques, film editing and constructing feedback. This course looks at both technical proficiency and ethical responsibility in documentary as well as exploring production roles, documentary industry standards, and the power dynamics inherent in capturing others’ stories. 

Students will create multiple documentary productions with various crew structures and independent work which will be paired with guest speaker workshops and film case studies from award-winning professional documentarians. You will leave the class with a strong understanding of what is required throughout a production process through holding a variety of production roles. Get ready to deep dive on building stories from the world around you and explore how documentary techniques can transform your skills and repertoire as a communications leader.

This Course is Ideal for Students Who:

Aspire to integrate relational storytelling methods into their communication leadership practice

Seek project-based learning experience

Want to develop transferable core storytelling and editing skills 

Are interested in understanding how documentary can successfully shift culture, policy and public opinion through storytelling

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 534: Visual Storytelling: From Comics to Transmedia

(

)

- 2025-2026 | Spring 2026

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Saturdays 4/4, 4/18, 5/2, 5/16, 5/30, 9:00am – 4:50pm | Room on Time Schedule

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 is one of our long-running classes taught by Rob Salkowitz, who is a bit of a legend among our alumni who cite this class as one of their all-time favorites. Students sometimes overlook this class because it has “comics” in the title and think it can’t possibly relate to their career aspirations. Take advantage of this misperception and sign up for this class! –Gretchen Ludwig, Associate Director

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 540F: Health Communications

(

Sandine

)

- 2024-2025 | Winter 2025

Track Neutral | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 1/6 – 3/10, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 242
Registration SLN: 22260

Course Description:

Communicating the data” and “following the science” are inadequate if real people’s needs, behaviors, and values are not well understood and centered in our health policies and messages. In this course, students will deepen their knowledge of health equity, population health, and the determinants that impact health in the systems and environments we live in and rely on. At the same time, we will explore how mis- and dis-information, medical mistrust and hesitancy, and the influences of mass media shape and control narratives that have enormous impact on people’s lives.

This course is designed for students working both in health communications and outside of the health sector. We will explore health communication practices and engagement methods like crisis and risk communications, health literacy and promotion, and strategic communications. Activities and assignments will be designed to help communication leaders build practical skills, such as developing briefings and op-eds, facilitating discussions, and creating crisis comms plans.

The pandemic highlighted critical challenges in both equity and health communication. Today, every communication professional must grasp how to effectively communicate about health and navigate the complex public health systems that shape our lives. Taught by a leading expert in health communication, this class is essential for anyone looking to understand key health policies and how to convey them, no matter the industry they plan to enter. I highly recommend it. – Ekin Yasin, Director

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 541B: Crisis Communication

(

Hennessey

)

- 2024-2025 | Winter 2025

Track Neutral | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 1/8 – 3/12, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 302
Registration SLN: 12715

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.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 541B: Crisis Communication

(

Hennessey

)

- 2022-2023 | Spring 2023

Track Neutral | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 3/29 – 5/31, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | Online
SLN: 12565

Course Description

Effectively managing a crisis means not just employing PR strategies, but having a comprehensive communications plan already in place. This class will identify key communication issues that must be addressed during an organizational crisis, and examine how to engage traditional and social media, digital networks, federal, state, and local lawmakers, external and internal stakeholders, consumers and constituents. We will examine how organizations attempt to prevent and recover from crises, how the broadcast and print media cover different types of crises. As important, we’ll deconstruct and reinforce the personal ethics and behavior required by professionals in a crisis situation.

Meets Law and Ethics Requirement.

Instructor Bio coming soon. In the mean time, feel free to connect with them on LinkedIn.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 541A: Crisis Communication

(

Visneski

)

- 2023-2024 | Autumn 2023

Track Neutral Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 10/3-12/5, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | Online
Registration SLN: 13015

Course Description:

Nothing is more dramatic than a crisis. When an organization, company, industry, or individual in the public eye is in a crisis, communication is one of the crucial routes back to normalcy. Oftentimes, organizations find themselves unprepared when a crisis hits and only then think “Oh goodness, we should get a crisis communications plan in place!” Trying to “spin” a bad situation can both be unethical, and ineffective, damaging reputation, and subsequently business.

This course will teach you how to be rapidly responsive, responsible, and to avoid common pitfalls in crisis comms. We will examine how organizations attempt to anticipate and recover from crises, how the broadcast and print media cover different types of crises, how crisis communications fails, and how it succeeds.

Meets Law and Ethics Requirement.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 541: Crisis Communication

(

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.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 544: Professional Short-Form Writing

(

Tomasic

)

- 2022-2023 | Spring 2023

Track Neutral | Meets Professional Writing Requirement | 3 Credits
Wednesdays 3/29 – 5/31, 6:00PM – 8:20PM | DEN 110
SLN: 12566

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.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 541B: Crisis Communication

(

Hennessey

)

- 2023-2024 | Autumn 2023

Track Neutral Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 9/27-12/6, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | DEN 112
Registration SLN: 13016

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.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 544: Professional Short-Form Writing

(

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.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 541A: Crisis Communication

(

Visneski

)

- 2024-2025 | Autumn 2024

Track Neutral | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 9/25 – 12/4, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Online
Registration SLN: 13067

Course Description:

Nothing is more dramatic than a crisis. When an organization, company, industry, or individual in the public eye is in a crisis, communication is one of the crucial routes back to normalcy. Oftentimes, organizations find themselves unprepared when a crisis hits and only then think “Oh goodness, we should get a crisis communications plan in place!” Trying to “spin” a bad situation can both be unethical, and ineffective, damaging reputation, and subsequently business.

This course will teach you how to be rapidly responsive, responsible, and to avoid common pitfalls in crisis comms. We will examine how organizations attempt to anticipate and recover from crises, how the broadcast and print media cover different types of crises, how crisis communications fails, and how it succeeds.

Meets Law and Ethics Requirement.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 541: Crisis Communication

(

)

- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025

Open Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 9/24 – 12/3, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Online
Registration SLN: 13024

Course Description:

Nothing is more dramatic than a crisis. When an organization, company, industry, or individual in the public eye is in a crisis, communication is one of the crucial routes back to normalcy. Oftentimes, organizations find themselves unprepared when a crisis hits and only then think “Oh goodness, we should get a crisis communications plan in place!” Trying to “spin” a bad situation can both be unethical, and ineffective, damaging reputation, and subsequently business.

This course will teach you how to be rapidly responsive, responsible, and to avoid common pitfalls in crisis comms. We will examine how organizations attempt to anticipate and recover from crises, how the broadcast and print media cover different types of crises, how crisis communications fails, and how it succeeds.

Meets Law and Ethics Requirement.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 545 A/B: Engaging Interviews

(

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.

{ Expand Course Description + }

Contact Us

commlead@uw.edu
206.543.6745
4101 E Stevens Way NE, Seattle, WA
Book a Meeting

Comm Lead Student Handbook
Privacy Policy

Stay Connected

Apply Now

Get Updates on Admissions

University of Washington

Department of Communication

© Copyright 2025 Department of Communication. University of Washington

© Copyright 2025 Department of Communication. University of Washington