> 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 550: Ethical Questions of Big Data

(

Lohmann

)

- 2022-2023 | Winter 2023

MCDM Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Thursdays 1/5 – 3/9, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | CMU 230
Registration SLN: 22335

Course Description:

Big Data: Cure or Curse? This course will provide you with an overview of the benefits and challenges of the use of big data and encourage you to apply the Communication Leadership core declaration tenets for its ethical use. The class will provide a basic understanding of the use of big data in analytics, predicting crises, on social media, behavior tracking, and even in marketing. 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. By the end of the class, students will understand how big data contributes to tracking pandemics, creating health cures, predicting crises, behavior tracking and targeted messaging on social media and in marketing. They will know how to research, market, and innovate with big data in a way that honors the values of integrity, accountability and transparency, and builds community. They will also be able to reflect on how they can make an impact with big data in a way that demands and honors diversity, takes responsibility, is aware of bias and does not amplify inequity.

Meets Law & Ethics Requirement.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 510C: User Interface and Visual Design

(

Gordon

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Mondays 1/8 – 3/4, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | DEN 113
Registration SLN: 22225

Course Description

In today’s digital age, user interface (UI) and visual design have become integral components of the modern user experience (UX). Whether it’s a website, mobile app, or software interface, UI design plays a pivotal role in shaping how people interact with digital products and services. The way it looks, feels, and functions profoundly impact user satisfaction and engagement.

This course will provide beginning students with a fundamental understanding of visual design principles (layout using typography, colors, images, and other graphic elements), and UI best practices (research, navigation systems, component libraries, accessibility, prototyping, testing, and much more).

By the end of this 10-week course, students will have the basic design skills and production knowledge to create user-centered digital interfaces.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 560A: Inclusive Design & Product Equity

(

Liu

)

- 2023-2024 | Summer 2024

Track Neutral | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Mondays 6/17 – 8/12, 5:30pm – 9:20pm | CMU 126
Registration SLN: 14185

Course Description:

This course offers a comprehensive exploration of the critical intersection between Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and technology. In an era where technology such as artificial intelligence and machine learning plays an ever-expanding role in shaping our world, we should interrogate who gets to build it, use it, and profit from it. As future technology leaders it is imperative to not only be well versed in DEI but to create necessary solutions that democratize technology rather than allow it to perpetuate systems of inequality.

Meets Law & Ethics Requirement.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 558: Law & Policy

(

Baker

)

- 2024-2025 | Autumn 2024

MCDM Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 10/1 – 12/3, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | DEN 258
Registration SLN: 13071

Course Description

This course looks at how the law of digital media, interactive media and social media has facilitated the growth of multimedia storytelling, interactivity, and the explosion of collaborative consumption. Understanding when and how one can remix, reuse, republish, and remake content is critical to any organization’s successful advertising, content creation, distribution, and publication. This course will explore the legal issues surrounding free expression, content production and publication, intellectual property (with a special emphasis on copyright and fair use), and advertising. This course is designed both as a stand-alone course to satisfy the law and policy requirement of the program and as a companion to the data security and privacy law course offered in the Spring, which focuses more on data usage, privacy and security, FTC regulatory issues and intellectual property issues around data and analytics.

Meets Law & Ethics Requirement.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 558: Law & Policy

(

)

- 2025-2026 | Autumn 2025

MCDM Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 9/30 – 12/9, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 13029

Course Description

This course looks at how the law of digital media, interactive media and social media has facilitated the growth of multimedia storytelling, interactivity, and the explosion of collaborative consumption. Understanding when and how one can remix, reuse, republish, and remake content is critical to any organization’s successful advertising, content creation, distribution, and publication. This course will explore the legal issues surrounding free expression, content production and publication, intellectual property (with a special emphasis on copyright and fair use), and advertising. This course is designed both as a stand-alone course to satisfy the law and policy requirement of the program and as a companion to the data security and privacy law course offered in the Spring, which focuses more on data usage, privacy and security, FTC regulatory issues and intellectual property issues around data and analytics.

Kraig Baker’s humorous and comprehensive lecturing style, complete with the latest trend examples, helped me demystify the law and make it less of a “black box.” I gained a framework to assess and manage legal, ethical, and structural risks, tools to determine if I had a legal issue and insights on whether I needed a lawyer and how to communicate these legal issues effectively.—Aster Li, MCDM alum cohort ‘22 alumni

Meets Law & Ethics Requirement.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 540C/D: Public Speaking & Presenting with Impact

(

)

- 2025-2026 | Current Quarter | Winter 2026

Open Elective | 2 or 3 Credits
Wednesdays, 1/7 – 3/11, 6:00pm – 7:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
2-credit 540C Registration SLN: 22027
3-credit 540D Registration SLN: 22028

Course Description

Skilled presenters have the power to move people and inspire change. Becoming a more effective and dynamic public speaker means making the complex accessible, connecting the dots for your audience, and developing confidence over canned answers.  By using storytelling and other communications strategies to become a better presenter, you’ll resonate with your audience in new and more meaningful ways.

In this course, you’ll learn how to grab attention immediately, the importance of simplifying your visuals, and why it’s critical to know your message well enough to speak directly to your audience — not to your notes and not to your screen.  We’ll address the mistakes most people make, and how to avoid them to ensure that you’re communicating with poise, confidence and conviction in a way that captivates your audience.

Whether it’s over Zoom or winning over the room, by mastering your public speaking skills you will learn to overcome doubt, increase your confidence and find your voice.

Note: 540C is the 2 credit version; 540D is the 3 credit version. The 3-credit version will include additional presentation assignments and deliverables.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 546A/B: Professional Long-Form Writing

(

)

- 2025-2026 | Spring 2026

Track Neutral | Meets Professional Writing Requirement (3 or 5 credit) or Research Methods Requirement (5 Credit) | 3 or 5 Credits
Sundays 4/5, 4/19, 5/3, 5/17, 5/31, 9:00am – 5:00pm
Room on Time Schedule

Please note: 546A is 3 credits, and 546B is 5 credits. These courses will run concurrently. Students registered for 546A (3 credits) will attend the first three dates, and students registered for 546B (5 credits) will attend all five dates.

Course Description:

Have you ever read an in-depth piece online that so moved you or shifted your thinking that you immediately sent it on to a friend or colleague? The “long-form” medium offers the writer ample space for synthesis, critique, and personal stories to capture the imagination, change the conversation, and inspire action. With a broad selection of writers, leaders, and cultural commentators as curricular guides, this course invites each student to hone their long-form professional writing skills (>1000 words) and deepen their understanding of the current professional communication long-form landscape.

With scaffolded steps to refine their writing voice and scope, this course serves both students with writing experience, as well as those keen to develop this foundational skill. All students are invited to submit their final piece for inclusion in the Spring 2025 volume of the online journal Mind Shift. In addition, we will consider the evolution of platforms, from colonial-era pamphlets to today’s crowded community of digital newsletters.

Anita teaches invaluable research and writing skills that pushed me to become a more curious thinker. She encourages her students to dive into multifaceted research on your choice of subject and produce a polished long-form piece. As a brand marketing professional, I’ve applied what I learned in Anita’s class by practicing clear written communication and empathetic collaboration. —Amanda Chou, MCCN cohort ‘22 alumni 

3-credit class Meets Professional Writing Requirement.

5-credit class meets either Research Methods or Professional Writing requirement. Class cannot be used to meet both requirements.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 570: Leadership at All Levels

(

Myers

)

- 2022-2023 | Autumn 2022

Track Neutral | 3 Credits
Wednesdays 09/28-12/07, 6:00PM – 8:20PM | DEN 213
Registration SLN: 13033

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.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 559: Law, Data, & Privacy

(

Baker

)

- 2023-2024 | Spring 2024

MCDM Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 3/26 – 5/28, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 302
Registration SLN: 12570

Course Description

“Big Data,” “The Internet of Things,” “Behavioral Advertising,” “Analytics” — all buzzwords capturing the explosion of data and the promise of what we can do with data. Collecting, using, organizing, and sharing data and information also evokes legal issues and individual and collective uncertainty over who owns this data, what rights does one own, how does the data usage implicate privacy issues, how is and how should data use be regulated by the government, by private entities, for advertising, etc. This course will explore the legal issues associated with data usage, data collection, sharing of user information, and licensing. This course will pay particular attention to privacy laws in the United States, how the FTC and other regulators are approaching advertisers’ use of personal information, how organizations attempt to keep data secure, and how intellectual property rights protect (and do not protect) data and databases.

Meets Law & Ethics Requirement.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 580: Strategic Storytelling: Putting the Future in Context

(

Rasmus

)

- 2022-2023 | Autumn 2022

MCDM Elective | 5 Credits
Wednesdays 09/28-12/07, 6:00PM – 9:50PM PST | DEN 258
Registration SLN: 23518

Course Description:

This course explores techniques for forecasting the future and using those forecasts to drive business narratives. The class will work through a complete cycle of scenario planning, looking first at the uncertainties for the future of work, and then building rich narratives that explore how the future may unfold under different social, technological, economic, environmental, and political circumstances. Students will learn how to capture uncertainties, define them, and use them to drive alternative views of the future.The course will also explore how to use scenarios to inform strategic choices and drive content development. Students will be expected to demonstrate their mastery of scenario planning through individual and team presentations. Team presentations will focus on the future of work and its implications for communications. Individual stories will feature multimedia presentations that describe the learner living in one of the futures.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 558: Law and Policy

(

Baker

)

- 2023-2024 | Autumn 2023

MCDM Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 10/3-12/5, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | DEN 113
Registration SLN: 13019

Course Description

This course looks at how the law of digital media, interactive media and social media has facilitated the growth of multimedia storytelling, interactivity, and the explosion of collaborative consumption. Understanding when and how one can remix, reuse, republish, and remake content is critical to any organization’s successful advertising, content creation, distribution, and publication. This course will explore the legal issues surrounding free expression, content production and publication, intellectual property (with a special emphasis on copyright and fair use), and advertising. This course is designed both as a stand-alone course to satisfy the law and policy requirement of the program and as a companion to the data security and privacy law course offered in the Fall, which focuses more on data usage, privacy and security, FTC regulatory issues and intellectual property issues around data and analytics.

Meets Law & Ethics Requirement.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 541B: Crisis Communication

(

)

- 2025-2026 | Current Quarter | Winter 2026

Open Elective | Meets Law and Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays, 1/6 – 3/10, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 12654

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 559: Law, Data & Privacy

(

Baker

)

- 2022-2023 | Spring 2023

MCDM Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 3/28 – 5/30, 6:00PM – 9:50PM | CMU 126
SLN: 12568

Course Description

“Big Data,” “The Internet of Things,” “Behavioral Advertising,” “Analytics” — all buzzwords capturing the explosion of data and the promise of what we can do with data. Collecting, using, organizing, and sharing data and information also evokes legal issues and individual and collective uncertainty over who owns this data, what rights does one own, how does the data usage implicate privacy issues, how is and how should data use be regulated by the government, by private entities, for advertising, etc. This course will explore the legal issues associated with data usage, data collection, sharing of user information, and licensing. This course will pay particular attention to privacy laws in the United States, how the FTC and other regulators are approaching advertisers’ use of personal information, how organizations attempt to keep data secure, and how intellectual property rights protect (and do not protect) data and databases.

Meets Law & Ethics Requirement.

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 559: Law, Data, & Privacy

(

Baker

)

- 2024-2025 | Spring 2025

MCDM Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 4/1 – 6/3, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | CMU 126
SLN: 12589

Course Description

“Big Data,” “The Internet of Things,” “Behavioral Advertising,” “Analytics” — all buzzwords capturing the explosion of data and the promise of what we can do with data. Collecting, using, organizing, and sharing data and information also evokes legal issues and individual and collective uncertainty over who owns this data, what rights does one own, how does the data usage implicate privacy issues, how is and how should data use be regulated by the government, by private entities, for advertising, etc. This course will explore the legal issues associated with data usage, data collection, sharing of user information, and licensing. This course will pay particular attention to privacy laws in the United States, how the FTC and other regulators are approaching advertisers’ use of personal information, how organizations attempt to keep data secure, and how intellectual property rights protect (and do not protect) data and databases.

Meets Law & Ethics Requirement.

Kraig Baker’s humorous and comprehensive lecturing style, complete with the latest trend examples, helped me demystify the law and make it less of a “black box.” I gained a framework to assess and manage legal, ethical, and structural risks, tools to determine if I had a legal issue and insights on whether I needed a lawyer and how to communicate these legal issues effectively.—Aster Li, MCDM alum cohort ‘22 alumni

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 559: Law, Data, & Privacy

(

)

- 2025-2026 | Current Quarter | Winter 2026

MCDM Elective | Meets Law & Ethics Requirement | 5 Credits
Tuesdays 1/6 – 3/10, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Room on Time Schedule
Registration SLN: 22095

Course Description

“Big Data,” “The Internet of Things,” “Behavioral Advertising,” “Analytics” — all buzzwords capturing the explosion of data and the promise of what we can do with data. Collecting, using, organizing, and sharing data and information also evokes legal issues and individual and collective uncertainty over who owns this data, what rights does one own, how does the data usage implicate privacy issues, how is and how should data use be regulated by the government, by private entities, for advertising, etc. This course will explore the legal issues associated with data usage, data collection, sharing of user information, and licensing. This course will pay particular attention to privacy laws in the United States, how the FTC and other regulators are approaching advertisers’ use of personal information, how organizations attempt to keep data secure, and how intellectual property rights protect (and do not protect) data and databases.

Meets Law & Ethics Requirement.

Kraig Baker’s humorous and comprehensive lecturing style, complete with the latest trend examples, helped me demystify the law and make it less of a “black box.” I gained a framework to assess and manage legal, ethical, and structural risks, tools to determine if I had a legal issue and insights on whether I needed a lawyer and how to communicate these legal issues effectively.—Aster Li, MCDM alum cohort ‘22 alumni

{ Expand Course Description + }

COMMLD 512: User Research and UX Strategies

(

Porter

)

- 2023-2024 | Winter 2024

MCDM Elective | Meets Research Methods Requirement | 5 Credits
Thursdays 1/4 – 3/7, 6:00pm – 9:50pm | Online
Registration SLN: 12623

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 above 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 articulate its advantages and disadvantages, establish useful test objectives, and prepare reports and presenting results.

Meets Research Methods Requirement.

{ 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